Victor Sverdlin has worked as a Product Manager, Software Developer, and Consultant for nearly 20 years across the tech sector, including software, hardware, game development, robotics, cryptocurrency, and compliance, among others. Refusing to slow down while undergoing cancer treatment, Victor has done the only reasonable thing during a professional hiatus: enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh’s Master of Data Science program, with a focus on AI, setting himself up for a full pivot to data science when all is said and graduated. Provided he remains sane after dealing with his archnemesis: SQL.
package www.about;
If there is one rule of product, of production. It's prepare for the pivot. No plan, no roadmap survives reality. ~ Victor Sverdlin
About Victor Sverdlin
Victor Sverdlin has spent nearly twenty years in tech and most of that time refusing to shut up about it. He founded an IT company at twenty, ran it for seven years, and used it to set foot on every continent, Antarctica and a few no-go nations included. Since then he's consulted on robotics, games, hardware, security, R&D, and anything else that holds still long enough. He's now pivoting to data science with a master's at Pitt, mid-fight with cancer for the second time. As one does.
// class definition (compiles on a good day)
package www.about;
public class You extends Human {
public String role = "Product Manager, Tech Whisperer, Forever DM";
public String[] tools = { "pandas", "notebooks", "the disorganized desk" };
public String getCurrentFocus() {
return "shipping one honest post per week.";
}
}
// now — what I'm doing this month
Currently: doing dastardly productive things in his Master's program; he'll get you, data, and your little analysis too…just follow the linear regression road.
Reading: Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python by John Guttag, Mastering Claude Code and Cowork by Elliot Middleton, and most exciting? Box of Froot Loops.
Learning: How to stop losing to my shadow in shadow boxing. I'm 0–10 so far.
// release history — alpha → beta → launch
// what you'll find here — the public API
Long-form essays, half-finished thoughts, the occasional rant.
Code I keep rewriting and want to stop rewriting.
Excel macros I keep emailing to people and want to stop emailing.
Small in-browser tools — calculators, converters, things I built for myself.
Short fiction. The thing I miss most.
Honest takes on tools and books. Honest means short.
Micro-thoughts. A stack trace, not a stack overflow.
// the disorganized desk — colophon
This site is the desk I never had at any of my jobs. A place to leave half-finished thoughts, code I want to remember, books I keep recommending, and the stories I keep writing in the margins. It is hand-built, end to end. No tracking, no popups, no plugins, no AI-generated filler. If a section looks empty that's because I haven't written it yet — come back next week.