I work as a firmware engineeer for Hewlett-Packard. My group develops the algorithms that control All In One devices—printers that scan, copy, and fax. When people ask me what I do all day, I tell them I solve puzzles, little puzzles and big puzzles. At any time, I'm working on several different things with time scales ranging from a few minutes (why did my code fail to build) to several months (develop a paper-moving algorithm for 20% faster printing). Some of the puzzles involve other people (the power supply is overloaded), while others involve just figuring things out by myself (how can I write a perl script to automate a process). The great thing is these puzzles have answers, and it's satisfying to discover them.

Many people study engineering to get a job like mine, but I'm happy I majored in math. I believe my liberal arts major gave me a freer, fuller educational experience. More importantly, mathematics qualified me not just for one job, but for a whole range of possibilities.

I tried several other careers. After college, I spent a year playing poker in California card rooms. I thought it was going to be pure fun, but I found spending my days with card players unpleasant. Many of them only talked about what bad luck they had, and they talked a lot.

I spent some years doing creative writing in an academic setting. That was interesting, and I met wonderful people.