First and foremost, I’m a dad and husband – I have a son and daughter, and Deb and I have been married since 1991.
I became a downshifter when my son was three years old. Work to live, don’t live to work. In 2007, I became tired of being an employee and wanted to move into a new phase – being a business owner. I realised that downshifting and running your own business are about the same thing – being in control of your life. Doing what you want to do rather than what you have to do, and having the flexibility to do it when you want. I also brought this attitude to my business. We have a 4-day working week for a full-time salary, since 2014.
I don’t watch TV. I don’t know where I’d find the time. But I love films and series’ and regularly make the time. I’m glad to be living in an era where I can watch what I want, when I want (more or less). It’s interesting that everyone born after around 1995 has the same attitude now and don’t see any appeal in broadcast TV.
I’m what I call a “sustainable vegetarian“. I’ll only eat what I kill myself. But I wouldn’t refuse anyone’s hospitality, especially in another country. I wonder how much meat we’d eat as a society if everyone did?
I run Serversaurus web hosting and cloud computing, and ran the Electron Workshop co-working space, which my co-foundder and I built ourselves. It came to an end in 2021 partly due to the pandemic, but mostly because it was time to wind it up. Serversaurus is a founding Australian B Corporation, with environmental and social responsibility baked into the core of our business.
Back in the internet dark ages, I wrote some open-source software. See my software page for details. I’ve had an email address since 1989 and a personal website since 1994. That makes me fairly internet ancient.