‘Expert’ Programmer

I’ve been programming since 1994 and I’ve been earning my living at it since 1999. For the first several years I was a Java programmer, but in 2007 I stepped into a job that let me pick technologies. I was intrested in Rails, so I went with it. That began a love for Ruby and simplicity that I’ve tried to nurture ever since.

A New Adventure

In May 2012 I quit that job to be part of a startup and starting working out of my home. We (intentionally) have a small home in the suburbs and didn’t have an entire room to dedicate to an office, so I am working out of my closet.

This is my basic Cloffice setup. Standing desk, my laptop (elevated), a keyboard, trackpad and microphone.

Honestly, I’ve found that I don’t need much space. Standing helps keep me awake and alert.

Standing Desk

If you’re like me, you’ve probably read many articles about how sitting all day is bad for you. I had a coworker at my last job use a standing desk and I thought I’d try it. The first 3 days I was very tired on my feet, but after that I got used to it.

I started off by just stacking a small IKEA desk on top of boxes. After a year of standing, I became convinced that I could handle a standing desk and invested in a great Safco Adjustable Height Workstation which is absolutely great. It provides lots of shelves to place things and actually takes up less room than my boxes-and-ikea-desk solution. It is on wheels so I can easily move it out of the closet or change the angle if I’m recording video and don’t want the storage behind me.

The best part of the setup is that it’s easy to remove the laptop, but it feels like a real workstation, so I have a dedicated place to work–but I’m not restricted to only working there.

What I love

I’ll say this, I love developing. I love finding new ways to look at problems and seeing the look on a users face when they are excited at how cool/easy/awesome something is. There’s a little piece of me that loves the control of it all, but I try to suppress that. The point is helping people have better lives. Thats a big reason why I love pair programming and helping others learn to pair. If you’re interested in learning to pair, I would love to help you out. Hit me up on twitter or check out the link in the sidebar.