Category Archives: Personal

“Hey Jellyman, did you die?” -Squirt from Finding Nemo

Seriously, though. I am a total failure when it comes to regularly updating my site. This summer became super busy for me due to some craziness with work and some side projects that have kept me up late at night. Never fear, though, I should have some exciting posts coming up in the near future. I hope to be sharing an update on my first Pebble Watchface app, reviewing some technology, talking about travel to conferences, reporting on local ski adventures, and some cool new developments in the analytics space.

So stay tuned…

Where did you go?

Principles of Gaming in Industry

It is the nature of all human beings to seek learning through games, a structured paradigm that allows one to grasp new concepts and expand their horizons in a safer environment than the real world. We play house, tag, and create fingerpainting art as children. As we grow, we play sports, more complex games, and create finer works of art. Indeed, from our earliest days we rely on playing as the most effective way to learn about our world and how to live in it. Pondering this topic inevitably led to the question: Why does the playful approach to life stop when we grow up and move into a professional field?

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Home Solar Panels: Trying to make it work in Utah

(skip to the bottom of the post for the Home Solar Panels: TL;DR)

Last year I almost bought a full-house solar system that would replace my current electricity bill while generating an immediately positive cash flow along with a good amount of equity. I was so excited to be able to find an economically sensible way to install home solar panels, but our family soon found out that Homeowners Associations (HOAs) and many lobbied public interests have no desire to make solar projects easy. The biggest blocker for us was the HOA decided to strictly interpret its so-called solar provisions to only include panels that were installed flush with the roof. This was next to impossible without entirely rebuilding the roof. I thought my solar ambitions were dead in the water…

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Google I/O Goodness

So, the keynote for Day 1 of Google I/O today, a conference dedicated to developers and programmers that work with the Google ecosystem. As a self-proclaimed nerd, I loved the big announcements from today. And yet, toward the end of the conference, there was something I did not quite expect. It was a pleasant surprise that did not seem to get a lot of coverage in the media…

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Punish inaction, not failure

I enjoy volunteering in the local Scout Troop as a Crew Advisor to the young men. That being said, I am not so hardcore that I wear a uniform at every meeting, nor am I so lax that I like to push over rock formations in Goblin Valley just for kicks and giggles. I simply remember all the valuable life lessons I learned in Scouts and wanted to pay it forward by interacting with the local youth, encouraging them to develop responsibility and successful adult traits.

Yet one concerning theme I keep coming across in my interactions with these youth is something I call “Choice-averse” behavior. This goes well beyond the more commonly understood risk-averse nature some people tend to carry. These choice-averse natures don’t even play the game for fear of failure. It’s almost as if general expectations for youth have diminished to the point where society incentivizes inaction over pursuing any sort of serious challenge. But this issue isn’t present only among the younger generation…

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