Hi, I’m Joshua McGee.  This is my site.

Who are you?

I’m a software engineer in Los Angeles, California.  I’ve written software professionally since 1998.  I studied mathematics.  I write, play Magic: The Gathering, obsess over a wide range of beverages, read on a diverse selection of subjects, watch films, listen to music, follow public radio, travel, and play guitar.

So what do you do here, and why should I care?

I maintain an active blog with more than a decade of entries, as well as static pages and other websites.  Use the sidebar to the right as a guide.  If it’s not your scene, thank you for taking the time to look.

What would someone else say about you?

The “Portrait of J. Random Hacker” is spot-on, as is The Myers-Briggs (Jungian) personality type descriptor for me, even though I am loath to support a profiling system with only 16 bins.  I am of the 3%-of-the-population INTP (Introverted/iNtuitive/Thinking/Perceiving) type, as follows (emphasis mine):

INTPs are pensive, analytical folks.  They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them … Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off.  While annoying to the less concise, this fine discrimination ability gives INTPs so inclined a natural advantage as, for example, grammarians and linguists … easy-going and amenable to almost anything until their principles are violated … A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure.  They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves … An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition….

Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play, similarly languages, computer systems — potentially any complex system.  INTPs thrive on systems.  Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can overtake the INTP’s conscious thought.  This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay.  Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary…..

Knowing the Truth is enough for INTPs; the knowledge that this truth can (or could) be demonstrated is sufficient to satisfy the knower … Feeling tends to be all or none. When present, the INTP’s concern for others is intense, albeit naive.

Famous INTPs: Socrates, Decartes, Pascal, Newton, Einstein.

Pretty much, that blockquote is me.

TL;DR, dude.  In your own words and a few sentences, what should be my simple mental image of you?

Picture in the upper-right, if you’re into that whole “photography” thing.  The preceding section reduces to “a detail-obsessed nerd who is likely to argue with you.”  I am an outspoken atheist, hetero, and single.  I am far-left — a Green Party voter who moved right for Obama.  I have a little boy named Niall, whom I love more than I love myself.  Take a look at the “Sleeve” section of the sidebar for some causes I support — those can usually give a good idea of what someone stands for.