Nautis Project

Are you sure you want to know more about Matthew? I recommend you stop reading now and go back to where you came from. Reading this will add very little clarity and probably just add to your confusion. What does nautis mean, anyway?

Matthew began life in Lexington, Kentucky in the Unites States. He was an only child in a family that moved around the U.S. often. Every year, from kindergarten to 7th grade, Matthew moved to a new state and a new school. Perhaps this is where Matthew gets his independence. No one is really certain.

As a child Matthew asked so many questions that his Mother was often forced to spend her afternoons watching puppet shows at the local library where Matthew read every book he could find about science and nature. The local library was the only place his Mom didn’t have answer endless rounds of “why?” questions.

Learning became an important part of Matthew’s early life and asking questions become an important virtue that followed him into adulthood. Theoretically, parents and teachers appreciate it when children are inquisitive, however, when it comes in the form of rapid fire, “why?, why?, why?, why?”, they can get a little irritable. Thankfully, there are libraries and schools where you can sometimes find books that inform and teachers who care. Matthew was lucky enough to discover both.

By the time Matthew settled down he had lived in Kentucky(2x), Virginia(2x), New York(2x), Illinois, Georgia(2x), and California(3x). Though secretly an introvert, Matthew’s traveling and new experiences made him adapt to life as an extrovert. As a result, he is often mistaken as an extrovert (especially at work). In reality, he would much rather spend time alone reading a good book or writing about his bizarre life experiences.

After high school Matthew attended the University of Georgia and graduated with a degree in Cognitive Science where he worked on research such as source monitoring and implicit memory (and wrote editorials to the school paper as often as possible). Cognitive Science was a new discipline and allowed him the academic freedom to pursue linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, and, of course, psychology. Serendipity intervened and Matthew found himself in full adventure of exploring with Psyche and her friends. His guides were psychiatrist Carl Jung and mythology teacher Joseph Campbell. Soon after they were joined by philosopher Henri Bergson, biologist Rupert Sheldrake, and poet Goethe. These individuals seemed to best articulate Matthew’s view of the world.

Now equipped with a compass that pointed the way to poetry, science, philosophy, religion, and psychology Matthew entered graduate school at Pacifica in Santa Barbara, California with the goal of getting a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Anxious to get into the dotcom boom he made the difficult decision of leaving school to move back to New York and participate in the biggest land grab since the pioneers first settled the “new world.” The land this time was virtual and people were paying a premium for it.

After gaining some experience, Matthew landed his first Big-5 consulting job. Specializing in Healthcare, he has been in the field since. Healthcare seemed to be the one industry where science and business intersected. If he was going to be in business it was going to be healthcare. Matthew is also a frequent contributor in the emerging field of knowledge management. His articles have even been called classics. ;-) An avid blogger, Matthew has been blogging since the early days. Since Matthew has no life, you can find him on MySpace, Virb, and various other sites.

Today, Matthew lives in Kentucky and is still consulting in the healthcare industry. His latest kick is HL7. Nautis is dedicated to the amazing scholars that have helped him along the way. It’s also dedicated to his friends, some of whom actually read this stuff. Matthew says, “I figure life is a journey. Why keep the journey a secret?”