The Universe of Discourse

About me

I am Mark Jason Dominus. I like to read, and I try to remember what I've read. I am an amateur mathematician, but not the angle-trisecting kind.

In addition to mathematics, I am interested in a great many other things. I don't know very much about any one thing but I do know a little bit about a lot of different things, and I like to think this makes me able to see connections between things that specialists might not notice. I'm the kind of person who gets on a bus and takes it to the last stop, just to see where it goes.

I have worked as a professional computer programmer since around 1987, and intermittently as a writer and as a teacher. I'm best at teaching, and I like it the best, but the programming pays more.

I may be best known for my book Higher-Order Perl, published in 2005 by Morgan Kaufmann, and for my other work in Perl. But as a programmer I consider myself uncommitted to any particular language or system. As with everything else, I try to go for breadth rather than for depth.

I live in Philadelphia with my spouse. We have two daughters who are known on this blog (but not in real life) as Katara and Toph.

My blog, The Universe of Discourse has existed in one form or another since 1994, and in its current form since 2006.

My current project is to read every book ever written.

To contact me, you can email mjd@pobox.com.

Ask me anything.

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