I am an independent programmer, tech teacher, and sorta-entrepreneur in Brooklyn. I'm very excited by exploring ways that technology can connect people to each other and to information in ways that couldn't work until now.
I'm a dad to Carmen (7) and Nina (5).
Tech stuff I've done: I made a course review website in college that is still going strong (culpa.info); I built I Bet You Will, a crazy web reality game show site with Morgan Spurlock that MTV picked up; and I did high frequency trading for 6 years as a trader/programmer at Hudson River Trading (hudson-trading.com).
Now I’m teaching kids and adults technology, working as a software development consultant at HappyFunCorp (happyfuncorp.com), and trying to make fun and useful things.
Current passion project: Robot Owl, a newsletter for anyone who wants to spark kids' passion for creativity and innovation! Please check it out, and subscribe, at robotowl.co !
Other stuff: I helped foment the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia, by working to expose prison conditions and training student activists there. Then I worked as a consultant for the post-revolution government. It was a fascinating, and sobering, experience. I've maintained a blog for more than a decade, that functions as a journal for me. I've written a few articles for Make Magazine over the years.
I'm fascinated by epistemology -- how we come to believe what we believe. I think accidents of birth, tribalism, and being overwhelmed by modernity are behind many beliefs that are supposedly rational.
I have RSI and used full-time typists to type for me (including typing in all my programming!) for 8 years, which is totally crazy but pretty much worked. In the spring of 2016, after seeing 70+ doctors, physical therapists, and healers, and trying a dozen effective drugs, I discovered that cannabidiol (“CBD”) oil, an extract of hemp, is very effective at reducing my pain, and now I’m back to typing for myself! Though I do use quite a bit of voice recognition software, ergonomic keyboards, and a mouse I can control with my toes!
Tools I like: python, javascript, swift, emacs, git and github, evernote, sublime text, the unix commandline, c++, google ecosystem, asana, trello, heroku, circleci.
Tools I know but don’t love: rails, xcode, objective-c, perl, css, angular, react
Other interests: boardgames, movies, politics (I'm an incorrigible debater, not stuck in my ways, try me on any subject)
Relevant links:
- subscribe to my newsletter at robotowl.co
- my vanity site is techno-social.com
- I teach kids tech through Ada & Leo, the kids’ tech afterschool program I run (adaandleo.com)
- I have some blogging up at medium.com/@benjiwheeler and benandalice.com