Hi Steemit!
My name is Daniel.
I'm 30 years old, was born in Nassau, Bahamas but I mostly grew up in New York City, where I just moved back to. Last month, I graduated with my MBA, and on July 24th I'm starting a new job in the crypto space (paperwork hasn't been signed, so don't want to jinx it).
It's a moment of a lot of change in my life, and I'm very excited! I've moved back to NYC, I'm starting a new job, and I'm getting married. Right now, I'm on vacation with my fiancee.
(I know I took the photo yesterday!)
Why I'm Posting
Since I'm on vacation right now, I decided to explore a few blockchains more deeply. That's why I've come back to Steemit. I signed up many months ago, but I never wrote anything.
I'll probably write about FinTech. For the last few months, I've been running a monthly #FinTech book club. We've read The Age of Cryptocurrency, The Unbanking of America and Flash Boys. This month we're reading Money: the Unauthorized Biography. I've been using Medium to write articles about the books, but I find it's very hard to get conversations started on Medium. Maybe there's a better way to do it here? (If you’re interested, you can sign up for the book club here)
My Background
After college, I worked for a research lab called the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, which tries to figure out what is effective and what is not when trying to make a difference. They sent me to live in Sierra Leone, where I studied the impact of new technologies and micro-finance products on rural families. That was the most formative experience in my life so far. I was working directly for MIT professors, learning a ton. I was living in an environment completely different from what I was used to. We were studying challenging problems and facing tough realities. Unfortunately, much of what charities, for-profits and governments do to help low-income communities and countries doesn't help, and it can even hurt. That said, some projects were incredibly successful, and large impacts were made without huge budgets.
After 3 years with the lab across many countries, I enrolled in my MBA program. 9 months later I dropped out because I was afraid I was wasting money and time. The truth is I had joined the MBA program not knowing what else to do, and I was taking a broad range of classes that were interesting but aimless.
I ended up starting a tech company with a friend of mine from undergrad. We were able to raise a bit of money, build a team and get customers to pay for our product, but we struggled from there. We shut down the business last summer. Honestly, I was left deflated and defeated.
At this point, I returned to school with a completely new view. I was able to take courses specifically designed for the work I want to do. I took some graduate classes in the computer science department on data science so I could better work with engineering teams. I was able to do an independent study on the enterprise applications of ethereum because I thought I might want to work in the crypto space after school.
Here's a picture of me graduating last month:
My Interests
One of my favorite parts of living in NYC is going to lots of events. There's one called the Secret Science Club that's really cool, and there's always interesting meetups and lectures at the universities. I'm also a big fan of the craft beer wave that has taken over NYC (and the US) the last few years.
I try to be a big reader, as much as life permits. A few of my favorite bloggers are Tyler Cowen (MarginalRevolution), Matt Levine (Money Stuff), and Wait But Why. Usually, I read non-fiction. I've been reading a lot recently on social justice in the US. I just finished Evicted and my favorite book I read recently was Just Mercy. There's a discussion on how the criminal justice system treats juveniles, and I'm not sure if I've ever been so upset.
I also play Fantasy English Premier League with a few friends each year. I find it a fun way to relax.
Questions:
*What advice do you have to newcomers?
*Any particularly interesting accounts you recommend I follow?