arbitrary user

This is the personal site of me, Jonathan Endersby, an almost-30 year old living in Africa.

Who am I?

A Zen Buddhist once asked me who I was. I started listing my traits, characteristics, even qualifications. He said nothing. Eventually I had run out of things to say and he asked me again, “Who are you?”. I eventually replied, “Jonathan Endersby”. He smiled and said “Correct!”.

At the time it didn’t make much sense, but as time passes I am realising the simplicity in being just you… not wanting to be things, characteristics, traits etc… just being you.

I am Jonathan Endersby. There is no one else quite like me.

However, since you’re about my “About Me” page I guess you want me to list those characteristics. I love technology but want to live on a farm, with goats and chickens. I love business but am addicted to the nuts and bolts of systems. I love hiking, but I could lose a few kilos. I bake bread, love growing vegetables and, when I get the time, enjoy tinkering with electronics.

I love writing, although recently I have not had nearly enough time to write, the same goes for photography. I consider myself an open source evangelist, but I won’t cry if you use Windows (or OSX). I’m supposedly a business analyst but the more I learn about business analysis the more I realise how ridiculous everything I was taught was. I write software… I am not the best programmer in the world but I get the job done.

I live in Cape Town (South Africa) with my fiancée Lynnae and our two cats, Uran and Ging. We live in a 105 year old house, which is another way of saying ‘we do a lot of DIY’.

I believe the world is far more fascinating than religion would have you believe. I believe mankind can be good. I am an optimist. I believe that being a good person, and doing good, is more important than being successful.

I take pictures. I write about my life and the things that happen to me. It’s a journal, don’t get too critical. Sometimes I piss people off. I don’t mind. Not everyone can like me.

My idea of a good day is a walk on the mountain. I like food. I think I can tell the difference between good food and bad food. Some people disagree… mostly the people who make the bad food.

I love simple, revolutionary ideas. I run Linux on all my computers.

What I do?

I’m involved in a few different things:

TrustFabric is my main baby and the thing I spend most of my time on. TrustFabric aims to change the way people interact with businesses and each other. This is the definitive New Scary Big Idea ™ and the team is nothing short of incredible. You can expect to hear more about it soon.

Barefoot Breaks sells luxury holidays (mostly honeymoons) in some of the most idyllic and perfect places on earth. The company is a textbook example of how a solid concept combined with in-depth knowledge and excellent service can produce a business that quickly competes on a global market with well-established players. We challenged a lot of the assumptions our competitors had made and focused on a niche that many of them had written off as too tricky. The percentage of customers referred by their friends is a testament to our desire to do everything perfectly, every time. I look after the web strategy and technical aspects of the business.

BrowserPath is an analytics tool for sales consultants at the coalface. Expect a private beta sometime in 2010.

You can contact me via email at arbitraryuser at that google mail place domain. I am also similarly available via google talk.