Problem-solver, by trade and by temperament.
Thirty-five years of writing software — Scanvec, Retalix/NCR, Microsoft, Tabit — and, alongside it, books, essays, and satire. This is where I keep it all.
The short version
I've spent my career solving problems in code — trained early on Visual Basic and Delphi, later mentored directly by Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin in Clean Code and SOLID, and I still think of myself as a problem-solver first and a software engineer second. That habit of mind didn't stay inside the IDE.
Outside of work I write — a philosophical memoir under my own name, romance fiction under the pen name Katie A. Novak, essays on Medium, and The Liberal Manifesto. This site is the place I've meant to put all of it for a long time. Consider this page one — it's a first draft, built to react to and correct, not a finished monument.
On the shelf
The Liberal Manifesto
One of the only wholly serious things I've published. Grounded in Popper's paradox of tolerance — "unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance" — it sets out principles of community over tribalism, commitment to facts, conditional tolerance, good-faith dialogue, and individual freedom with reciprocity. A standalone page, in Hebrew and English.
Read The Liberal Manifesto →Chapters, posts, and Medium pieces
More is coming, especially Hebrew pieces I can't publish anywhere else.
Quotes
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.Mark Twain
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.Marcus Aurelius
Be the thermostat, not the thermometer.Cornel West
Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you to their level, and beat you with experience.Mark Twain (attributed)
There are no facts, only interpretations.Friedrich Nietzsche
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.Oscar Wilde
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.Oscar Wilde
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.Aldous Huxley
Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.Leo Tolstoy
That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.Tim O'Brien
The unexamined life is not worth living.Socrates
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.Ernest Hemingway (attributed)
There are three types of lies — lies, damn lies, and statistics.Benjamin Disraeli
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.George Bernard Shaw
You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.Anne Lamott
Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't so.Lemony Snicket
Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.
Ellie: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.Jurassic Park
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.Napoleon, Animal Farm (George Orwell)
Gradually it has occurred to me what every great philosophy has been so far: namely the self-confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unnoticed mémoires.Friedrich Nietzsche
The difference between humans and animals is that animals would never allow the dumbest of the herd to lead them.Winston Churchill (misattributed)
We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.Douglas Adams
First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII — and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we've realized it's a brochure.Douglas Adams
And if you still don't think saving civilization is important, then you're fortunate. Nothing can happen to you that's important.Isaac Asimov, "Predicting the Future" (1978, condensed)
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.Frank Herbert, Dune
What happens when you take the T's off? You get an — eh?!Me
You may be able to bare the bear, but can you bear the bare?Me
The first thing to do when you encounter a problem, is fix it.Me
Antigonish
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away...
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...Hughes Mearns, "Antigonish" (1939)
Books I've liked
A running list.
Flea Market
Miscellaneous artifacts reflecting collaboration with other humans.
Barkingham Palace Dog's Catalog (Hebrew Canva Presentation)
My YouTube Music Playlists (Hebrew + English):
Say hello
Pick whichever fits — private, or out in the open.