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The book The Pragmatic Programmer was an introduction to life as a programmer. As I’ve gone through my career, there are still lessons in this book that go back to. Specifically, the section on Power Editing (Chapter 3, item 16) says: We’ve talked before about tools being an extension of your hand. Well, this applies to editors more than any other software tool. You need to be able to manipulate text as effortlessly as possible, because text is the basic raw material of programming. ...

Diagnosed with a reading and writing disability, I was late to start reading chapter books. That didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in stories. I’ve been a reader throughout my life. Of the kids in my family, I always had a book around. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to accept my reading limitation and find ways around it. Audiobooks have been a lifesaver. I voraciously consume audiobooks. I’m unsure how many years I’ve had an audible account, but I have over 300 titles in my library. I’ve listened to many of the titles more than once. ...

I only started to drink coffee around 28 years old. This is a late start to the coffee game. My father doesn’t drink it, so that may be why I got the late start. My path through coffee started with Peet’s Iced Mochas. I would get one most afternoons and became slowly addicted. Over time, I began to appreciate the taste of coffee better. At the time, I was in California, surrounded by some serious coffee roasters and shops. ...

My first dive into understanding computers began in 7th grade. I was on a Mac when I first started to learn to program. It wasn’t too long before I connected to the Internet and began to learn about Unix and Linux systems. I remember writing my first CGI script in C on a Solaris box. One of the reasons I was such a computer person was a learning disability I had been diagnosed with. I was a slow writer. I wrote about 30 words a minute by hand. Compare that to the 70 words or so I can type per minute, and you have a compelling reason for me to invest in working on a keyboard instead of using a pen. ...

Throughout the history of computer technology, there have been several common themes. Sharing knowledge and information is central, and the method of distribution is text in one form or another. Public discourse has also been a common theme. The first version of the Internet was set up between institutions (military or education) to share information quickly. As time went on, the number of connected computers grew, and the number of people sharing information grew. It is now where almost anyone can share discourse, even if just a tweet from a cell phone. ...