About Us

Jacob

Howdy! I’m your friendly tech-obsessed writer-slash-editor here at Tech Over Tea.

I hope to share my knowledge, experiences, and ideas for those seeking efficiency and progress. This blog takes a gentle approach to the hard-hitting topics that you won’t read anywhere else.

When I am not fighting fires at work, my hobbies include fiddling with HAM radios, reading business news, and studying languages.

“The longer I live, the harder a time I have taking serious people seriously. You’re on a whirling ball of rock in a universe that’s bigger than a billion you’s can conceive of, fighting forces older than life itself, and you honestly think anything you do matters? Get a sense of scale.”

– Jeffrey “Dirkson” Stewart

Susan Sons

Greetings! I’m the old-school, slightly-cynical hacker-cum-leader in our duo.

I started my career as a software engineer, becoming an architect focusing on critical refactors before moving into information security full time. In parallel, my avocations in emergency management, emergency medicine, and psychology have proven a huge boon for a career in dealing with and preventing disasters in the digital world. Today, I work as an an information security operations lead (sometimes CISO¹, other titles too) and applied researcher in cybersecurity helping multiple R&D-heavy organizations and organizations with life-critical technologies find the level of security they need at the speed they need to operate.

I’ve lived all over the US and eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, with my family. Having grown up on one of the last holdout farms on Chicago’s south side, I’ve got a bit of country and a bit of urban ghetto in my hometown. It’s made me extremely aware of how poorly-thought-out technologies ond excessive centralization have disparate effects on those who’ve already “made it” and those who haven’t. My free time is spent between family, fixing up my 100-year-old farmhouse, fountain pens, martial arts, and working out.

I look forward to sharing my experience and the way I take learned lessons and shape them into something that can be used by others, some mental models which have served me well, and my hope for a world when “IT professional” means someone who is professional rather than someone who slaps together what they googled until it looked good, without regard for what happens down the road. I’m here for everyone trying to raise the bar…no matter where you’re at right now. Goodness knows I’m still learning how to raise mine!

What is permissible is not always honorable.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero