Football (soccer if you're reading this in the US)
I committed 10 years of my life to make it professionally, but didn't make the cut. Messi is the GOAT. If you don't agree, it's going to be hard for us to be friends.
About
A few things that may be useful to know
Starting Point
I'm an Englishman and a Yorkshireman. I grew up in Rotherham, a town in South Yorkshire, that's sometimes in the news for unfortunate reasons, but is also home to some of the kindest, most genuine, and hardworking people that I get to call friends and family. Today, I live across the pond in beautiful Boston and continue to exploit every perk that my accent still sometimes affords me.
Faith
The word Christian means little Christ. This is what I aim to be. I believe God became human in the person of Jesus Christ. If true, then God is not unknowable in the agnostic sense or abstractly vague in the pantheistic sense, but rather a personal God who knows us and loves us. The suffering God who experienced pain, rejection, and death before overcoming them through Resurrection, gives me a firm hope that one day there will be justice for the oppressed, healing for the ills of this world, and ultimately life after death. To bring some of that future Heaven to today's world is the mission I try to orient my life around.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
People
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”This woman helps me go far.
Interests
Oratory
In Ancient Greece and Rome, speaking well in public was a highly valued skill. Sadly, it's been lost in today's mostly asynchronous digitized communication. I began delivering sermons at 12 years old, engaged in apologetics debates at university, and get a lot of joy analyzing the science and art of how people, who with nothing more than a mind and a tongue, can captivate an audience. Cicero, Demosthenes, and Lincoln knew what they were doing.
Movies
Going to the cinema as a kid was the highlight of my month. I love good movies and view it as a sacred violation that someone would just "put a movie on in the background". Answering the question you're all thinking: The Dark Knight is my favourite. Gladiator, Molly's Game, and Moneyball are up there.
Quotes
Maybe this is connected to oratory, but I've always loved quotes. If effective communication is a product of Veracity * Digestibility, then quotes feel like a global maximum of this function. Five of my favourites:
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible
People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people
He who has a Why to live for can endure almost any How
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it
Honesty
A site like this can only ever portray a very reductive version of a person. However, one thing I cannot have this site being is an advertisement for a polished life. So in the spirit of honesty I'd want you to know that I've been rejected by more internships, job applications, investors, and pharma companies than I can possibly count, that I've battled numerous chronic illnesses, that I was terrified at the thought of being a Founder, and that The Queen actually did die on my birthday. None of this is to garner sympathy. It's just to keep things real.