Hello there! My name is Daniel Valvo and I'm a mathematician, teacher/researcher/content creator that has spent way too long on this website. Welcome! Please click around to learn more about me and what drives me to keep pushing, adapting, and building every day.
The phenomenon known as Daniel Valvo first began in the summer of 1996 in Richmond, VA. I was born to an incredibly loving family and grew up engrossed in a multitude of hobbies. From baseball to soccer to basketball to Legos and more, I always had something to do to expand my mind.
As I grew older, I went to the specialty Math & Science High School at Clover Hill where I made life long friends and found a love of mathematics, writing, and acting.
After high school I enrolled at Virginia Tech for mechanical engineering, but eventually set my sites on computer science and then the foundation of it all: mathematics. I continued with my education at Virginia Tech, receiving a Master's of Science in mathematics in 2020, and staying on for my PhD to be completed in the Spring of 2023.
There are too many to name here, but I'll try! In general, I love living a multifaceted life which spans many different areas, but the main passions of my life can be broken into 3 areas: sports, creativity, and making.
I love almost all sports that give me an excuse to run around with friends and work as a team. I've been involved with almost every intramural under the sun, but the main sport I love is not an intramural at all. In fact, I would hardly consider it a sport, but I have to include it on this list because I just LOVE surfing! I discovered surfing in 2014 and immediately fell in love with almost every aspect of it, from literally being waist deep in nature, to the surfing culture, to the stoke of putting just the littlest effort into a wave at just the right time to have it shoot you 50 yards down the beach. On the exact opposite spectrum, I also love rock climbing, both training in the gym and going outdoors. Rather than being about putting in the least effort and having fun, climbing is about putting in your maximum effort, but still have fun doing real life Spiderman stuff up a wall.
BigWaveSurfingBrah.wmvBeyond sports, I also love being creative. From writing sketch comedy shows in high school, to creating math education videos now, I just feel so fulfilled when writing something I think I would enjoy watching and acting it into fruition. I also enjoy coming up with new events and games, from a Hell's Kitchen inspired cooking competition with friends (going on it's 5th annual event now), to new and improved versions of Twister and Taboo.
Going along with creativity and problem solving, I absolutely love making things which make my life easier and sillier. Often the things I make meet somewhere at the intersection of art and function and it fires my brain on all cylinders. The two projects I have completed most recently are the Command Center and the Litter Box Box, both pictured here.
The command center is the nick name for the blast resistant desk of 2x4's I built during covid. I built this to be my ideal dream desk, and it is complete with two book cases/knick knack displays, 100% acrylic desktops to act as whiteboards, an extendable webcam that pops out with 3 degrees of freedom, industrial lighting, and plenty of shelving for my office supplies.
The Litter Box Box on the other hand is a more subtle design. While the Command Center was built to stand out, the Litter Box Box was made to blend in. It is a beautiful wooden box built to look like a nice piece of furniture, which secretly is a bathroom for my cat. It is complete with a privacy curtain and a top which opens two ways. If you open it towards you it provides access a compartment for storing supplies related to the box and if you open it away from you it reveals the litter box itself for cleaning purposes.
Throughout my life, when making difficult decisions I have often been told to make a pros and cons list. I always hated this. Mainly because often the problem with making difficult decisions is not knowing the pros and cons, but weighting the pros and cons. Which is way harder! However, I believe creating an explicit list of core values can help. Having an ordered list of priorities which is not merely aesthetic, but a practical guide for how to distribute your time I believe is an invaluable compass for an intentional individual. It ensures in the difficult moments you decide to be the person you want to be, rather than the person it is convenient to be.
I have become convinced over the years, that the most truly enriching aspect of my life is community. This starts with my family but expands radially outward to include friends, acquaintances, colleagues, that one guy you say hi to at the coffee shop, and beyond. All of these people have a role to play in my life and my life would be meaningless without them. Maintaining these relationships is the most important thing to me.
I believe that the wisdom of almost every culture ever supports that a life lived for oneself will not make one happy. In an ironic twist, my selfish desire to be happy has lead me to believe that other people are at least as important as myself and should be treated as such. If ever given the choice between helping myself and someone else, I hope to be the person that chooses the latter. Beyond being nice, I want to be kind to everyone I encounter, including myself.
In the movie Tin Cup Kevin Costner's character is one stroke away from winning the U.S open, but blows it by repeatedly attempting an impossible shot (which he eventually makes) rather than playing it safe. While winning would have meant money and a shiny trophy, making the impossible possible made everyone's life worth living that day. It's different for everybody, but I strive to be very cognizant of what things enrich my life and what things will just be sold on Storage Wars after I'm gone.
Almost everything in life is harder than you think it will be, BUT there is a huge difference between hard and impossible. I want to be the person with the discipline and the drive to put in the work to make the impossible possible. I want to build things that should exist in this world, but currently don't and that requires pushing through every critique/obstacle/bug/frustration known to man. However, I fundamentally believe that we are all capable of so much more than we think we are if we truly dedicate ourselves to something, and I want to be a person that goes the distance.