Hello, I'm

Michael Zhang

I like seeing where questions lead.

Sometimes that means building something. Sometimes it means testing an idea with physics, code, or a circuit. And sometimes it means inventing an entire world just to see what happens.

A lot of what I do begins with something small—a tent pole that gets in the way, a question about heat, a game I want to make, or an idea I can't stop thinking about. Somehow, I usually end up following it much farther than I expected.

Michael looking up at a dinosaur skeleton in a museum

Four directions

Different ideas call for different tools.

The things I spend time on can look unrelated. To me, they rarely feel that way.

Life Outdoors

Sometimes I build the answer.

A lot of my interest in making things started outdoors. The more time I spent camping, the more I noticed what could work differently—a pole in the wrong place, nowhere to put something I needed, or a shelter that could be simpler to use.

Sometimes I sketch another way to do it, build something, and take it outside to see if it actually works. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. Then I usually want to know why.

Explore Life Outdoors

Research

Sometimes I try to measure it.

A practical question about staying comfortable inside a lightweight tent led me into heat transfer, material properties, and a Python model.

I like the point where something I notice in the real world becomes a question I can test. Depending on the problem, I might end up using physics, code, a circuit, or some combination of them.

Explore Research

Games

Sometimes I make an idea playable.

A friend showed me Scratch in elementary school. My mother bought me a book, and I started figuring it out on my own—finding websites, trying things, and making small games.

Making a game feels different from solving a programming problem. No one gives me the question. I have to decide what I want to make, invent the rules, and then figure out how to make it work.

Explore Games

Writing

Some questions can't be solved with a model.

That is one reason I keep coming back to science fiction.

A story lets me take a question about freedom, identity, technology, memory, or what makes a life meaningful, build a world around it, and see where it leads.

I don't usually find an answer by the end. Sometimes I just end up with a better question.

Explore Writing

I like questions with answers.

I also like the ones without them.

Some can be built.
Some can be tested.
Some can be coded.
Some need a world of their own.

Outside the assignment

Not everything needs to become a project.

I like being outdoors. I make games because I want to play with an idea. I write stories even when no one is going to read them.

Not everything I enjoy needs a result. Some things are worth doing simply because I want to keep doing them.

I'm still figuring out where all of this will lead.

For now, I want to keep learning how things work, keep making things of my own, and keep finding time for ideas that don't have an obvious use—or an easy answer.