Hello, world!

Intro

Hello there! Welcome to the very first post of my blog. My name is Justin, and this blog is my developer playground, where I aim to document about my thoughts and experiences as a software developer.

About me

I've been developing software professionally for *almost* a decade now. My interests in technology have always lied in the intersection of hardware, software, design, and interactivity, and I am extremely grateful that the pursuit of these interests has led me to my current role as a Technical Lead for the Google Experience Studio.

At the Experience Studio, we build Experience Centers - executive briefing centers equipped with a suite of interactive technology exhibits and other custom technologies - which host Google's top clients and guests. We have built Experience Centers all over the world, including the Google Partner Plex in Tokyo, São Paulo and Mountain View. You can also search online to find a few publications about the stuff we do (one of our Centers even won a LumenWest 2020 Award for lighting design!).

My role on the Experience Studio is to work with business teams to develop, integrate, and support technology to help meet their business objectives. If that sounds a bit too broad and ambiguous, that's on purpose. In truth, the work activities I do can vary day-to-day - coding, designing technical architectures, help project planning, even managing stakeholder expectations - but, by far, one of the coolest things I get to do is help develop interactive technology exhibits that are deployed in physical spaces. Maybe it'll be worth describing in another blog one day.

Why start this blog?

I thought about starting a blog a couple times before, but I didn't think I would actually go through with it. I mean, I don't claim to be an expert, and I wouldn't even know what to write about. There were just a bunch of artificial barriers I was creating for myself that prevented me from taking the time to do the work.

But recently, I had this sudden urge to create. It was such an overwhelming feeling that I was compelled to open up a drawing app and start drawing. I don't even enjoy drawing all that much, but during these few days it was all I did during my free time.

There is also so much inspiring developer content out there also. I've been reading other developer blogs, like Flavio Copes (and his How to Start a Blog ebook) and Josh Comeau, as well as consuming some motivational content, like Ali Abdaal's YouTube videos.

Suffice to say, I'm feeling pretty inspired when it comes to starting my writing journey 😼

As I started developing this blog, I was coming up with different "personal brand" ideas and tried drawing different logo types for them. Now, I'm no artist, and so the best I could do was the logo that's currently branded on this blog. I still think it looks a bit "amateur-ish" (well, it was done by an amateur), but I like it because I created it, and I'm a little proud of it since it was produced from outside my comfort zone. Call it: giving my site a little "personality" 😉

I also like to build things! I especially enjoy crafting software, even as a hobby. This blog is yet another thing I get to build, and I plan to use it as a platform to showcase some of the other stuff I work on.

Goals

My primary goal for this blog is to keep it as a journal of sorts, where I can record my programming journey and reflect on my learnings, hoping that what I write will be helpful to the developer community. It is also intended to be an ongoing portfolio for me to showcase my work.

I still haven't figured out how I am going to structure my posts - all I know is that I want to write about something I'm good at and passionate about: developing software. These posts may come in the form of "How I Built X with Y and Z", complete with some code examples, or, they might just be me blabbing or complaining about a niche problem I'm working on. I'll make it up as we go along, and then see where to go from there. For now, I’ll focus on web development using TypeScript and Python.

I'm also planning on regularly updating this blog, from changing the design to adding more features. Most of these updates will definitely be worth writing, so stay tuned!

There is also another, slightly more subtle reason for starting this blog. I've always entertained the idea of pursing an advance degree and have some prospected dream schools in mind. If ever the time feels right to apply, I hope I've blogged consistently enough to gain enough credibility and boost my application.

So, this post marks the start of my blogging journey. I feel like the best way to move forward right now is to be consistent with publishing new content, which will hopefully be enjoyable and provide value.

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you'll stay tuned to future updates! 😁