Here's a bunch of stuff about me.
I was born in Colombia and grew up in the US. I studied biology, chemistry, and physics in high school, where I won the state science fair. In the late 70s, I lived seven years in Germany, where I got a graduate degree at the Universität Heidelberg, followed by year in Paris and Aix-en-Provence, and then seven years in Århus, Denmark, where I worked on a doctorate for a while, married a Danish girl for a while, and had a computer company for a while. | |
Because I've lived in so many places, I speak a bunch of languages. If you like words, here are some of my favorite words.
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I was in Berlin the night the Berlin Wall fell. There's plenty of photos of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, but I'm the only one who wrote what happened that night. My letter ended up being published in a number of history books and has become part of historical archives. In 1999, as part of the tenth anniversary, I was interviewed on nationwide radio. When that statue of Saddam was pulled down in Iraq, the BBC called up and we talked some more. I was interviewed again by the BBC for the 25th anniversary in 2014. | |
In the mid-90s, I got married again for a while. Here's a bit about Susan. | |
I got burnt out by all the big money in philosophy, so I came to Silicon Valley in the early 90s, where I worked at more than 25 startup projects and companies, incl. SUN, SGI, and Brio. I even started a few companies.
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I read a lot. I read two or three books every week and often two per day. I have over 5,000 books, including Roman and Greek literature, classical and modern Chinese and Japanese novels, African literature, South American, India, and so on. I've also written a few books, including a bunch of #1 Amazon Best Sellers. I'm working on several more books. | |
In 1998, I bought a house in Palo Alto and did a lot of renovation. Many people say they built a fireplace, when really they hired a carpenter to do it. I rented a stone cutting machine, bought several hundred pounds of slate from India, set up a workshop in the backyard, and cut the stone myself. I also replaced all of the plumbing and wiring, plus built the decks for annual parties. | |
Since I work all day on computers, I'm low-tech at home, not even a TV. In 2001, I bought a bunch of cedar planks and built a 1,000 gallon hot tub in the sideyard. I also set up a telescope in the backyard to look at the moon, planets, and galaxies. These days, I'm playing around with a desktop digital microscope.
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