Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Hi!
I'm Tony Garvan.
Long time tinkerer and friendly doofus.
Projects
Writing
🚨 Ticketing Hal: Uber and the question of algorithmic personhood
Thoughts on a longstanding question of mine: if an algorithm speeds behind the wheel, who gets the ticket?
🔥 The business analytics industry is a dumpster fire
Thought leadership on the business analytics industry: maybe we all just shouldn't?
😅 Five free (but not easy) ways to improve your data skills
People sometimes ask me how to get started doing data work. Here's how I did it.
💡 Five questions for biz folks with a good software idea
Before you spend half a million dollars building an app, answer these questions for yourself.
🤖 Hey Microsoft, the internet made my not racist, too
I built a turing test game called "Bot or Not." It didn't take long before the trolls found it.
Experience
Founder & CEO—SheetRocks, Inc.
I founded a company to build a next generation spreadsheet focused on performance and expressiveness. Wish us luck!
2021-present
Engineering manager—Ad Hoc, LLC.
I managed a team of over 40 software engineers across 10 teams. We operated over 30 different tools and products that together form the user-facing experience of healthcare.gov.
2018-2021
Tech lead—18F
I managed a team of 3-6 engineers, lead our data practice area, and contributed to projects for the Federal Election Commission, Social Security Administration, and General Services Administration.
2015-2018
Software engineer—ZS Associates
I developed code for a large Enterprise product designed to manage large sales workforces. I also made early contributions to the natural language processing group.
2013-2015
CTO—Index companies
I lead development of an algorithm for predicting hurricane landfall on the east coast. Although early results were promising, the startup had to close shop after our office was hit by Hurricane Sandy.
2012
Instrumentation engineer—Nanosolar, Inc.
I started my career building optical and electrical instrumention for monitoring the quality of printed thin film photovoltaics. I learned to code on the job and fell in love with it.
2007-2010
Education
M.S.E., Electrical Engineering—Columbia University
Although my degree is in electrical engineering, I took mostly computer science classes in grad school, with an emphasis on machine learning and natural language processing.
2013
B.S., Physics—Yale University
I studied Physics and worked in an Atomic physics lab. During my two years running experiments, I earned recognition on a paper, got shot in the eye with a laser, and created a hovering ball of lightning.
2006
Tony at home 🏠
I live in Hyde Park, Chicago, where I'm raising my two beautiful and energetic boys. When I'm not parenting, working, or coding, I like hanging out on Twitter and going on astrophotography adventures.