My Story: Kang Chen (陳岡志)

The Beginning: A Little Code-Typer in Mom's Office

My story begins at age four. I was attending the kindergarten affiliated with Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan, and every afternoon after school, my mom would bring me to her office on campus. That's where I met my first "best friend" — an early Apple II computer.

I didn't know any English at the time, let alone programming. But my mom handed me a book of computer code and said, "If you type these symbols correctly, the game will start." So I sat there, wide-eyed, painstakingly copying every character on the page. To me, it wasn't programming — it was deciphering a magical spell that opened a doorway to another world.

What's remarkable is that this "learn by doing without understanding" approach quietly planted a seed. Years later, when I formally started learning English in fifth grade, I was stunned to realize: "Wait — I already know these words!" All those command strings I had once typed by hand had been absorbed into my instincts without me even noticing.

Evolution: From SimCity to Shakespeare

After elementary school, my family emigrated to New York. Faced with a new country and a foreign language, computer games became my best English teacher. To win at SimCity, Might and Magic, and King's Quest, I kept a dictionary beside my computer at all times.

While other kids struggled through vocabulary drills, I was looking up words like "Residential Area" and "Balance Sheet" — because I needed them to win. The RPG games were especially rich: packed with quests, riddles, and elaborate storylines, they exposed me to an unusually wide range of vocabulary, including archaic and literary expressions rarely found in textbooks.

This led to a curious outcome: when I later took high school English and began reading Shakespeare or dense poetry, I found myself far more comfortable than my classmates. Years of immersion in fantasy game dialogue had given me an intuitive feel for complex sentence structures and old-fashioned rhetoric. That "learning through play" approach — deeply practical, context-driven — has shaped how I absorb and apply knowledge ever since.

A Turning Point: From a Dry Cleaning Shop to an Ivy League Office

My career path was anything but conventional. I maintained computers at an architecture firm. I picked up freelance repair jobs wherever I could. The real turning point happened through my parents' dry cleaning business — a professor from St. John's University was a regular customer, and he often called on me to fix his computers. When he later joined Columbia University, he invited me onto his team.

That's how I entered the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) at Columbia, working in an environment where cutting-edge medical research meets advanced computing. With the encouragement of wonderful colleagues — and the unwavering support of my wife — I worked full-time while completing my degree, ultimately earning a Master of Science in Technology Management from Columbia University. From a dry cleaning shop to an Ivy League office: I genuinely believe that hands-on experience, combined with disciplined management thinking, is where real impact is made.

Passions: Wuxia, Cooking, and the Joy of Sharing

Outside of the screen, I'm an avid reader of classic Chinese martial arts fiction (wuxia), and a home cook who takes his craft seriously. Growing up around family members with discerning palates instilled high standards in me. What started as packing lunch to save money in Manhattan gradually evolved into a genuine love of cooking — especially to make my wife happy.

I've come to see cooking and IT as surprisingly similar: both demand precise technique, quality ingredients, and — most importantly — a genuine desire to share something good with others. For me, "sharing" is the source of joy. Whether I'm pointing a friend toward a great meal or helping a client untangle a technical headache, I find deep satisfaction in that moment of connection.