Expertise:
Humans. I’ve always had a natural aptitude for figuring how I relate, or connect with other people. I’m also very good at most Hasbro games. No big deal.

Tools of the trade:
Google, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Google Mail, Google+, and a can-do attitude.
Totally kidding about the Google+ part. I’m not an animal.

What have you learned about yourself and your development style since beginning your internship:
If we think of an existing code base as a big family get-together, I feel like my development style has evolved from politely listening to all of crazy uncle Drupal’s wild tangents about the goings on of his children (and his children’s children…and his children’s children’s children…), to ignoring most of the BS, and cutting straight to the relevant details about how I can get his descendants to do my bidding. As far as what I’ve learned about myself, it turns out I’m a shallow, terrible relative.

What’s your favorite holiday toy or memory?
My favorite holiday memories don’t revolve around toys and gifts, per se, but the anticipation of toys and gifts, and then the utterly carefree activities that round out the day. It was the no sleep on Christmas Eve because I couldn’t get my heart to stop pounding through my jammies like I was being chased by a medium-to-large sized jungle cat. The hunting for the largest box with my name on it, and then the tearing through it like a Midwestern, suburban savage. It was the showing off of my haul to neighborhood friends, and the snowball fights, and the sledding…SO MUCH FEELZ

What are some similarities between coaching and coding?
Both involve a desired end result, which require concise, yet thorough communication in order to achieve said result. I can’t just say to my players, “score goals,” or “be in the right position” and rightfully expect success to follow, just as I can’t type “Do the thing” into my text editor and rightfully expect a fully functional, awesome looking app. In both cases, I need to make the right kind of sense. And in both cases, it’s easy to tell when I’ve failed to do so.

Dream project:
Something involving machine learning. My favorite class in college was Philosophy of Mind, which grappled with issues pertaining to the nature of (spoiler alert) the mind and mental properties. I’m fascinated by the advancement of programs capable of tweaking their own programming, and the implications that these advancements may have on how we define notions such as identity and consciousness, and potentially how we view our place in the world moving forward.

Future technology prediction:
My hope is that we get to a place within the decade with driverless car technology such that people are no longer allowed to manually operate their own vehicles. If you’re reading this thinking, “but I couldn’t possibly trust a computer to safely navigate me to all of my many destinations,“ I invite you to research the current number of automobile-related deaths/year. It falls somewhere between guns and cancer, and really is a massive problem to solved. So there’s that. I’d settle, though, for a bot so in tune with my needs and tendencies that it knows I want an everything bagel with extra cream cheese approximately 30 minutes before I do, and then automatically places the order for me. And pays for it. It’s the least it could do.