Introducing Paul Ryburn

Happy to be living my passion. Happy to be alive.

Photo owned by author

“Introduction to me” posts seem to be all the rage these days. I think they’re great, and I have read some fantastic posts of this type the past couple of weeks. It’s a pleasure to get to know the person behind the writing, to make an emotional investment in the writer.

Therefore, I have decided to join the party! In this post I will

• Talk about two of my passions
• Explain why this post, and my entire body of work on Medium, almost didn’t happen
• Give you some fun, quick facts about me
• Introduce you to a few books that have been major influences

Let’s get started!

I’m a teacher

When I was 11, I saved up enough money to buy an Atari 2600 video game console, the must-have for kids my age at the time. Within a year, I wanted an Atari 400 personal computer, because it played a more authentic version of Pac-Man. My mom wouldn’t buy it for me, though. “You already have a video game system,” she told me. “You don’t need another one.”

Instead of buying a computer, I bought a book on BASIC, the programming language built into the Atari 400’s operating system. Every time we went to Sears or…