What am I doing right now?

Right now I’m trying to craft the perfect profile page. I’m two sentences in and it’s going great.

In a broader sense, I’m working at iFixit as a technical writer, tinkerer, and photographer. I take things apart, figure out how they work, take pictures, and tell everyone about it. Basically, I turned some of my early hobbies into a profession—but now I don’t break things but now I break slightly fewer things.

I spend most of my time in the office writing the best instructions on the internet, but I’ve been lucky enough to work on some other pretty cool projects, too. I’ve appeared on TWiT, helped review a $100 iPhone X, written manuals for Motorola, and consulted on a few engineering and design projects. One time, I even got to fly to Sydney, Australia as part of our team racing to tear down the first iPhone X.


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The team in Australia for the iPhone X teardown.

What did I do before right now?

Before I got here and started playing with gadgets, I graduated from Cal Poly SLO with a degree in mechanical engineering, concentrating in mechatronics. As part of my degree I built an autonomous car that could drive upside-down (it also won the tug of war contest), helped start the Cal Poly Prototype Vehicles (PROVE) Lab, and co-designed the suspension for Dawn, PROVE Lab’s land speed record challenging solar car.


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Dawn, ready to break records.


On my way to iFixit I worked as a mechatronic engineer for an autonomous ground vehicle manufacturer, a sandwich engineer at a sandwich shop, and a bike mechanic. In terms of skills applicable to everyday life, my experience as a sandwich engineer has proved invaluable (I really enjoy a good sandwich).

HobbiesCycling

Okay I have other hobbies, but I spend most of my free time riding bikes, racing bikes, or doing other bike-related doings.

If I’m not on or near a bike, I’m probably rock climbing, backpacking, taking pictures of things, playing video games, reading a book, watching anime, taking stuff apart, or fixing something that I acquired because it “just needs a little work”.