Elementis Learning launches

My mission is to help kids achieve their math potential.

"Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. – Tim Ferriss

For many years, I've dreamed of becoming a teacher in some way, shape or form. When I completed my PhD at UC Berkeley, that was my intent – to do scientific research and teach at the university level. But I became disillusioned; grant-writing ability was prized more than teaching at research universities. At the same time my doubts were brewing, the Internet was ascendant, and so I left my chosen career. I re-invented myself and jumped into the unknown as a user experience design technologist, strategist and architect.

Fast-forward more than two decades...After many years of interesting and challenging work, I had the great good fortune to land a job working as a UX Architect at Autodesk, overseeing navigation systems and cross-platform customer experience. It was a fantastic role, and I worked with an amazing group of people with an opportunity to make real impacts on the experiences of millions who visited the platform. Unfortunately, life intruded and forced me to re-evaluate my priorities.

My aging parents' health had declined over the years I was at Autodesk. As their only son, I moved them each into separate assisted living facilities, oversaw their care, managed every aspect of their lives. Between Parksinon's disease (Dad) and Alzheimer's (Mom), the task soon became too much to manage on top of a full-time job, combined with being Dad to a son in elementary school and partner to an amazing woman with an important career of her own. I took a medical leave of absence, but it only forestalled the inevitable – I ultimately had to resign my job to take care of my parents full-time. Dad and Mom passed away in October 2022 and April 2023, respectively.

"Now what?", I asked myself.

Faced with a heightened sense of mortality, my priorities shifted and my focus narrowed. I'd been plotting a return to teaching for some time. "Someday," I said to myself, many times, but it was always easier to let inertia and good circumstance keep me tied to my "real" job. Both of my parents had a whole closet full of "somedays" they'd stored away, but they never got to them. It was never convenient, took too much effort, cost too much, was too uncertain, on and on and on.

I decided I couldn't follow that path – the time had come to stop talking about teaching and just do it (or to fail trying).

And so, I'm launching Elementis Learning, a solo math-tutoring business aimed at kids around middle-school age. The pandemic changed the landscape for many of these kids, with the challenges of distance learning, lowered expectations, and shifting standards. Instead of working to help many people in tiny ways, as I did in the UX world for many years, I've decided to do my best to help just a few in ways that I hope are lasting and meaningful.

Thanks to all of you who've helped me reach this point in my journey, who've supported, educated, and partnered with me.

Excelsior!