About

So, about me.

I’m Adam, a software engineer from America living in Germany. I like writing software, solving Rubik’s puzzles, reading, and gaming. But most importantly I like hummus.

Germany?

I’m frequently asked - why move from the US to Germany? Americans don’t do that. Two reasons - I saw a lot of potential outside of America, and I saw a lot of problems in America.

First, I saw a world of potential that I just would not experience from the US. If I’d stayed, I might travel to other countries but the culture generally favors staying within America. I wanted to see the world, to discover other cultures, to learn languages, to gain a perspective on life that wasn’t available back in my home country.

Second, the US may or may not be a mess. Consider - terrible privacy protections, rampant anti-consumer behavior from major companies, for-profit healthcare, pervasive bribery in the government under the guise of “lobbying”… I could go on for an hour. I could not in good conscience stay and promote this country. I have cast my vote and moved out.

So here I am. Germany has welcomed me, and I have been quite fortunate that my career permits such a move. I love the legal protections in the EU, like GDPR, and bask in benefits like legislation that forces Apple to allow alternative app stores and use USB-C. I’ve learned a useful amount of German, made some friends, and traveled all through Germany, Europe, and even visited Asia (Japan, Korea, and Singapore).

Hobbies

I also have some hobbies.

I like writing tools and improving my environment. I have a suite of tools in a greasemonkey type of extension, that improves YouTube drastically - hiding end-video cards that otherwise block the video, adding a views:likes ratio, etc.

I like learning a lot, and right now I’m trying to learn steno typing with Plover. It’s a journey…

And for other, more casual fun, I like reading (Brandon Sanderson!) and playing games (like Satisfactory). Satisfactory is a factory building videogame, where sometimes I make beautiful architecture and clean factories; other times I make spaghetti. Let’s Game it Out is my inspiration.