Programmer for Hire

Last night I was talking with Tom, friend and former business partner in Playground Creative.  We got to talking about a question that I usually have a hard time answering, the all-to-common-when-meeting-someone, “so what do you do?”

“I’m a programmer.”  “I’m a web developer.”  “I make really kick-butt web applications.”

Most of these kinda fall flat to most people: either it’s too vague, or means very little to those who don’t talk tech geek speak, or even evokes the stereotype image of an antisocial recluse hunched over his keyboard all day.  It doesn’t lend itself well to any follow up conversation about the real juicy parts of the work that I love to share about.

Just as it’s much easier for someone else to tickle you than to tickle yourself, another person who isn’t enmeshed in the world of what you do can observe and describe it much more cleanly.  I think Tom nailed it when he gave me his words of how he’d answer the question if he were me:

“I listen to the vision of what a project is trying to accomplish, come up with a solution that is 100% true to its essence, and get it built fast.  If it’s something that you know is possible, but it hasn’t been done before and you just don’t know how to accomplish it, I’m the guy to work that out and reliably deliver on it.”

Nice one, Tom.  I think I’m gonna rehearse that one a few times for the next time I go out to a networking happy hour.

My name is John Larson, and I’m a web developer.

And I really love doing it.  I love the cool widgets, I love the new tricks and tools, I love the brainy challenges, I love the elegant solutions.

I love building stuff that others are just plain happy about.

This business heartily feeds my nerdy appetite for mental stimulation.  And my mind has had plenty of time to think about–and become fascinated by–the whole process of software development.  The tack that I took was to expand my own kung fu (literally: “human achievement”) on the matter and be the best, most well rounded and proficient web application guy that my brains and determination would allow.

I cut my teeth doing customizations on the MonsterCommerce e-Commerce platform and building my own web-based system for managing that custom programming department.  Fielding no fewer than 800 leads during my tenure and overseeing (and eventually joining) my programmer crew during over 100 projects gave me all kinds of ideas and perspectives on both what worked great and what was an absolute mess.  Years of freelancing and other projects have further honed my views.

Contained in this blog you’ll find a series of essays and explorations reaching into the world of custom software development, direct from my brain to your eyeballs, thanks to the miracle of the internet.  Partake and enjoy.