About Me

As of May 2023, I am officially back in Orange County, Southern California, after taking time off to travel around Europe and the Bay Area. I no longer give tennis lessons, but I still love meeting new people — now often through the apps and businesses I build.

A little background about me. After completing business school at the University of Southern California (USC), I worked at two financial institutions as a financial analyst at the beginning of my career. Soon after, I switched careers and worked as an engineer at a high-tech company for many more years. However, even as an undergraduate at USC, I was always interested in gerontology, so I eventually went back to graduate school and obtained my Master in Gerontology, also from USC. While attending classes, I became an ombudsman while I was living in San Jose and then around La Jolla, where I had bought my second home. After graduating, I became involved with the tiny house movement and decided to set up a tiny house community. At my peak, I had 30 people living in 24 tiny houses on the 10 acres I had procured in Austin, Texas.

Since then, I have pivoted and consider myself retired but still active.

Tennis has given me many happy memories. In the past, I taught friends and their kids at the tennis court at my house, mostly beginners, both children and adults. I loved helping someone who thought they could not play discover that they actually could, one good rally at a time. Those lessons were as much about laughter, confidence, and friendship as they were about forehands and serves, and I look back on that season fondly.

Today, I create apps and build businesses for clients. So far, I have created 18 apps, including marketplaces, legal and finance tools, wellness and community platforms, and this website. I help take an idea from a first sketch to a working business: the offer, the website or app, booking and payments, and the dependable systems behind the scenes that keep it running smoothly day to day. My background in business, finance, engineering, and gerontology all comes together here — I care about the numbers, the technology, and most of all, the people who will use it.

Why I write

My work joins scholarship with practical experience: USC business school and a Master in Gerontology at USC, early work as a financial analyst, years in engineering, two years studying law, service as a long-term-care ombudsman, and building a tiny-house community. Entrepreneurship now takes the form of creating apps and building businesses for clients. Lifelong study of economics, law, philosophy, psychology, and theology keeps my writing grounded in everyday questions about money, law, ageing, family, and neighbourhoods, rather than theory alone. That is the project behind my book, Proximalism: Community First, with related essays on Community-based Governance and the Proximalist Amendment.

Community, proximity, and human flourishing

We flourish in close, face-to-face circles where we can know others and be known, rather than live with isolation and anomie. Dunbar-scale relationships, neighbours’ eyes on the street, and walkable, mixed-use places are why I value market urbanism.

My starting principle is that no stranger should tax, fine, imprison, or rule another: authority should remain within personal proximity, carry skin in the game, and rest on morality taught and practised.

On friendship and place: Robin Dunbar on friendship · Community and human connection (TED) · The Deeper Order of Cities (Jane Jacobs) · The Urban Current

Community in practice: Community First Village, Austin · Lang Martinez on homelessness and mental illness

Liberty, law, and limited government

I favour law discovered through lived custom, with disputes settled from the ground up through tort and restitution rather than layers of regulation. Licensing should not block ordinary work; people should remain free to seek credentialed help, while judges and mediators known to the community deliver swift, affordable, and accountable justice. Every rule should state its purpose plainly and be tested against whether it makes life cheaper, freer, and more humane.

Foundations and further reading: Mises Institute · My Philosophy · FEE: licensing and the right to work · Frédéric Bastiat · Proximalist Amendment

Everyday encounters with regulation: Eminent domain · Red tape and building · Forced to connect to utilities · Rainwater collection in court

Sound money and free markets

Sound money and clean price signals are foundations for honest planning. I favour protecting savers and letting the 80% who can bear their own choices do so, with caveat emptor and skin in the game instead of bailouts, while caring personally for the vulnerable minority.

Economic perspectives: Lyn Alden · Minority Mindset · Ray Dalio · Mises Institute · Personal finance: How the System Keeps You Poor

Faith, virtue, and the family

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I look to historic Biblical Christianity and the Reformed confessions: Scripture alone, grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone, and glory to God alone. A moral standard beyond ourselves must be taught, with dignity earned through duty and honour and WiJuCoMo — the Stoic virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Moderation — practised daily. Family and multigenerational households are our first school of community.

On formation and belonging: Miroslav Volf: Life Worth Living · Classic Learning Test · Living with grandparents · Connect with community, not just a yard · Restrictions on front-lawn vegetable gardens

Relationships, health, and beauty

I remain interested in how we relate to one another, care for ourselves, and understand human motives. Fashion, art, architecture, interior design, and all things of beauty are of interest to me.

Resources for reflection: Shawn Baker · Robert Greene · Mars Venus: 6 Steps to Stop an Argument · How to green the world’s deserts

Start with the Preface and Chapter 1 in the Book reader — 16 of 21 chapters are available now, and new chapters will appear there as they are added.