About me

I’m Joshua. I live to ponder, and work to travel. I recently kicked off a multi-year sabbatical abroad with my fiancée, Lauren, which was made possible in part through the accumulation of tens of millions of loyalty points and miles. The start of that trip is the inspiration for creating this journal, both to catalog our journey and commentate on the hobby of travel maxing (the term of art I prefer over travel hacking).

Professionally, my day job has included engineering, product design, data consulting, and entrepreneurship. That said, I care less about titles and more about solving problems and creating interesting things towards meaningful ends. Usually with a bit of data and a clever idea or two.

When I’m not working, I’m traveling, and when I’m not traveling I am most often found planning when and how I can change that. In the moments where I’m home, you’ll most often find me preparing a meal, playing poker, or boring Lauren about horology over drinks.

I hope you enjoy your time here. If you have questions or feedback, feel free to reach out.

About Reference Points

Reference Points is a catalog of my thoughts, travels, and photos. In time, I intend for it to become a resource helping like-minded travelers interested in approaches around the hobby of accumulating award points and airline miles for more and better travel. I refer to this as travel maxing.

Day-to-day, you’ll see writings and images from around the world, with some occasional commentary in whatever area I happen to be thinking about that day.

About Smo

As you read my journal, you'll see Smo, or Sock Monkey – Reference Points’ unofficial mascot – from time to time. He’s a frequent companion in my adventures; he is also much more photogenic.