Jamel Cato Up Close: 20 Personal Questions

[Interviewer] – Are you comfortable? Would you like some water?

[Jamel] – I’m fine. Let’s get started.

1. Where are you from?

Philadelphia. Where you’re from is an important part of who you are because it provides your original worldview.

2. Where do you live now?

In a leafy suburb of Philadelphia.

3. Are you married?

Yes.

4. Do you have children?

Yes, I have beautiful children. People who know me can see pics of them on Facebook.

5. What do you do for a living?

I develop and maintain special data systems for hospitals.

6. Where did you go to school?

You mean college? I have degrees from Saint Joseph’s University and Georgia Tech.

7. What are your hobbies?

Reading, learning technical things, spending all day washing my car.

8. What’s your true calling?

[Thinks for a while…] There’s a famous painting by Lee Smith called Boy with Tire. It depicts a little boy holding a tire against the backdrop of a dilapidated neighborhood. The boy has this penetrating, haunting stare. To me that little boy is a metaphor for all poor kids in Philly. I had expected to do something with my life to make the dilapidation in the neighborhood go away – to change the background scenery of their lives. Maybe one day I'll sell a company to Google and have the chance to do something like that.

9. What’s your favorite movie?

Where do I start? Love Jones. The Usual Suspects. The Sixth Sense.

10. What’s your favorite TV show?

Other than Eagles games, I'm rarely in front of a TV. Newton Minow had it right about TV.

11. What’s your favorite book?

Where do I start? I read a lot. Anything by Ted Chiang. Anything by Walter Mosley.

12. What’s your biggest regret?

Ask me again when I'm old.

13. What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?

Everything is better when you're well rested.

14. What magazines do you subscribe to?

The Atlantic is the only paper magazine I still subscribe to, but there are a half-dozen blogs I read nearly every day.

15. What kind of phone do you have?

iPhone 4S. [Laughs, then says] That's a telling question in today's world.

16. Name an item on your bucket list.

Visiting every continent.

17. What’s your favorite quote?

“Good writing inspires you to write. Bad writing provokes you to write.”

18. Twitter or Facebook?

Is this the new Coke or Pepsi? I'm on both, but in general I'm very private.

19. What’s your favorite dish?

The person who first thought of dipping pretzels in chocolate was a genius.

20. What else would you like the public to know about you?

I'm very happy with my life.