We recently obtained approval to use AWS Lex to build a virtual assistant for one of our larger clients.
Most challenges and problems on technology projects are not technology-related-they’re people or process challenges. What’s a project challenge you’ve overcome in the past year? After thousands of commits, from hundreds of contributors, the same core designs/patterns we laid down in six weeks are still readily apparent today. I am particularly proud of the flexible architecture and patterns our team built in that first MVP, which has allowed the project to expand in scope as an open-source project. I remember it being a mad dash project-about 6 weeks-to take the initial concept and turn it into working software. Kevin Tuskey and I share the same favorite project: the DevOps dashboard we built for a Fortune 100 financial services company. I can already hear him saying “I told you, dude!” What SingleStone project has been the most memorable? He has been nudging me in that direction for a while now and I have been resistant to add something else to my learning plate. I am also tinkering with Go and starting to see the appeal, but don’t tell Don Mills.
My new crush is Kotlin which I think could replace Java as the de-facto JVM language.
And what hot, new coding language are you into right now? I still write a lot of Javascript (in the browser and the server) and I like its flexibility and lack of ceremony for smaller projects. That said, I’ve used quite a few languages over the years, some I have enjoyed and others I’d as soon avoid. If you made me choose a favorite, over my entire career, I would choose Java for its stability, fantastic ecosystem of quality open source libraries and battle-hardened set of established patterns. What’s your all-time favorite coding language? I’ve made so many mistakes over the years and seen the mistakes others have made, that I can steer (or nudge) our clients and projects around the quicksand and quagmires. I would say my superpower these days is the combination of my work ethic, my insatiable appetite for learning about technology, and my experience. Would you say your passion for learning is what sets you apart? Now, I know that in the technology field you must always be learning or risk irrelevance.
I always had a pet project (or 2 or 3) that captured my curiosity. I always felt I was behind my peers and that drove me to learn and tinker during off-hours. Yes, a bit of imposter syndrome was prevalent earlier in my career. My wife and I joke that I owe all of my success to “a 1200-page Java book.” Does your background have any effect on your approach to work? But my career really took off when I decided to teach myself Java. I did this for a few years, learning what I needed as I needed it, and eventually transitioned into a role in the IT group.
MVP QUICKSAND VISUALS MANUAL
The company had so many manual processes that were labor-intensive, so I started creating small data management and office automation apps using MS Access and Visual Basic (I was shadow IT). I didn’t have the easiest time finding a job when I graduated and ended up working in customer service answering phones for a lock manufacturing company. I have a degree in psychology and eventually went back to get a master’s in computer information systems.