Zachary Pomerantz is Software Engineer at Google. I need to know how and why things work, and then I like to improve on them. I studied physics because it aspires to succinctly, elegantly describe the world around us, and I bring the same philosophy to my own work. I like to know how code works before I try to expand it; I enjoy building on complex code in simple ways, and try to improve it simply and effectively. I've worked in graphics, audio, and web - GLSL, C++, and Rails - and I try to bring the same philosophy: to understand what exists (and why it works) before I try to build on it. After that, I try to build in stages, and make sure that I understand not only what is there, but what I am adding, so that I can improve the product without increasing its complexity and making maintenance a nightmare. I take joy out of learning why it works, and being able to harness that knowledge to improve it, whether that means fixing a bug, or profiling a large stack to find a bottleneck and redesign it. My past few jobs have all followed a similar pattern. Since graduating college, I've sought jobs where I can continue to learn, and have been forced into understanding new technologies. Especially starting with Hack Reactor, a JavaScript immersive, I focused on quickly getting to a point in new technologies where I could understand and build on them. In college I learned C++ on-the-job for research; for Hack Reactor I learned Node.js to make internal tooling; for Terminal.com I learned libnetfilter_queue and kernel programming to customize the cloud networking stack; for High Fidelity I learned GLSL to add shadow mapping, Rails to create group features, and threading structures to scale audio. In all of my jobs, I've worked closely with my coworkers, and enjoyed being in an inquisitive environment, where questions were asked both ways. I am excited to keep learning and find new ways that software can work, and ways to improve it.