hi, i'm nathanael

ts is ai-gen for now......i think a lot about formation. how people are shaped over time by the habits they keep, the language they use, the discipline they build, and the systems they inhabit. not as some abstract concept, but as a lived reality. the things you do every day are quietly forming you into someone, whether you're paying attention or not.

i learned early on to care about clarity. unclear language, unclear ownership, and unclear intent create more problems than technical difficulty ever does. this applies to people just as much as it applies to software. i've seen teams fall apart not because the code was broken, but because no one could agree on what done actually meant. clarity is kindness. ambiguity is violence.

outside of work, i value routines that reward consistency. i like running and rarely turn it down if someone else is keen. swimming is the other constant. i go to the gym to swim.

i enjoy talking about theology, ethics, culture, or the political state of the world. i don't mind listening carefully, disagreeing honestly, and changing my mind when it's warranted. there's something about 1am conversations that strip away pretense. the kind where you're too tired to perform and end up saying what you actually think. deep theological talks at that hour hit different.

i used to compete in geoguessr (top 50 aus) before taking a break. if anyone can beat me in geoguessr or even gamepigeon word hunt i'll give them $20.

music has always hovered in the background. i genuinely enjoy jamming with others. i play guitar, bass, keys, and mess around with drums when the opportunity presents itself. the idea of forming a band resurfaces every so often. it hasn't happened yet, but the pull is real. there's something meditative about improvising with people who get the rhythm. it's less about performance and more about connecting with something honest.

i draw and sketch when i need to think through something visually. it's less about being an artist and more about working through ideas in a different medium. sometimes the clearest way to understand a system is to map it by hand. there's a particular kind of clarity that comes from putting pen to paper. slowing down enough to see what you're actually building.

i care about the weight of words. not in a pedantic way, but in the sense that language shapes how we think, how we relate, and what we pay attention to. unclear communication creates more problems than most technical issues ever will. this shows up in how i write, how i design interfaces, and how i think about product decisions.

p.s. lmk if you know good acai spots