About

A person, not a résumé

Floridian, builder, cook, traveler, and a fairly stubborn noticer of things. The longer version is below.

An illustrated portrait of Tristan at his desk, between code, a glass of red wine, an espresso, tomatoes, and basil — A portrait, more or less. Code in one hand, a glass in the other.

I grew up on and around the water in Florida, which is the kind of thing that never fully leaves a person. There is an island logic to how I move through the world: unhurried until it matters, then completely present. I am comfortable in a kitchen, behind a computer, at a sporting event, on a board in the water, and in an opera house, and I do not experience those as different people.

A day can start in basketball shorts and end in a suit at the opera. Both are true, and neither is a costume.

I take food seriously without being precious about it. I care about elegance without wanting to be stiff. I love people and hospitality, and I also need real solitude. None of this needs reconciling. It is simply what a full life looks like from the inside.

Work, briefly

I own and operate Vida Tigris, the banner I build under. Websites, digital systems, strategy, a fair amount of technology and artificial intelligence, and whatever else is worth making well. I am commercially capable and deeply suspicious of hollow status. That is all I will say here, because this is not that kind of site.

At the table

Most of what I think about eventually returns to food and drink. Long cooking, good bread, a bar seat over a table when I am alone, wine that has an opinion, cocktails made with care, and the specific joy of a sandwich built with structural intent. I would rather eat something honest at a counter than something impressive under bad lighting.

Places

Florida and the islands are home base. Torino has my heart in a way I am still working out. I travel when I can and chase the good life without pretending it lives in only one country. Cities, hotels, neighborhood bars, the quiet of leaving a place and writing about it after. Le cose italiane, certamente.

Tristan walking toward Tower Bridge in London, under a line of bunting, on a bright day — London. Walking toward the bridge, the long way.

I follow Manchester United with more feeling than is strictly reasonable. I still surf when the island is close enough. I dress the way I want to, which occasionally means a dark green jacket over a purple shirt with designer jeans, and it does not need explaining. Taoism has shaped how I think more than anything with a business spine, and I value a small circle of real friends over a large one of useful contacts.

The Council of the Five

When I need to think something through, I convene the same five voices. Not to agree with them. To argue with better company.

Lao Tzu the watercourse way. yield, and outlast.
Marcus Aurelius the view from above. govern the response, not the event.
Machiavelli the world as it is. see clearly before you act.
Karl Marx who owns the work. follow the labour and the money.
Ibn al-Haytham the method of doubt. test everything; trust what survives.

If I had to name influences beyond that council, they would be Anthony Bourdain and Frank Prisinzano. Curiosity, appetite, honesty, and the conviction that doing simple things properly is its own kind of luxury.

Music for the Occasion