When I was a kid, I was really into programming in BASIC and playing the piano. Music captured my heart. After a brief stint chasing rock-and-roll dreams in L.A. and a couple of years working as an live audio engineer, I got married and went back to school to study physics. A few years later, I had a B.S. in applied mathematics and a minor in computer science.

With equal passion for teaching and research, I started a Ph.D. in mathematics with a focus on combinatorics and graph theory. But I was no longer a bachelor, and my family was growing. After three years, I left to attend to the demands of my family.

My background in the live music world meshed perfectly with my new quantitative and technological skills. I settled into a career as a system designer and automation programmer for distributed audio/visual systems. The kind you'd find in theme parks, hospitals, and sports facilities.

Eventually, though, my passion for teaching won me over. Instead of returning to academia, I joined the team at Real Python. I wrote educational content, authored a best-selling beginner's Python book, and helped build one of the largest online learning platforms for the Python programming language.

Now, I'm using my skillset as a technical writer and educator for RelationalAI's user education team. RelationalAI is creating a cutting-edge database platform for building data applications on top of knowledge graphs. It's a perfect fit for all of my interests in education, programming, logic, and mathematics.

I also run a newsletter called Curious About Code that publishes short, actionable weekly programming tips.