What surprising job have you had in the past?

After junior year I did a summer internship at Microsoft. While that’s not too surprising, fast forward 10 years later, when we began working with Microsoft on Halo, and one of the first Microsoft employees to come to Chicago for a visit was a teammate from my intern days—what a small world!

What would you want to be doing if not your current profession?

Architecture—I love the combination of design, engineering, and aesthetics. It shares a lot in common with game design.

What do you hate that everyone else loves?

I’m not a hater.

What do you love that everyone else hates?

Dates, the fruit. In my house I am the only one who eats them.

What was the last book you finished?

Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant. A history of the Luddites (with not-so-subtle comparisons to today’s challenges with big tech).

What was the last book you recommended to a friend?

Blood in the Machine.

What was the last book you put down before you finished it?

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The shame! I’m sure I will come back to it—but I couldn’t power my way through the mock-archaic prose in the beginning.

What UChicago course left the biggest impression on you?

Mathematics Analysis with Diane Herrmann, SM’76, PhD’88. This was the class that made me decide to major in math. Math: I get you.

What book changed your life?

Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It kindled a lifelong interest in science fiction, world-building, and storytelling.

What person, alive or dead, would you want to write your life story?

My wife, Laura Seropian, AB’91. She knows me best and occasionally laughs at the jokes.

What’s your least useful talent?

I can instantly spot a double space in text. Flash a wall of text at me—a printed page for half a second, a slide in a presentation—it’s an instant “you have a double space there” from me. It would be quite annoying if it weren’t so impressive. Definitely not useful, though.

Tell us the best piece of advice you’ve received—or the worst.

Someone once told me, “You don’t always have to know the answer.” Understanding what you don’t know keeps you honest.

What advice would you give to a brand-new Maroon?

Try things, go places, meet people. Explore.

What did you learn at UChicago that still benefits you today?

Always consider the source. We take in so much information—today more than ever. Where that information comes from is often more important than the details themselves.

What’s your most vivid UChicago memory in two sentences or fewer?

So many great memories: meeting my (to-be) wife for the first time, studying at the Reg (fourth floor!), soccer on the Midway, Harold’s Chicken … But probably the one that takes the cake is going on a late-night trip to the Checkerboard Lounge and dancing on the tables with the regulars.