How did fancymatt get so fancy?

When one is called "fancy" by multiple people, one should reflect on the energy they are putting out into the world. I accept that term in the intended spirit – the most polite way possible to call somebody obnoxious.

I've removed social media from my life ("tell me more about this hard-line stance you've taken," said nobody ever) so this website is the focal point of my sense of self, something I can look at in wee hours of the night to convince myself I exist and matter.

Hi, I'm Matt. My interests are broad but generally involve systems and the building of systems. It's what transportation networks, software architecture, and game design have in common. How do you build something large, piece-by-piece, so the pieces over here don't work against the piece you put over there? Systems produce emergent behavior, which is an obnoxious (sorry, "fancy") way to say that some intended or unintended consequences will occur – not due to any one piece of the system but from how the pieces interact.

When it's orchestrated correctly a player undertakes a chore with intrinsic motivation and individuals experience win-win exchanges. But mostly, a lot of problems do not occur. It's for this reason that systems design is underappreciated – we don't notice them until something breaks down. Otherwise, the system is invisible. You board a train and get off at a destination at a particular time.

See how an article about me has quickly become an article about some idea? That's pretty appropriate. I'd much rather discuss the ideas I find fascinating than the logistical backstory for how my body has arrived at chairs in front of computers across the globe.

Briefly, I grew up in Idaho. Moved to Tokyo. Moved to Utah.

I've worked at a language learning SaaS company my entire career, starting in video production and moving to software. I've been VP of Product there since 2015.

I also create indie games such as Go! Go! Hamster Chef and CrosswordBlocks. I usually have some sort of project going on.

In the past I have made video courses on front-end development topics. I don't know if that's a viable way to learn a topic anymore so don't expect any more of that sort of thing from me. In general, "content" has become a strange thing, maybe even a derogatory thing. I don't have much desire to add drops to the firehose anymore.

Things change, and rolling with that is one of the things you sign up for when you brand yourself a technologist. My intent with this bio is to show that I haven't "arrived" and I don't think I ever will. I'm just someone who did stuff, does stuff, and will hopefully do more stuff.

Whatever that future looks like, hopefully I'll continue to be engaged with interesting problems around games, creativity, and system-building.