Interests

Sports

A large part of my life, and the thing that keeps the rest of it working. Running, triathlon, yoga, calisthenics — and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which I have dabbled in and would train properly given more free time.

I have skied since I was three and snowboarded since sixteen. Ski trips are a family fixture, and most of why the Alps keep appearing in my travel plans.

The endurance base came from national service, and so did two things I was good at and no longer do: shooting, where I finished among the top five marksmen in my company, and driving, which I ended up teaching. The training habit outlasted both.

When a problem stops moving, the fastest route through it is usually a long run rather than another hour at the desk.

Languages

Korean and English natively, French to professional working proficiency, Italian at intermediate and actively improving, Spanish and Japanese conversational, and German at elementary. French and Italian are the two I am keeping alive at the moment. Learning a language is the closest thing I know to learning a new physics formalism — the same feeling of a structure clicking into place.

Reading

Physics and technical work first; then quant and markets; then biographies and self-improvement. Confucius and the Stoics above all — Zeno, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus — with Nietzsche as the counterweight; then Benjamin Graham and Jared Diamond, and Richard Dawkins. I stay current through arXiv, podcasts, and research feeds on X.

Music and film

Classical for focus and for pleasure — Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Vivaldi. Everything else is wide open — anything from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica through to Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift and Coldplay. I play as well as listen: drums and guitar, both electric and acoustic, plus enough piano and violin to get by.

On film I lean towards Nolan, Fincher, Tarantino, Michael Mann and Coppola; the Godfather trilogy, The Dark Knight and Fight Club are the ones I return to.

Travel and people

I have lived in Japan, in Taiwan, and now in the UK, and I have been to the United States many times — mostly Los Angeles and New York. Europe is where I travel for pleasure: France above all, and the Alps most of all. Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland are all places I have been and would go back to tomorrow. And of course Korea, where I lived for more than twenty years and have travelled to most corners of a genuinely beautiful country.

Conference travel is part of it, but more than the places I am building a network — researchers, founders, investors and quant practitioners. If you are one of those and you are reading this, say hello.

Teaching

I learn best by teaching, so I do a lot of it — and I would happily talk for hours about fundamental physics, machine learning, first principles, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, music, or films.