After all these years working in politics – as a researcher, a coordinator and then Deputy Director of Research Services – the position I really enjoy is now being the Director of Data Services. Simply said, I like working with data.

None of this should be a surprise, as a teenager I was the quintessential computer geek, first with my Macintosh computers and then Linux. I’ve used Linux exclusively for years outside of work, I became good at using the Unix text utilities over the years for reasons of convenience and necessity.

For years I wanted to get away from computers, I have nothing but disdain for the culture that celebrates materialism and is filled with the latest high technology. I loved the life of working on the Capitol Hill, although maybe not so much the all nighters, sleeping under the desk. Politics is a lot about clever wit and the use of power to get big things done.

But computers and working with data are a lot of fun too. Nothing beats coming up with a clever little shell script, some sql, a C program or R script to fix a problem. A good script can automate and save a lot of labor and product produce better output. I know I’d rather be checking the output of a program I wrote then doing something by hand.

The neat thing about my work is the tools I use – – especially the Unix text utilities are really simple and old but work incredibly well when piped together. As many of our databases are over 10 million records, it can take a fair amount of processing power on the main frame where they run, but the next result is useful data extracted from the system using simple, reliable tools.

There is all this talk these days about machine learning and advanced computing. But there is something wonderful about the simple old tools we use at work. And I enjoy working with them, along with the people. Plus I know every day I’m refining my skills, building my resume, and developing a better life and future that I will be able to take and put forward towards my future life goals.