I was born in a suburb of Boston, Massachussetts and grew up in Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas. After graduating from a fancy college-prep high school in Dallas, I headed west to Harvey Mudd College, a little-known but top-notch science and engineering school in southern California. I studied physics and music and the art of avoiding geeky discussions about computers. I also spent two summers living in Berkeley and working in San Francisco as an apprentice to my electrician uncle, Electric Bill.

After graduating college in 1996, I set out on a more spiritual search in Jerusalem, Israel. I studied at a number of yeshivot in and around the holy city. I also spent a year working for Hillel at the University of Connecticut.

Amidst all this, I began a career in the software industry. In 1998, I moved to Cambridge, Massachussetts and began work as a Release Manager for Exeter. Although I returned to yeshiva in Israel a year later, I continued to work for Exeter as a consultant until 2000 when Exeter Educational Management Systems (then part of SallieMae Solutions) was acquired by PeopleSoft.

Since 1999 I have been living, learning, and working in Jerusalem. I have completed a program of study for Orthodox rabbinic ordination offered by Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary on the YU Israel campus, and also have worked for a handful of companies, both in the U.S. and in Israel.

I've worked professionally with many different technologies, among them C++, Java, VB, Perl, JavaScript, and XML/XSLT. I've worked on enterprise business solutions, real-time media and telephony software, embedded software, scientific simulation, typsetting, and data processing. I enjoy working on new technologies, because I enjoy learning. I learn very quickly and make it my business to learn as much as possible about whatever's thrown my way.

I think the biggest problem in software today is the haphazard approach most organizations take to development. As a proponent of Agile methodology, I believe that rigorous doesn't necessarily mean overly formal, inflexible, or expensive. I'm most excited by opportunities where I can apply and explore Extreme Programming and other development practices that provide greater value to project stakeholders. Read more about my skills or my philosophy of software development.