About John

My path to programming began in the academic world. Back in 2009, I started out with Matlab, analysing data and publishing scientific papers in the field of atmospheric science. I wasn't coding everyday back then like I do now, but I could already see how impossible my work would have been without it.

Image of a thesis

Technologies have evolved so much since then. I began to take notice of web development during my PhD, and since I had worked with Python so much, I looked into frameworks like Flask and Django to see what the Python Web ecosystem had to offer.

To fill in the blanks of the transition from scientific programming to web development, I enrolled in an intensive 9-week Bootcamp program with Le Wagon. Even though I learned Ruby during this time, and a little PHP shortly after, it wasn't long before I came back to Python, armed with a much deeper knowledge of Javascript and frontend technologies.

By early 2020, having finished my bootcamp and doctoral studies around the same time, I was ready to transition into full-time software engineering. I worked for Propylon, a company creating some cool new technology for the American and Irish legal systems, and later Funnel, who are a huge player in the American real-estate industry with their bespoke housing platform. Over time I began to learn about design patterns and sustainable architecture. After my contract with Funnel, I took another with CarbonSpace, a startup who are creating groundbreaking new tech for monitoring Carbon emission using satellites.

Image of a programmer

Working on scientific projects was awesome, but after my contract with Carbonspace I found myself interested in solving problems holistically, rather than the classic "cog-in-the-machine" plight that developers often face.

Next.js in the React world was starting to gain traction around then, as were Nuxt, Astro and an ever increasing list of new "Jamstack" technologies. I was interested in building websites using this paradigm, so I sought out Ikius, a Jamstack agency in Finland to learn about this emerging trend.

But eventually, I came to realise why Jamstack was struggling to gain traction in the industry. Wordpress was still kicking its ass. As a developer, it took a while to see that perfect codebases and happy customers just aren't the same thing.

So now? I want to find the most elegant solutions in software development. We so often rely on third-party platforms, things like Stripe, Sendgrid, Gemini... and we use open source tools like kubernetes, FastAPI, and Vue.js. I want to find the right balance. For instance, I've been creating native mobile apps recently with a platform called Flutterflow. It's amazing how fast I can spin up a totally custom app. I think creating solutions in this decade isn't going to be all about writing code from scratch. It's going to be about finding the perfect balance of nocode, code, third-party platforms, open-source tools and AI. With the right amount of each, there's nothing that can't be achieved, and I plan to be at the forefront!