1) If it’s easy to do, don’t do it again. Make a computer do it. 2) Surround yourself with the greats: people, technologies, problems. If you’re intimidated, it’s probably important. 3) Avoid fluffy language and irrelevant factors. Capable people can smell useless information from miles away. 4) Look back on your present from your future. Are you proud of how you spent your time?These are the guiding philosophies behind everything I do and the motivation behind my contributions: blaze the difficult trail, carefully, by meticulously automating the simple tasks and rigorously justifying the complex ones. This method has provided me with a steadfast foundation for all my successes, from serving as an astrophysical consultant to astronauts and discovering other worlds in space, to delivering robust, cutting-edge ML solutions to the warfighter. All the while, I seek to make my presence an asset and my absence manageable. I enjoy discussing and solving complex issues. Reach out to me if you want to discuss the universe at cosmological scales, why “artificial intelligence” falls far short of “intelligence,” or how to ethically train your pet dog to walk backwards.