It has been over half a decade since I was paid to code in Perl, having since moved on to Python amongst other languages. I use the past tense because this is all changing once again. Due to circumstances that are almost entirely personal-life related, I find myself moving on from Yorn after the past fifteen months of doing great things with wonderful, intelligent and foward-thinking people.
After months over two months of screenings, phone interviews and an on-site meeting, I have accepted an offer as Production Lead Engineer at Fanatics, LLC at their Conshohocken, PA facility. I'm going from working in a Python/Django environment for the past half decade plus into a more systems/internal middle-tier/core environment based on an old friend, Perl. And despite some of the issues which led to this change, I'm wholeheartedly looking forward to it, and here's why.
As we grown our personal knowledge in a specific discipline, in this case programming languages, our perspectives and approaches mature. When we step away from our comfort zone into some new experience (or language in this case) as I did professional when I moved on to Python as a requirement of Retail Expert Inc, CTO (at the time) Andrew Sernekos, I shifted mentally and learned the way of the Pythonista. As the years progressed it became the 'one true way' of thinking, which was fine given that my language dictates were in-line with my choices and professional tasks. I had put aside my TMTOWTDI (there's more than one way to do it) mantra from my Perl Monger/Perl Monkish days of yore.
Refreshing my skills back into the primary language through which more than half of my professional career was built, Perl, has opened my eyes in a way not previously possible. The memories I had of Perl with its heavily flexible manner/varieties of expression had originally left a negative taste in my mouth but now having disciplined myself cutting through Python, Groovy, Scala and others has proven to expand my view of what Perl truly holds in terms of power. With great power comes great responsibility and now with the modules from CPAN such as Moose and its derivatives (as an example), the future is looking quite fascinating again for me with a language that has been around now for 35 years.
Here's to the joys of the future and best wishes for the incredible team at Yorn as a sail on to my next contractual adventure.
Showing posts with label Yorn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yorn. Show all posts
15 June, 2012
24 March, 2011
New environments (mentally) as it were... (a.k.a. something old, something new)
Since my last update made a little over a month and a half ago, much has changed. I've accepted a position as Lead Software Engineer for Yorn, LLC located in Conshohocken, PA. I haven't abandoned my prior position with the publishing house in NYC, merely time-shifted those hours elsewhere. Taking this new venture (on top of my previous work, plus the other tech-startup of which I'm a co-founder, Ecquire has proven to be a necessity for my sanity.
Working primarily for the past many years as the sole Software Engineer for a half dozen magazines in a Django/Python/Javascript/CSS/HTML/FreeBSD Unix environment whilst also wearing the SysAdmin hat has been... draining. This wasn't due to having nothing to do, this was more to do with having very little room for innovation as the end product wasn't the new SaaS website or Outlook plugin, it was simply repetition with the only real variances being that as dictated by wet-behind the ears designers and graphic artists whose concerns about a given site was more about look than UX. Don't get me wrong, some of the designs have been gorgeous, but not without the pendantic whining common with individuals who only knowing Adobe Photoshop aren't happy when you explain to them that there is a different methodology at work in producing like-layouts im a web framework.
Either way, back on topic. I feel for the first time in quite a while that not only am I solving real problems that pertain to a large scale of individuals and companies (as opposed to readership by fashion and/or tattooing enthusiasts) but I am finally in a position in which I have a cohort in crime, a partner, a colleague. Best of all, he's brilliant. A proper individual for the field, something when I've been trying to find for ages. A PhD in computer science and a quarter century in the field along with all of the traditionally odd hobbies and sense of humour found more commonly in those with very intellectual professions. Even though we've only met face to face on three occasions, we've shared many phone calls and Skype sessions whilst working out our designs and product development and it has simply been a breath of fresh air for me. I have someone off of whom I can bounce complex ideas knowing full well that I'm understood, as well as presenting me the opportunity to expand my own learning horizons.
Excitement stirs ones involvement in a given project and considering that this is what has (and is) happening to me, it is paying off in not only a clearer mind and what I believe are more robust ideas emminating from my thoughts but it has reduced my stress allowing me to be more productive all around whether in the publishing work, my own startup and more importantly in my family life. It all comes back to ensuring that whatever one does, they need to sometimes step of a comfort zone in pursuit of that which provides incentive and drive in ones given interests and/or profession(s). I was too conservative earlier on in my professional career and I believe I would've benefited greatly had I stepped out of my cocoon years earlier rather than (as most introverted engineering types do) not think highly enough of myself to be worth more than an abysmal income and working environments to which I was subjected for over seven years.
Times have changed and the future is looking brighter and brighter. Ecquire & Yorn have paved the way to a better future. I stepped past my initial nervous/worried leanings and jumped into the world of proper tech startups finding that the grass truly has shown to indeed be greener on the other side. Now, onto another exciting and challenging day of practising my craft.
Working primarily for the past many years as the sole Software Engineer for a half dozen magazines in a Django/Python/Javascript/CSS/HTML/FreeBSD Unix environment whilst also wearing the SysAdmin hat has been... draining. This wasn't due to having nothing to do, this was more to do with having very little room for innovation as the end product wasn't the new SaaS website or Outlook plugin, it was simply repetition with the only real variances being that as dictated by wet-behind the ears designers and graphic artists whose concerns about a given site was more about look than UX. Don't get me wrong, some of the designs have been gorgeous, but not without the pendantic whining common with individuals who only knowing Adobe Photoshop aren't happy when you explain to them that there is a different methodology at work in producing like-layouts im a web framework.
Either way, back on topic. I feel for the first time in quite a while that not only am I solving real problems that pertain to a large scale of individuals and companies (as opposed to readership by fashion and/or tattooing enthusiasts) but I am finally in a position in which I have a cohort in crime, a partner, a colleague. Best of all, he's brilliant. A proper individual for the field, something when I've been trying to find for ages. A PhD in computer science and a quarter century in the field along with all of the traditionally odd hobbies and sense of humour found more commonly in those with very intellectual professions. Even though we've only met face to face on three occasions, we've shared many phone calls and Skype sessions whilst working out our designs and product development and it has simply been a breath of fresh air for me. I have someone off of whom I can bounce complex ideas knowing full well that I'm understood, as well as presenting me the opportunity to expand my own learning horizons.
Excitement stirs ones involvement in a given project and considering that this is what has (and is) happening to me, it is paying off in not only a clearer mind and what I believe are more robust ideas emminating from my thoughts but it has reduced my stress allowing me to be more productive all around whether in the publishing work, my own startup and more importantly in my family life. It all comes back to ensuring that whatever one does, they need to sometimes step of a comfort zone in pursuit of that which provides incentive and drive in ones given interests and/or profession(s). I was too conservative earlier on in my professional career and I believe I would've benefited greatly had I stepped out of my cocoon years earlier rather than (as most introverted engineering types do) not think highly enough of myself to be worth more than an abysmal income and working environments to which I was subjected for over seven years.
Times have changed and the future is looking brighter and brighter. Ecquire & Yorn have paved the way to a better future. I stepped past my initial nervous/worried leanings and jumped into the world of proper tech startups finding that the grass truly has shown to indeed be greener on the other side. Now, onto another exciting and challenging day of practising my craft.
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