Welcome!
Now that you are here, chances are you came here for a reason. Perhaps, you already know me from someplace and sometime, and now you are looking for a way to find me again. In this case, here it is:
Contact Info
- Email: sergey @ (the domain of this website, without the www)
OK, that out of the way - chances are you don't know me (yet), and want to know me a little more. This is where it gets tricky, for what follows really depends on what you want to know, and even more depends on what you do not want to know, so proceed with caution.
Who Am I?
If you don't really want to know anything about me, and just simply browsing the net and killing your precious time, you hit the easy case - the back button of your browser is all it takes.
For a quick two-minute introduction, try About Me page, where I attempt to answer this never-ending question of who the heck I am, anyways...
Computer Science, Logic, and Formal Verification
or in Search for Truth - I
For those folks who know me as an ex-Synopsys employee, a former researcher at Stanford University, a graduated CMU student with a Ph.D. in Computer Science, or maybe even a long-ago formal verification guy and a student at the Novosibirsk State University (Russia), then you might find my Professional Information page to be of help.
To sum up, for close to 15 years I've been solving basically the same problem: having written a program (designed a hardware chip), does it really do what it was intended to do? The answer to that turned out to be deeper than I ever imagined.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
or in Search for Truth - II
Now comes somewhat more esoteric crowd who may be searching my name in relation to NLP, which last time I checked still stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Strange, given its very basis to include the requisite variety principle - but that's beside the point.
My interest in NLP was, in a way, similar to that in computer science, only now the "computer" was a lot more interesting and a lot more complex - the human brain. The question, however, was still the same: does it do what (I thought) it was intended to do, and how do I fix it?
Having been there and done that (and gotten a "T-shirt" of a Master & Health Practitioner), I have played with this "objective model of the subjective reality " for a few years with a good friend of mine at the Holographic University up in San Francisco, and, tired of never-ending success without failures to learn from (hey, just kidding, alright?) decided to move on to study other fields and models related to Personal Growth.
Reason? However strange it might be, I discovered that, despite the fact that a human being is incomparably more complex than the most sophisticated super-computer, the field of computer science has been - and still is - thriving with new developments, discoveries, approaches, and rapid advances for the past half a century, while NLP, being twice as young as a field, has been stuck at the same place since about mid-80s. Not a good sign...
Personal Growth
or in Search for Truth - III Meaning
Finally, we arrive at the most curious audience of all - the audience that is being curious about themselves (granted, it is also a rather curious crowd in and of itself).
This has all started as my reaction to NLP being too stagnant, and my natural (as a scientist) desire to kick the dust and get it going again. With a couple of friends, the three of us have come up with a bunch of wild ideas, got a mic, sat down at a round table, and recorded a set of rants on NLP and other subjects that have become a stream of podcasts. The gang has become known as the Radical Change Group, releasing a steady stream of weekly podcasts starting from fall of 2007.
Here we touch upon many streams of thought, pulling together NLP, Mythology, Clare Graves model (aka Spiral Dynamics), 8-circuit brain model, Carl Jung's analysis, and other things.
This is where it's at, for the moment.
Hobbies and Passions,
or in Search for Life, Happiness, and Fun
By describing the long progression of my personal search for whatever it happened to be, I might have lost you for something rather simple and something you know I do, but have not mentioned yet. Yet. Time to tie up the loose ends.
In addition to all of the above, my hobbies, passions, routines, practices, and addictions include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Dancing - I always loved to dance in night clubs, but never before I thought I would fall so-o-o deep in love with the 5Rhythms dance. I've even written a poem about it. It's not just a dance, it's a moving meditation, it's an ecstatic prayer with your sweat, it's the beat of life itself. It is sheer poetry of the body. Come, dance with me!
- Martial Arts - I hold a black belt rank (1st dan) in Kuk Sool Won, and currently I'm a student in one of the schools of Aikijujutsu.
- Music - both listening, mostly to classic and progressive rock of high quality, trance dance, some good new age stuff (too bad there is too little of it), and playing some piano (synthesizer) and guitar.
- Reading books - all sorts of books, mostly educational (given my searches I, II and III above), and occasionally a sci-fi or fantasy novel (Harry Potter rules!)
- Multimedia - photography, video, flash, sound editing, podcasting, web design... If you follow the links and pay attention, you'll see the traces of it all around here.
- Hiking, biking - there was a reason I moved to the Bay Area, after all :-) I especially love to go to the ocean, walk and play bare-foot in the sand, run with the waves... I've been mountain biking around the hills a few years back, maybe I'll get back to it one day. Hope our Governator doesn't close all those parks by then...
- Chocolate - dark, hot, sweet, and melting at your touch... No need to say "More!!..."
That's it, folks! Have you found what you've been looking for? If you've read all the way till here, probably not... Well, tough luck. At least you have enjoyed the experience!
Sergey Berezin