Engineering taught me that systems are knowable: behaviour has causes, causes can be traced, and "people are complicated" is where the analysis starts, not where it stops. I still believe every word of that. What it got wrong was smaller and much harder to spot. Not that people belong in the model. It's that the people in the model are reading it over your shoulder.

Moving back to Australia at almost 40, married, planning a family, and pivoting into organisational psychology. Part two of designing the life before the move: the Sydney-or-bust decision, the Macquarie Master's pathway, the realistic $120k starting salary, the suburb shortlist for studying and working full-time, and the lifestyle architecture for marriage, children, and loving family across two hemispheres. Less fun to write. Significantly more useful to live by.