Sigmund's Origin Story

So who is this Sigmund character, really? I mean, beyond how I got my nickname, who am I, and how did I get here? The short version is that I'm the fusion of an academically-trained social scientist, and a professionally-trained software and systems architect. The longer version is below.

I had put a lot of work into becoming a psychologist. Ten years, in fact, going all the way back to the age of 12. When my future peers in the software industry were hacking away at that age with the Basic programming language on Commodore 64 computers, I was reading Psycho-Cybernetics, by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. As you can guess from the name of his magnum opus, his work attempted to combine concepts from cybernetics (communication- and control-systems), servomechanisms (feedback-driven force multipliers), and psychology.

In short, it was a book about software, but I certainly didn't know that at the time.

I'd never been obsessed with anything until I stumbled upon psychology. I'd had the usual desires to become the usual things when I grew up—cop (3 generations in my family), baseball player (I made it as far as Division III in college), etc. But nothing that captivated me.

After Maltz, I soon came upon Dr. Nathaniel Branden, who would also end up influencing my direction in life, in perhaps unintended ways. Dr. Branden was part psychologist, and part philosopher, and also a bit of an anti-establishment rebel. I consumed all of his work multiple times. I even faked my way into a retreat for practicing clinical psychologists, when I was only a sophomore in college, just so I could meet him.

During this time period—my mid- to late-teenage years—it was all psychology, all the time. I got a job as a room assistant with a company that provided a kind of group therapy session, just so I could listen to all those cases. I read clinical notes and case studies. As I moved into my undergraduate years at The University of Chicago, I switched from autodidact to formal student of academic psychology. The path was laid out. I’d complete my B.A in Psychology, then proceed to the PhD in Clinical Psychology—the top degree in the field.

That’s when it all started to unravel.

During my college years, I’d begun to doubt the “hardness” of the “science” of psychology. I’d already been influenced by the likes of Dr. Branden, who was, as I mentioned above, a pretty anti-establishment guy. Digging deeper, I read authors like Dr. Thomas Szasz (The Myth of Mental Illness). Over time, I lost confidence in the field, eventually coming to the conclusion that the “treatments” of professional psychology might actually do more harm than good. With that mindset, there was no way I was putting in 5+ years to become Dr. Quinn.

I pivoted to a Master’s degree in history and law, which mostly confirmed that I didn’t want to pursue psychology professionally.

So what next? I wasn’t one of those psych majors who couldn’t handle math. I loved math and science. Even tutored others in those subjects. I figured either computing or finance would be a good fit, although I knew very little about either. I noted that the tech world seemed more free-wheeling. Very much come-as-you-are. And the finance world seemed pretty hierarchical, and starchy. The former matched my personality; the latter made me itch just thinking about it.

In the late 1990s, as the dot com bubble was filling, you could get a job just as quickly as you could learn various technologies. I was starting from square one, and I‘m still not ashamed to say it—I bought the book Networking for Dummies, to get started learning the world of computing. Then, Windows NT Networking for Dummies. Then, Operating System Concepts. Then, an A+ Certification manual, and onward from there. (Though I hadn’t studied computer science in school, I certainly knew how to conduct serious academic study.)

From 1997 to 1999, I had a couple of jobs as a Systems Administrator / Network Administrator, including one at a children’s hospital in Los Angeles. All of this foundational network and systems experience would prove extremely useful when I discovered software development. Almost the instant that I saw the power you had at your fingertips as a software developer, I was hooked. Once again, I started at square one—HTML for Dummies. Then a book about Delphi programming. Then a series of Java books (and servlets, and JSP, and all the rest).

It was just like my early psychology days again. I consumed everything I could about programming. I got my first job as a junior programmer analyst at a Los Angeles software company named fresh ground software in 1999 (the guys who gave me my nickname). The next year, I got recruited by a big public software company, where me and a team of about 40 field engineers traveled the world working on some of the biggest web applications around. The next year, I got big contract as the lead developer heading up a team of mainframe/Cobol programmers building a web application for Sempra Energy, a huge utility conglomerate in Southern California.

After a few years of being hardened by working so many talented mentors and co-workers, I was ready. Sigmund, “the software social scientist,” went out on his own, and hasn’t looked back since.

I’m Sigmund, and thanks for listening.