Thomas Kearns' journey in software development and architecture. It starts with his early interest in combining architecture and technology during his college days in the 1990s.After graduating, Thomas worked at digital design studio in New York where he explored concepts like web urbanism. He later moved to Chicago and co-founded Sandbox, working on forward-thinking architectural projects. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, Thomas went back to school to get a masters, considering leaving architecture. However, he ended up staying in academia, teaching at IIT and exploring urban informatics projects involving big data and generative design. Around 2012, Thomas co-founded the ed-tech startup Bit Space which brought architectural computational ideas like parametric modeling to K-12 schools. After several years of running Bit Space, Thomas joined Perkins&Will as the Director of Design Computation. The interview covers Thomas' self-taught journey in constantly exploring new technologies like VR and AI, his approach to finding flow states in work, and reflections on work-life balance and employee motivations. He shares thoughts on architecture's legacy of overwork and his own evolution in setting boundaries while retaining passion.Thomas offers advice to emerging architects - focus on integratively applying computation in buildings rather than siloed technical roles. He sees major impending changes as AI automates architectural production and hopes the profession responds with more humanistic priorities. He shares wisdom on focusing ideas, working across disciplines, navigating hype cycles, and believing in the longevity of a vision.