A Tribute to My Sister Sandy Hirsh on Her 60th Birthday (Part 2 of 2)

[In conjunction with my sister Sandy Hirsh’s 60th birthday, I recently shared the toast I delivered at her birthday party. If you didn’t already do so, read that first. I had more to say in conjunction with her milestone birthday, and I’m sharing the supplement now.]

* * *

Although we were three years apart, I “skipped” a grade so that I was only two years behind her academically. I spent much of my K-12 education trying to close that two year gap and catch up to Sandy.

It’s well-known that younger siblings benefit from their older siblings. As one study summarized, “First-born siblings engage in leadership, teaching, caregiving, and helping roles, whereas second-born siblings are more likely to imitate, follow, take on the role of learner, and elicit care and help.”

One analogy is to drafting in biking. Sandy was out in front, setting the pace. I was drafting in her slipstream, able to move forward faster and with less effort because she was doing the extra work. Or a hiking analogy: if you are climbing a hill covered in snow or up a sand dune, the easiest path is to walk in someone else’ footprints.

That’s pretty much what I did. Sandy blazed the trail, and I followed. I took the same courses she took, from the same teachers. I got involved in the same student groups she was involved in. In high school, we did Junior Statesmen together, and I got into student government because she did. She worked a summer at McDonalds (and was employee-of-the-month); they hired her little brother because they loved her, but I was never employee-of-the-month. I initially got so much goodwill from teachers and other adults because everyone loved Sandy Sunshine. They got quite a surprise when a moody introvert showed up instead.

* * *

Even though we are different personalities, in many other respects we’re essentially twins (not that you could tell from the photo below). In particular, since I graduated high school, we’ve pursued different professional paths but keep ending up in the same place.

Our first convergence was in college. Sandy started at UC Davis and spent a year abroad in Israel. During that time, I graduated high school and enrolled at UCLA to study economics. Coming back from her year abroad, Sandy decided to transfer to UCLA to be closer to our mom and grandma (and me). I was on a three year schedule and she was on a five year schedule, and that’s how we both graduated at the same time from the same university.

We even held a joint college graduation party.

Sandy went to Michigan for her masters in library and information science, while I worked two years in LA in commercial real estate. Sandy decided to continue towards her PhD, which led her back to UCLA. I decided to pursue a JD/MBA and that led me back to UCLA as well. So once again we were at the same institution at the same time. During this time, we ended up living just a few miles from each other on the west side of LA. This time, I graduated before Sandy.

After graduation, I decided to pursue Internet Law, which led me to the Silicon Valley. I worked at a law firm in Palo Alto, then as General Counsel of an Internet company on the Peninsula. Sandy got her PhD and a teaching job in Arizona. But after a few years, she and Jay decided to leave academia and get industry jobs, which led both of them to HP. They moved to Palo Alto in 1998, and we were in the same community again.

Another amazing convergence took place in 2001, when we were on a panel together at Comdex in Las Vegas regarding privacy. By that point, I was a Goldman and Sandy was a Hirsh, so the organizers had no reason to know of our sibling relationship—though it became pretty apparent when we stood side-by-side.

In 2002, I decided to pursue an academic career, which took me and my family to Milwaukee. Four years later, I got a full-time position at Santa Clara University, which brought me and my family back to the Bay Area. We bought a house in Mountain View, just 7 miles from the Hirsh’s Palo Alto residence. At SCU, I held a dual appointment as an professor and as an administrator directing the law school’s High Tech Law Institute.

In 2010, Sandy got the opportunity to direct the School of Information at San Jose State, where she was also appointed to the faculty. At that point, we were both professors and academic administrators. News about the Schlachter “twins” took over the SJSU Information School home page.

In 2020, Sandy got “promoted” into the role of Associate Dean of the College of Information, Data & Society at San Jose State. A year later, I got “promoted” to Associate Dean for Research at Santa Clara Law.

And so that takes us to 2024, when Sandy and I both held Associate Dean titles at universities located 4 miles from each other, residing in houses 7 miles apart. We went our separate ways when Sandy graduated high school in Santa Barbara, only to find ourselves 40+ years later back together again, with the virtually the same job titles and in each other’s backyards.

[Reminder: in conjunction with Sandy’s birthday, I made a Spotify playlist and my daughter made a painting.]