This post has very little to do with programming. This post is the first of few, or maybe many - I do not know yet. But if I am going to blog at all, I think it is important that we start with the basics: who I am and why I am here.
The Parameters
Christian - my faith matters because it does influence every aspect of my life
Husband - happily married to someone I do not deserve
Father - of five boys (all currently teenagers)
Developer - love to code
Those are the only parameters that matter to me. Remove any of them and my program fails to run.
Commit History
I have been "programming" since 2001 if that is what you would call what I was doing at 17. My first professional job as a programmer was in 2006. It is difficult to admit that I have been working on some form of coding for over 20 years, but time only moves forward - and fast.
While it was always my dream to find a professional job, work there my entire career, and then retire, that is not what my commit history shows. I have written code for five companies since graduating college. Survived one buyout and changed employers twice just prior to previous employers losing their contracts. Currently working in a very stable position that I should be able to retire from.
The Features
I once looked at someone's resume and wondered how they were able to amass such a large wealth of experience. It is no longer a question. In the 20-ish years of development that I have been in, I have worked on C++, C#, VB.Net, ASP.Net, SQL, .NET Framework, .NET (Standard/Core), React, Javascript, HTML, CSS, PHP, Regex, and more. No, that is not as large of a list as some others. But when I got into this industry, I naively hoped that I would pick something and stick with it. That is not how the tech industry works (most of the time).
I have worked for companies that installed and tested software at customer facilities, worked on military bases and other governmental offices, in telephony systems, and others. I have worked on desktop applications, websites, Windows services, APIs, and learning the Cloud now.
My view on my profession changed after reading Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin. I went from thinking "hey, cool, I am a programmer" to "oh, crap, I am a programmer." I went from thinking that it was cool that I could make the computer do things to understanding the responsibility I had as a person who could make the computer do things. Since that time, I have tried to be very intentional with every line of code I have written.
The Function
I am not an expert - at anything. While I have done full-stack development, I am not a full-stack developer (this may be a post later). I learn what I need to learn when I need to learn it. I learn to love what I do even if I did not love it at first. Admitting that I was or am wrong is not a problem for me - I learn from my mistakes.
My biggest flaw is that I want to know everything and how to fix it or make it better, even if it is not broken. Immediately after that is my inability to make and stick with a decision - I will ask 50 questions before making a single decision. The name of this blog is return name.Contains("dev"); because I often refer to myself as a "Developer In Name Only" - I often suffer from Imposter Syndrome when I look at the tech landscape.
I am not very well connected to the technical community nor am I up on the latest technologies and trends. I have attended a few conferences for work purposes only, but never spoke at one (and have zero aspirations to do so). I have no intentions of developing some new and unique software with the intention of hundreds, thousands, or millions of people using it. I just love to write code for my professional job and limit my focus to what they use and need.
Why Write a Blog
Stepping out of my comfort zone in the hopes of helping someone. I am not sure I have much to offer the more experienced developers other than offering something to read and possibly communicate with, but my hope is to reach younger and aspiring developers. I believe that it is important that newer developers realize that while this is a cool career, it is also an extremely important career and deserves our full effort.
While listening to a recent podcast episode, and after reading a few online articles, it was suggested that developers should write blogs for a number of reasons. Some do it for career building, some do it for connection with the community, some do it out of arrogance (their words, not mine), and others do it for various reasons. I had never considered writing a blog for development reasons or others, and maybe I should have.
The Truth
This blog may end up being short lived or rarely contributed to. Between work, family, church, rest, and the like, finding the time to write blog posts is going to be difficult. Let alone considering a topic to post about and how to do so.
I wrote this post as both a test for me and as a "dependency injected" introduction for future posts. If I continue writing blog posts, it is entirely possible that some readers may not have gotten to know the basics of who I am. Hopefully a link to this post at the beginning of every post will gently nudge them to get to know me and understand where each of my posts are coming from.
I know that I am long-winded, and more and more people prefer things short and sweet. So, if you have read this far, thank you. I hope you will be back for future posts.