Hello Steemit!

Hi there!

My name is Michael, saying hello from a foggy Santa Cruz, CA.

Even though I've been following cryptocurrencies and all the cool tech built using blockchains for a long time, I only recently discovered Steemit, but I was immediately in love with the idea!

After spending some time reading a bunch of posts and comments, I've been blown away by the quality of content and the great community. I couldn't help but feel like I wanted to contribute. So it didn't take long for me to create an account, and here I am!

Who am I?

I'm a South African living in beautiful, Santa Cruz California, with my family of four (five actually, don't forget the dog!)

Why Santa Cruz? Well frankly because I get to choose where I want to be in the world to be happy!

I work remotely for the best social media company in the world, Buffer. At Buffer, I lead the data team. Our job is to use data to help build a great product for helping customers find their voice on Social Media and build the workplace of the future. Our company is fully distributed, with awesome teammates scattered across the world.

When I'm not working or spending time with my family, you'll probably find me surfing! Santa Cruz is probably one of the best surf towns in the world with some incredible spots, and I'm probably at my most serene and happiest in the ocean!

I feel incredibly lucky to have the life I have!

Why I'm here

I love coding and using data to gain insight on the world. I also love writing, even though I don't do enough of it! I love sharing about all the cool things I learn and plan to write about it more here. There is a lot about data science, Python, SQL and machine learning that I would love to write about.

Besides tech and data, I'm also excited to share more about remote working and how it's changed my world and will change the rest of the world soon!

I'm also really interested in science, finance, investment, cryptocurrency and a lot more and I'm looking forward to exploring some of these topics here!

I'm blown away by the community here in steemit and super excited to participate!

So if any of this sounds interesting please follow me, share or up vote this post and/or send me your thoughts/comments!