About Michael Woudenberg:
Michael Woudenberg is an aspiring Polymath from Tucson Arizona with a background in advanced technologies such as autonomy, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cyber, aerospace, national security, and weapon systems across a variety of companies from tech startups to Fortune 150 companies.
He is an award winning author in non-fiction and has been published in magazines and peer-reviewed journals. He is also the author of Polymathic Being, a substack exploring counterintuitive insights across different domains and disciplines at www.polymathicbeing.com.
One of his side passions is psychology and sociology, specifically around how the human brain works individually and within cultures and civilizations. He strives to tie together diverse concepts to enable human flourishing to both understand and address the technological complexity we face today.
Michael holds an M.S. in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in Information Systems from Michigan Technological University. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army, where he served as an Airborne and Ranger qualified Field Artillery officer.
He has a broad series of hobbies including photography, mountain biking, brewing beer, camping, hiking, rock climbing, and basically most things outdoors. His family is along for all these adventures which make them so much more fun.
What inspires you to write?
Writing is a powerful way to apply the mantra, Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn. It's a way to take ideas and play with them, structure them, and challenge them.
I write non-fiction at www.polymathicbeing.com exploring counterintuitive insights across technology, psychology, sociology, and more. In fact, the initial exploration of these topics helped flesh out the Science Fact in my debut novel.
That novel, Paradox, was written to help people understand AI and what it means to be human in a fun, engaging, and accessible way. It's a Sci-Fi adventure with the tagline: "In the battle over Advanced AI, will we lose our humanity or learn what truly makes us human?"
Helping people navigate the current environment about AI and Humanity inspires both my fiction and non-fiction writing.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
I have an affinity for Orson Scott Card, Robert Heinlen, Tolkien and, if you thought I was I was only about the classics, Pirateaba who writes the web-serial The Wandering Inn.
Tell us about your writing process.
I'm a binge writer so I don't have a structured XYZ process or set-asides. What I do is capture ideas, write them down quickly, and then muse over the concepts in my head. Sometimes I'll sit down and write 3 chapters, other times I'll go a week without writing.
One thing I do is follow the axiom "Good writing should surprise the author" which allows me to spend less time trying to make an idea perfect and more time writing and refining.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I like to put myself in the shoes of my characters. In some ways, they become simulacra of myself. In other ways I make them do the opposite of what I'd do because I need something not-me in that situation.
What advice would you give other writers?
As mentioned earlier, something I found valuable was "Good writing should surprise the author." It gave me the permission to not have a perfect outcome in my head and the ability to explore where that could go.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I had two major publishers interested in my book but they had a backlog till 2025. At that point, I decided to get the book out sooner by publishing through my own LLC and I'm glad I did because I've learned a ton about the entire system by doing that!
The key thing to focus on here is that you'll want to get a very good editor as that will make or break a self-published author.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think traditional publishing is prime for a revolution. Self-publishing is a wonderful democratization of writing but there is something to be said about the credibility of an organization giving you a boost.
This will become even more important with the growth of AI-enabled writing when people think they can compete with the push of a button and marginal content pours into the market.
What genres do you write?: Sci-Fi and Fantasy
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Michael Woudenberg Home Page Link
Link To Michael Woudenberg Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
