I write code

I have never labeled myself a programmer. As one who has learned the craft via the omnipotent Google search box and the sharing of open source codes, I have always felt that I have yet to venture through the initiation rite that I am told consists of reading The Dragon Book and K&R, and building a compiler. Or maybe it’s because I prefer the dynamic, loosely-typed, “toy”, scripting languages to the ones real programmers use.

Regardless of how I am identified I do have a ferocious appetite to learn new things, try new tools, and challenge anything that becomes a little too precious. So in order to prevent myself from stagnating I have intentionally not self-identified what it is I do for a living other than “write code”. I write a fair amount of PHP but I am not a PHP Developer1. I have recently spent most of my time writing Javascript in the DOM but I do not identify as a Javascript Developer2. I spent a solid 2-3 years writing Ruby for eight hours a day learning how to “meta-program” as well as craft a gem and do “test driven development” but I would not consider myself a Ruby Developer3.

All of these different languages brought with them different ways of doing things and, more importantly, different people and cultures for me to learn from.

To put it as plainly as possible: I enjoy solving problems using computers. My solutions tend to involve a web browser and a web server. When this no longer interests me or — more depressingly — I can no longer maintain the skills necessary to make a living doing it, I will stop.

Until then I write code.

Sometimes I want to kick PHP right between the “H”

Sorry, I mean “Javascript Ninja”

Sorry, I mean “Ruby Rockstar”