User:Leonbuker/About you

I'm relatively new to Wikipedia, so let me introduce myself... I'm Leon. I grew up in Australia, and have lived in the UK and China.

I've mostly worked with technology, but I've also been a business change consultant, a school director, and product manager for toys.

Computing and technology are something that I fell into not so much because I love computers, but because I enjoy systems thinking. Computers are a closed system. If you get the inputs just right, you will get the output you were looking for. I guess the same thinking is what drove my childhood fascination with aquariums. And maybe makes me a bit of a control freak ;-)

As a child, I had a small fish tank at home which I tried to optimise as a closed system. I contrasted the output of the single fluorescent light on top of the aquarium against the sun and found it lacking. So I handmade a four fluorescent tube, monster of a light, with almost a dozen wires sprawling out the back and covering the whole top of the aquarium. To ensure maximum brightness the inside was mirrored and I needed to install fans to keep the whole thing cool. It raised the water temperature by nearly 10 degrees, which didn’t bother the plants as much as the fish. Although the plants didn’t start to really thrive until I started to bubble carbon dioxide directly into the water by growing yeast in a soda bottle… but that’s a story for another time. That sense of curiosity and scientific exploration as a child, with a fish tank, is still part of my approach to life. I like to think it helps fuel my creativity.

Anyway, hope that helps you understand me a bit better and the flavour of craziness that I bring to the world.