Tom Dunce

As a kid, he liked taking things apart, building things, fixing things, and figuring out why something worked—or why it didn't. Eventually, he started doing the same thing with people.

Why do we keep doing the same things? Why do completely different people fall into similar patterns? Why do we accept certain behaviors as normal when, if you stop and think about them, they're actually pretty strange?

With a background spanning psychology and healthcare, Tom spent years working around people, systems, processes, and the considerable difference between how things are supposed to work and how they actually work.

He also kept noticing things.

Eventually, he started writing the questions down.

The list got longer.

Some questions had straightforward answers. Some sounded stupid but weren't. Some probably were stupid. And some crossed into psychology, science, probability, human behavior, design, and other subjects where noticing something wasn't the same as understanding it.

That became a problem.

So Tom founded Dunce Dynamics.

Not because he had all the answers.

Because he had too many questions.

Today, as CEO & Pioneer, Tom helps set the Institute's direction, turns everyday observations into questions, and works with the Institute to figure out which ones actually hold up. He also occasionally asks the Lead Scientist a question that takes much longer to answer than either of them expected.

Outside the Institute, Tom spends time with family, exercises, listens to live music, and has a longstanding habit of trying to fix things himself before admitting he may need instructions.

He remains suspicious of explanations that require fifteen minutes after the point has already been made.

I notice things.