New Journey, New Blog, and a Short 10-Year Recap
Here we are, once more with a new blog. It's been a while since I last wrote something, and there are a few reasons why, so let's try to recap what I've been up to for the past few years.
The Short Version
I'm alive and well! It's been a long journey since first began learning web development about 10 years ago (Mandatory shout-out to Quincy at freeCodeCamp). I've been mostly focused on the .NET space and everything JavaScript, but I have even done some Java, PHP, and even ColdFusion!, though I don't list them on my resume.
I had great luck finding an awesome company to join in the USA back in 2015, and have participated in a dozen or more projects since then: small assessments, multi-year engagements, and everything in between.
From small prototypes to mission-critical distributed systems, I've worked across a variety of industries including education, healthcare, and insurance. It's been an exhilarating journey, and I feel like I've only just begun my adventure in the tech industry.
Learning and Sharing
While everyone loves seeing those green dots on their Github timelines, my work as a consultant has primarily been on closed-source projects. This means giving back to the community is not something I do by default in my day-to-day activities.
Many tech professionals manage to contribute to open-source projects in their spare time, but I often choose to prioritize work-life balance, spending time with my family, or engaging in other hobbies. A wise man once said our workplace was not Work Hard, Play Hard but rather Work Hard, Go Home.
This doesn't mean I haven't been learning or sharing. As a consultant, I've had to constantly adapt to new tech stacks and architectural patterns, and develop soft skills as I've taken on more responsibilities and interacted with more people.
Over the past decade, I've consumed countless blog posts, books, courses, and YouTube tutorials, almost always in my own time. I've also had the opportunity to present to my peers on many occasions, sharing my learnings and hobbies with small audiences and interest groups. Topics have ranged from Angular and woodworking to RPGs and self-learning.
Mentoring those early in their careers has also been a rewarding experience, and I wish I could do more of it. Preparing workshops or documentation for my team, or explaining patterns and features of technologies I love, have been some of the best learning opportunities.
But what about blogging?
Failed Blogs and the Reason for a New One
My previous blog, which you can still find here, didn't host a single post. I made it as a proof-of-concept at a time when I was exploring Gatsby and applying the principles from Every Layout to build my own CSS utility classes.
It did succeed though at helping me understand the involved technologies. The same thing happened with the previous one which used Wintersmith (the last version was published in 2014). It was primarily an exercise on publishing static sites, even though I did publish a few posts on that first iteration. I may even bring back some content back.
These experiences, though seemingly unsuccessful in the traditional sense of blogging, were instrumental in my learning process. They served a singular, yet significant purpose: to learn the technologies involved. Now, with this new blog, I aim to shift my focus from the technical aspects (of creating a blog) to creating and sharing meaningful content.
What About the Content?
As a seasoned developer, I've had the privilege of experiencing a wide range of projects, codebases, and problem-solving challenges. From mundane tasks like centering a <div> to complex challenges such as solving concurrency patterns on a distributed monolith. I've learned valuable lessons that I'm eager to share with the developer community.
The importance of knowledge sharing in software development cannot be overstated. We've all benefited from others' solutions, whether through online forums, conferences, or courses. Now, I'm excited to pay it forward and share my own experiences, to help others avoid similar pitfalls and save time.
It's also a critical time for software engineers with the emergence of generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), I believe embracing these technologies will be crucial to our productivity and relevance as developers. Time will tell, but I've been having a great time integrating them into my workflow, and believe it's a game-changer in improving our daily lives as techies.
Summary
I'm going strong in my software engineering career. I've been in the industry for over 10 years already, primarily working with .NET and JavaScript, and I've had the privilege of being part of various projects, from small prototypes to large-scale distributed systems, across different industries.
Although I haven't been very active in open-source projects, I've been learning and sharing knowledge through other means, such as:
- Reading countless articles and books, and completing many courses
- Presenting to peers on various technical and non-technical topics
- Mentoring junior developers
- Creating workshops and documentation for my team
- Working on multiple pet projects
I've attempted blogging in the past, but my previous blogs were more focused on learning the technical aspects of building a blog rather than creating content.
With this new blog, I aim to shift my focus to sharing meaningful content, including lessons learned from my experiences, and exploring the impact of emerging technologies like generative AI and Large Language Models on the software development industry.