Chapter 1: Alice in wonderland
I remember that night like it was yesterday. I came back from a long trip in India, 23 years old, bored and confused, thinking what for heaven’s sake am I going to do with the rest of my life? I was wandering in my parents’ apartment, 9 PM, looking for some entertainment. Suddenly I noticed a book on my young brother’s bookshelf – its name was “Build web sites with HTML 4.0”. Let’s give it a try, I thought to myself, as I sat near my computer starting to read. Suddenly, real quick, it became 6 AM, sun rays came through the window, on my computer screen there were fresh home-made web pages and I felt like Alice in wonderland. In the following months I haven’t slept much at night, I bought many books, and I knew for sure that I’m in the right place.
” Oh, you’re sure to do that, said the Cat, if you only walk long enough.”
Chapter 2: The mud pie
So I hit the road with my new profession and worked for an Hi-Tech company as a developer. After 2 years of learning great stuff, I quit to become an independent developer: 12 hours every day, only me and my dog sitting nearby, background music and challenging code. That was delightful. Frederick Brooks, a famous software novelist, wrote in his book (The Mythical Man Month): “Why is programming fun? …First is the sheer joy of making things. As the child delights in his mud pie, so the adult enjoys building things, especially things of his own design.”. That’s was it.
I strive to master the art of crafting great enterprise (organizational) software. In my basket of technologies are sharp software design skills, Microsoft.NET, front end development with JavaScript and SharePoint. I stumbled on opportunities to consult and develop for the largest enterprises and prominent startup in my country of resident, spoke in the largest conferences and worked closely with Microsoft on building the local community of developers.
“As the child delights in his mud pie”
Chapter 3: Jerry Maguire
After years of focusing on bits and bytes, an inner voice told me that great software is not only about technology. It was 2012 and a ‘hurricane’ hit the world of software applications, information overloading was on its rise, I was keen to suggest a better information management solution for organizations. I founded a start-up company that aimed to effortlessly improve team’s work. Though remarkable success over startup competitions and few enterprise sales – it eventually didn’t break through. After 2 years, we had to sadly shut down. When I look back I realize how this failure was a gift – many new lessons learned, for the first time I spend hours with the end users. How can I ever feel like a software professional without understanding the people who use it? Like Jerry Maguire, I went through a long soul-searching process to become a better professional.
As I look forward to exciting software adventures, I carry two genuine qualitative (1) Understanding the whole – tech, business and the user who shall bury or praise ours creation (2) Combining rigor and strive for excellence – every engagement, every slide, every line of code are done with great passion and care.
p.s. I’m 38 years old, live in Haifa, Israel, enjoy playing Tennis or my guitar, cooking Asian food, watching movies and having great time with my wife and lovely daughter.
” I was my father’s son again. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job”