Wow 2019 went by quickly! I had a great year, full of incredible travel and wonderful collaborations. Here’s an overview of how it went

Living in Japan

Avital and I spent three months living in Japan this spring. It was an amazing experience full of delicious food, good friends, and new culture. I did a pretty good job documenting the trip on this blog – posts tagged Japan2019 – and I uploaded tons of (mostly food) pics to my Instagram.

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Not a week goes by that we don’t turn to each other and say: we should move back to Japan! We probably won’t get back there in the near term but we would love to spend another multi-month stint there in the next few years.

Returning to SF

As amazing as Japan was, it was great to move back to SF and catch up with friends and family. We’re loving our new place in Bernal Heights and are pretty settled in. We’ve hosted a bit already and are looking forward to hosting a bunch more in 2020.

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We’re planning to be (mostly) in SF for the long haul and are getting involved in local politics. We attended our first YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) meeting earlier this month and are excited to engage with policy folks to make SF more affordable through high density housing and better transit.

Leveraged Play

I spent much of the year as a professional game designer under the Leveraged Play brand, making games and experiences to help organizations explore the future and explain the present.

I designed and ran five main games:

  • HAL of Justice (exploring internet policy)
  • Climate Change / Land Use (prioritizing interventions during a summit)
  • Walking the Future (envisioning urban change)
  • Threatcast 2020 (election manipulation through technology)
  • Trust and Safety (on fraught decisions on a trust and safety team)

You can read all about them in my Leveraged Play 2019 Recap.


Ultimately, the market for serious games is still small and the sales cycle is glacial so I likely won’t be working on Leveraged Play full-time in 2020. That said - I’m still accepting commissions!

Job Hunt

With Leveraged Play moving to the back-burner, I’m excited to find a new job in 2020. I’d love to make the move to venture capital but there have been very few postings that meet all my criteria:

  • Bay Area or remote
  • Mid-career role (principal or senior associate)
  • Consumer or enterprise tech
  • Already have a diverse team

I’m also looking for an amazing startup to join. I’ve loved playing the business generalist / COO role in early stage companies and am excited to find another incredible team to join. The themes I’m most excited about are the future of work and AR/VR but I’m open to any startup with an amazing team and meaningful vision.

Consumer Games

Beyond my Leveraged Play work, I got to work on some great games and experiences through my consumer game studio. You can read the full recap on the Diegetic Games blog but my highlights were running staged games with audience participation at both the Roguelike Celebration and Big Bad Con.


I also got to play a ton of phenomenal storytelling games this year – at least 28 larp and RPG sessions by my count. I’m confident I’ll play even more next year and hopefully release a bunch of games too!

Final Thoughts

Overall, this was an incredible year full of major life events. I’m deeply grateful to have an amazing partner in Avital as we craft a life together that involves creating wonderful community, living in exciting new places, playing infinite games, and making a meaningful impact. I’m excited to see what 2020 has in store!