I’m Jonathan.
I spent a decade at Microsoft, wrote a New York Times bestseller, and am named as an inventor on twenty-eight issued U.S. patents. I’m a guy who tried to achieve his way out of anxiety. I did the first and it didn’t fix the second.
I’m also Angela’s husband and a father of three daughters. My six-year-old asked why my face looked scared of breakfast. I had spent thirty-six years making sure nobody could tell.
I’m Fine and a Mess is my first memoir. I wrote it because it helped and I wanted my daughters to have evidence that their father was trying.
I live with Angela and our girls outside Portland, in Washington. I write here about the parts of that life that never made it onto my résumé.
Education and Microsoft
I graduated from DePauw University in 2005, summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. My major was economics, with minors in computer science and philosophy.
At Microsoft, I worked in user-experience design and program management. My patents concern document collaboration, coauthoring, file synchronization, and sharing media. The records are listed below.
Building SANE Solution
While I was at Microsoft, I was also working on the research that became my first books. I’d worked as a personal trainer during college, and questions from that job followed me into my career in software.
After The Calorie Myth became a bestseller, I left Microsoft to build SANE Solution. I’ve led the company as founder and CEO for more than a decade, working with researchers, coaches, developers, and designers. Together, we’ve developed educational programs, coaching, online tools, and wellness products.
Much of I’m Fine and a Mess takes place during these years of running the company and raising our daughters. The investor meetings, business numbers, and worries about making payroll are part of that working life.
Books
My first book, The Smarter Science of Slim, began as a self-published project. The Calorie Myth followed with HarperWave / HarperCollins and became a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. The Setpoint Diet was published by Hachette Books.
I’m Fine and a Mess is my first memoir, about anxiety, marriage, fatherhood, therapy, medication, and the cost of looking fine.
Documentary
I served as executive producer of BETTER and appear in the film. It has won numerous awards and been viewed more than 2 million times across distribution platforms.
BETTER was pivotal in moving my work beyond eating and exercise. In I’m Fine and a Mess, that work becomes the story of my own marriage, fatherhood, and anxiety.
Media and speaking
I’ve appeared on National and International television and radio, written opinion pieces for Newsweek and other national publications, and spoken at TEDx and Microsoft Research.
Watch the appearances and read the articles
U.S. patents
I’m named as an inventor or co-inventor on 28 issued U.S. patents from my work at Microsoft. Each record below includes the title, patent number, and issue date.
View all 28 issued U.S. patents
“Collaborative authoring”
U.S. Patent 11,455,459 · Issued September 27, 2022
“Techniques to share media files”
U.S. Patent 10,733,151 · Issued August 4, 2020
“Collaborative communication in a web application”
U.S. Patent 10,528,653 · Issued January 7, 2020
“Collaborative authoring”
U.S. Patent 10,394,941 · Issued August 27, 2019
“Collaborative authoring modes”
U.S. Patent 10,057,226 · Issued August 21, 2018
“Techniques to manage collaborative documents”
U.S. Patent 9,977,715 · Issued May 22, 2018
“Conflict resolution”
U.S. Patent 9,760,862 · Issued September 12, 2017
“Techniques to determine network storage for sharing media files”
U.S. Patent 9,547,665 · Issued January 17, 2017
“Collaborative authoring”
U.S. Patent 9,547,635 · Issued January 17, 2017
“Collaborative communication in a web application”
U.S. Patent 9,064,237 · Issued June 23, 2015
“Techniques to manage collaborative documents”
U.S. Patent 9,053,079 · Issued June 9, 2015
“Collaborative authoring”
U.S. Patent 8,990,150 · Issued March 24, 2015
“Collaborative authoring modes”
U.S. Patent 8,825,758 · Issued September 2, 2014
“Caching infrastructure”
U.S. Patent 8,825,594 · Issued September 2, 2014
“Preserving user intent in merging ordered objects”
U.S. Patent 8,660,986 · Issued February 25, 2014
“Controlling access to documents using file locks”
U.S. Patent 8,429,753 · Issued April 23, 2013
“Structured coauthoring”
U.S. Patent 8,417,666 · Issued April 9, 2013
“Conflict resolution”
U.S. Patent 8,352,870 · Issued January 8, 2013
“Client side locking”
U.S. Patent 8,352,418 · Issued January 8, 2013
“Fast merge support for legacy documents”
U.S. Patent 8,346,768 · Issued January 1, 2013
“Synchronizing metadata describes user content updates and an indication of user gestures being performed within the document, and across client systems using different communication channels”
U.S. Patent 8,327,278 · Issued December 4, 2012
“Maintaining undo and redo capability across metadata merges”
U.S. Patent 8,209,603 · Issued June 26, 2012
“Automatic file conversion to a target format”
U.S. Patent 8,190,653 · Issued May 29, 2012
“Cross-channel coauthoring consistency”
U.S. Patent 8,161,019 · Issued April 17, 2012
“Document merge”
U.S. Patent 8,028,229 · Issued September 27, 2011
“Collaborative authoring”
U.S. Patent 7,941,399 · Issued May 10, 2011
“File blocking mitigation”
U.S. Patent 7,797,742 · Issued September 14, 2010
“Automatic file conversion to a target format”
U.S. Patent 7,788,290 · Issued August 31, 2010