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
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
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.