When I was asked to give a “non-technical” talk at the 2023 edition of SwiftTO, I didn’t realize I was about to explain — both to myself and the world — the first half of my career. But as I celebrated my 50th birthday the week after, I couldn’t help but frame this talk in my mind as an origin story of sorts.

I've always believed that understanding why we're here is one of our most fundamental questions. For this talk, I set out to explore the events of my early life, and how it took so long to find what I call "The Mountain".

And then, having found my goal, why it's been taking me so damn long to reach it!

So this talk is a very humbling portrait of a nerd who knows what he wants, struggles to reach it, but actually loves what he's doing along the way. The reception at SwiftTO was warm, and I hope you find some inspiration in it as well.

Note: The talk embedded on this page is not the official release from the SwiftTO folks. Kyle, the organizer, very generously gave me access to the raw footage, so I was able to intersperse my slides with me at the lectern. Any flaws in this video are therefore mine alone.