I've had a lot of jobs over the past few years! I've worked with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), written for Discover Magazine and Slate, and worked for Apple Inc. at the Upper West Side retail store. At the IEET I am an Affiliate Scholar, meaning my posts at my blog, Pop Bioethics, are republished when they mesh with the interests of the IEET. I wrote for two of Discover Magazine's blogs, The Crux and Science Not Fiction, as well as for Slate. For both I wrote about bioethics, transhumanism, and what the future holds for us socially and culturally. I support new-employee training at Apple.
As an undergraduate at George Mason, my focus was religion, folklore, and mythology. I studied how the broader themes of religion and mythology worked their way through science fiction, particularly how Gnosticism influenced the works of Philip K. Dick.
The study of English taught me the importance of word choice and tone as well as how to see the meaning beneath the surface, to see the depth of what a person was conveying. Word choice and tone are essential in any professional environment. Being able to say what you mean and to convey frustration, or confusion, or elation without sounding nit-picky, idiotic, or frivolous is a crucial skill that has made me successful at Apple. Because I am able to read someone's article and discover a bias, or to see the layers of argument, I always have the next blog post waiting to be written. The study of English taught me not merely how to communicate, but how to perceive communication and to understand how it may be perceived by others.
My work at Apple and writing for my blog are my twin passions. On my blog, I write, analyze, and live in the realm of academia and my own thoughts. There I let language run free and build battlements from my ideas. When those ideas strike a chord, they find their way into the discussions of other writers, academics, and thinkers who continue the conversation. At Apple, I corral language and thought into a tool for teaching, where precision and intent are critical to success. The work of finding just that one right word is rewarded with the creation of new knowledge. The balance of the two work together to capture how my major in English helped me do what I genuinely enjoy.