His piece about boredom, “The Quiet Alarm” appeared in Aeon in July 2015, and sparked worldwide attention. He has been featured in Nature, Fast Company, Business Insider, Psychology Today, and more. He holds a BS in physics from the University of Virginia, and a PhD in philosophy from Boston University. He was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship (2002-6), a Leventis Foundation scholarship (2009-11), and an Earhart Foundation fellowship (2012-13). He was a visiting scholar in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and a junior visiting fellow at Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Austria.