In A Nutshell

Of the various AI-powered chat tools out there, I’ve been leaning into Claude the most. I appreciate their stance on safety for one thing, and I also really like features like document uploads, shareable projects, and artifacts.

Yesterday I exported the entire contents of this blog, loaded it into Claude, and then asked it to summarize my career trajectory.

Based on your blog posts, your career trajectory can be summarized as follows:

1. Early Years (Ages 4-18):
   - Started programming at age 4 on a TI-99/4A computer
   - Self-taught BASIC, then learned C and Pascal
   - Developed various small projects and games

2. College Years (Ages 19-24):
   - Studied mathematics and computer science
   - Worked on academic projects, including computational mathematics

3. Early Career at Defense Contractor (Ages 22-34):
   - Started at TRW (later became Northrop Grumman) right after college
   - Worked primarily with Ada and C
   - Developed algorithms for terrain analysis and flight path optimization
   - Gained experience in mapping software and API design
   - Moved to San Diego and got first taste of technical leadership

4. Mid-Career Transition (Age 35):
   - After nearly 13 years at Northrop Grumman, moved to Everyone Counts
   - Transitioned to working with Java and Perl
   - Became technical lead for the company's voting application

5. Technical Growth Period (Ages 36-37):
   - Expanded skillset to include Angular, Node.js, and Docker
   - Focused on continuous learning and adapting to new technologies

6. AWS and Cloud Focus (Age 38 onwards):
   - Joined Amazon Web Services as a Senior Consultant in the public sector
   - Obtained multiple AWS certifications
   - Worked extensively with cloud technologies and services

7. Leadership Role (Recent):
   - Became a technical manager, leading a team of software engineers
   - Focused on both technical and people management aspects

8. Current Role (as of last blog post):
   - Chief Technology Officer at Research Improving People's Lives (RIPL)
   - Working at the intersection of technology and public policy

Throughout your career, you've consistently demonstrated a passion for learning new technologies, solving complex problems, and gradually taking on more leadership responsibilities. Your trajectory shows a progression from low-level programming to high-level system design and management, with a growing focus on cloud technologies and public sector applications in recent years.

That’s surprisingly accurate! Well done, Claude.