The philosophy at hand has to deal with how I've mentored people over my career. I use these three questions to gauge where someone is at in their journey.

• Who are you?
• Who do you want to become?
• How can I help?

These wishy-washy questions of metaphysical nature will yield a wealth of understanding in the first few minutes. At core, it is strange to be human with such awareness of the universe. What even are we? How can anyone even answer "Who" they are?

These questions cause people to pause. At present, I aim to share my answers to these hard questions. Afterall, it isn't fair to ask questions that I don't have answers to.

Who am I?

I'm a dude trying very hard to be a genius. Why? Well, that's a good question. Maybe I'm just a fraudulent tryhard. I believe people have echos in their head from their youth. One comment from my mother many years ago was "Jeff would be a genius if I had a C-section". I heard that, felt a deep wound and went to look at some school workbooks to see if I could figure shit out.

That word "genius" echos...

From there, I was always looking at the smart kids trying to figure them out. Fortunately and with full gratitude, I had access to computers at a young age; I was motivated to figure them out beyond using them to play games. Computers back then were puzzles with mystic capabilities. I learned programming before I was good at math, and math became a target for me during high school because it was the toughest subject for everyone. Everyone complained about it. Instead of complaining, I tried to hack it.

My method of hacking it was by buying a TI-89 calculator which could do Calculus. Holy Shit! This thing could do the coursework way above the class I was in. That thing helped me survive math class because it gave me an edge (umm, an automated tool to do homework, yes please!). However, that machine was the connection between my passion for programming and my passion for mathematics. My early love manifested in reading math books like Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers. It was from these books that I got to understand the nature of genius.

This drive is what pushed me towards a desire of getting a Ph.D in computer science (hint: I didn't) as computer science is a beautiful form of applied mathematics. However, at university, I learned by accidental fate (and a wee bit of lust) that abstract mathematics was exceptionally beautiful. I accidentaly took "Introduction to Topology" and the textbook was exceptionally small and terror inducing. The class, fortunately, had chicks in it, so I stuck with it because the odds were in my favor.

At university, the seeds of resentful bitterness were being planted slowly by the conditions of academic life... Fortunately, I had a friend that wanted to build a business, and it was an obvious step towards genius. The quote "If you're so smart, then why aren't you rich?" rang true. "Rich" became a proxy for genius, so duh, let's #yolo this shit and make some money and be bigger than Texas.

When a bunch of twenty years olds get together to make something, it's going to be a mess. It was a beautiful mess in so many ways, and we had our wins and losses. It was a wild journey that I would recommend for anyone. Hell, I even found my future wife!

However, that effort turned into "just a job", and my drive towards genius was not satisfied. Ego is strange, but other events happened which put me in a state of crisis. During this business's growth, my mother commited suicide, and the echoes of pain became torment. This has been a deep pain in my soul for enumerable reasons. It took a heroic dose of magic mushrooms to overcome the echoes of the emotional storm after a decade haunted by echoes.

While suffering from the echoes of the past, that torment pushed my ego further because such pain had to manifest into something great. "Good" wasn't good enough. So, I re-rolled the dice and went to work at Amazon Web Services where I got a reality check. Amazon has actual geniuses on payroll, and you can be in a meeting with them. Holy shit, I realized I had my work cut-out; however, I had a new goal.

The corporate job kind of sucks, and I was chomping to work on "a genius level" project. I didn't see the opportunity where I was at, so I re-rolled the dice again to join Facebook. My luck was that I joined a team that had genius level problems without strong ownership.

And I rocked that shit hard. Seriously, I got a patent with my name on it, an academic paper, mentored many people, and built a massive platform that powers a tremendous volume of business for a multi-billion dollar company. Fuck yeah, I'm either a genius or a very useful idiot tryhard corporate drone!

Who do I want to become?

I see a broken world for so many predictable reasons. I don't want to perpetuate the same problems, so I want to build a company that is radically different. I want to buck all trends. I want to build something great.

But, I don't want this to just be a reflection of my genius. I already know that I'm a genius. I want us to realize that this field, the way we build, can be done so much better. It can be done better.

Technology was supposed to set us free, but it seems to be a tool for us to opress each other. I want to become a leader that drives technology that liberates us. I want to break the chains. I want us all to enjoy a good life where we spend hours hanging out with friends at lunch, chilling out with people we care about playing board games, enjoying the beauty of what is possible.

My name is Jeff, and I want to break your chains and set you free. This task, this holy war to build a better world... it's going to take time.

How can you help?

Well, if I decide to run for president, then I want your vote. However, that job sure looks awful.

The key thing that I need is your patience to try to step into my vision. I'm doing this business (mostly) alone right now for good reasons. My plea is that people play with my toys honestly without fear. This platform is my toy, and I'm having a ball building it.

I recognize that the platform is a tough sell, but I believe. I believe in a world where people can build beautiful endeavors without the corruption that chain us.

But, in terms of business, I don't know what I'm doing. I really don't, and I'm going to make mistakes. No one has built a platform like this. No one has built a company like this.

So, I'm trying crazy things...