The short version
I love the art of learning how to learn. Learning is what I do for fun, and so far that's 597 books. I build with whatever tools solve the problem, but I'm more interested in people than code. I use code to help people.
Where I started
I grew up in New York, raised by a single mother on very little. Her motto was simple: "Just because we're poor doesn't mean we have to look poor."
In high school I ran an underground candy business to pay my tuition at Mount St. Michael Academy.
I started college as a designer, learning UX from Tumblr tutorials and Photoshop. After the 2008 crash I needed a more practical path, so I transferred to Fordham's business school to study Information Systems and Marketing, with a minor in Computer Science. There I started the Digital Business Society, and spent three years of spring & summer breaks in the library teaching myself to code.
Engineering
My first tech job was at Standard & Poor's during the Eurozone debt crisis, prototyping data visualizations of sovereign debt and the real estate investment trust market. S&P later built a full data visualization department out of that work.
From there: Bluewolf for Salesforce consulting, American Express on the core team that rebuilt AmericanExpress.com, Lifion by ADP for functional programming, and Google, on Google Docs and in the Maps organization. After Google I spent three and a half years at Truffle Security building security tooling.
Communities I've built
Nobo House
In 2018 I quit my job to start a Burning Man camp. Camp No Boundaries began with 37 people, 30 of them first-timers, and grew into Nobo House, a 100-person international theme camp. I've been to every burn since 2016 and have led the camp since 2018.
Nobo House is a wellness camp: steam sauna, cold plunges, an outdoor gym, sound baths, a smoothie lounge, yoga, salsa, live music & community meals. Everyone contributes.
Running it taught me what no engineering job could: carpentry, electrical, plumbing, shade structures rated for 70 mph winds, and 700 gallons of water to manage in the desert. It also taught me that the camp runs on the collective action of many, not the heroics of a few.
Some problems are software shaped and some are human shaped. Coordinating everyone used to take a lot of lead time and admin, so I spent a year and a half building the Nobo app, and 2026 was its first season. Software can't fix the human problems, but it freed up time for them: getting to know each other one on one, bringing new campers up to speed, and checking on anyone exhausted, sad or close to heat stroke.
Nothing else I've done has used all my skills the way the burn has.
Personal Development Nerds
In 2015 a friend's breakup freed up a ticket to Iceland. That trip started a chain of invitations that became a dinner series, then a mini-unconference, then Personal Development Nerds, a mutual-improvement community that grew past 2,000 members.
Through it I ran a software engineering mastermind to help Black engineers break into and advance in the industry. I've also facilitated for /dev/color, which supports Black software engineers.
Reading
I started reading seriously when school wasn't enough, to take my education into my own hands. I read mostly psychology, philosophy, business, science, history and fiction. My notes and ratings are in the library.
My approach: read what you love so you can love to read. I favor Lindy books over trending bestsellers, and underrated picks and constructive three-star reviews over perfect scores.
Thinkers who've shaped me: Naval Ravikant, Cal Newport, Charlie Munger, Shane Parrish, Maria Popova, Alan Watts, Thomas Sowell, Tim Ferriss. The full list is on the influences page.
What drives me
I want to understand people, how the world works, and how I work.
Early on I turned my insecurities & fears into fuel for learning skills. I built habits around reading, fitness & writing, and I come back to all three every year. In 2016 that meant a 460-day writing streak on 750words.
The more disciplines you pick up, the more systems you need to stay grounded. Otherwise your skills float away like balloons without a string.
I care about:
- Knowledge. Learning how to learn, the skill underneath the others.
- Culture. Building spaces & communities that help people help themselves.
- Freedom. Leading by investing in others, not by collecting authority.
How I work
I do my best work in small groups and deep conversation. New experiences energize me, while repetitive tasks and small talk drain me. I think in patterns and decide on evidence.
Each year I choose three words to guide my focus. The full timeline is on the 3 Words page.
What you'll find here
My book notes, quotes, tools, bookmarks and essays.
Connect
Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn, or email me at message@juvoni.com. Send me your book recommendations. I'm always looking for underrated reads and forgotten classics.