Bringing long-arc reasoning to things that matter
Who I am
I've been curious for as long as I can remember. Always asking questions, always building something, always wondering why things worked the way they did rather than some other way. That restlessness never really went away. It just found more to work with.
What I've noticed over time is that I can step into almost any environment and find my footing quickly. New vocabulary, unfamiliar rules, different ways of doing things. I absorb them faster than seems reasonable, and before long I'm operating as though I've been there for years. People sometimes assume I have background I don't actually have.
That ability has taken me through quite different settings already. Government, a university, things I've started myself. The contexts change but something in how I approach them stays constant. I look for what's actually happening rather than what's supposed to be happening. I find where the real decisions get made, how things actually move, what's holding them in place.
I think on longer timescales than most situations seem to call for. Where others focus on immediate results, I tend to be thinking about what this makes possible years from now. What doors it opens. What it quietly closes off. That long-arc view has become one of the things I rely on most.
How I see things
There's usually a structure underneath any situation, even the ones that look chaotic. Incentives, constraints, history, habit. People behave in ways that make sense given what surrounds them. When you learn to see that structure, you start to notice where things are stuck and what might actually move them.
Clarity matters to me. I'd rather say something simply and be understood than dress it up and lose people. Fairness works the same way. A decision you can't explain to the person it affects is probably a decision worth questioning.
I've learned to value patience. Most things worth doing take longer than anyone wants, and there's always pressure to move faster. But rushing has costs that show up later. I'd rather do something properly once than keep fixing what I didn't get right the first time.
Detail matters too. Not for its own sake, but because small things shape how people experience what you've built. The wording of a sentence, the logic of a process, the thinking behind a decision. Getting these right is a way of taking seriously whoever comes next
I hold my views firmly enough to act on them, but I stay open to revising them when I see something I'd missed. I'm still early in all of this. But I know how I think, and I trust it.
What I value
Work that holds up under scrutiny. People who mean what they say. Environments where honesty doesn't create problems. Systems that treat people consistently rather than depending on luck or timing. And building things that last rather than things that merely impress.
What I spend my time on
Right now I work in government, on decisions where policy meets real circumstances. I also run a naming portfolio, Aaran Beattie Names, developing names and domains shaped for long-term use.
I read widely. History, biography, strategy, technical material when a problem needs it. I walk to think. I write things down to clear my head, and when I solve the same kind of problem more than once, I turn the answer into something reusable.
Direction
I want to be near decisions that matter. Not for status, but because that's where thoughtful work makes a difference. I'm interested in how systems work at scale, but I want to stay close enough to see how they feel to the people inside them.
I keep my path broad deliberately. I don't know exactly where I'll be in ten years, and that feels right. What I know is that I want to stay open to work that's interesting, consequential, and suited to how I think. The rest will follow.