David lives a double life as writer and academic. Originally from Melbourne, he moved to Perth with his family at age three. He began writing about intelligent robots in secret in August 2001, at age nineteen. This endeavour became a discovery of writing style and technique, and at one point required abandoning a sixty-thousand-word practice effort. The publication of "Nova Sapiens: The Believers" occurred nineteen years later. Print, e-book and audiobook versions are now available. At the same time, David completed a BEng (in software engineering) in 2004, and then a PhD in 2011, both at Curtin University. He began teaching classes as a sessional academic in 2008, to earn a living. In 2014 he acquired a full-time Lecturer position, and now coordinates units, creates course material, and is generally part of the team behind Curtin's Bachelor of Computing and related degrees.