About me
I got into programming because I wanted to understand how things worked on the inside, including how they broke. That was the spark, but building quickly became more interesting to me than breaking, and I kept going that way. I was about twelve, with an uncle studying electronic engineering in the background. I got hooked on Linux, started tinkering with my own PC and writing scripts to play pranks on my friends. It was a game, but it was also the first time I felt I could make a machine do what I wanted.
That led to my first blog, and then to something that shaped me more: a scheduling system I built that a clinic used for years, until they bought a commercial one. It was the first time something I wrote was useful to someone else every single day. That's when I understood that programming wasn't the goal: it was the tool for solving real problems.
It never stopped being a hobby. I just get paid for it now, and I take it with a different kind of responsibility. I still enjoy the same thing I did at twelve: a problem I don't know how to solve yet.
The test of whether you understand something is being able to explain it simply enough for a kid to follow. If you can't get there, you haven't really learned it yet.
- I lead a team of three developers: explaining technical decisions and helping others grow is part of the job, not an anecdote.
- I directed the step-by-step tutorial videos for the family allowance system, made for the province's entire education community: people with no technical background.
How I got here
Around 12
Curiosity
Wanting to understand how systems work on the inside. Linux, tinkering with my own PC, cmd scripts for pranks among friends. The machine started doing what I wanted.
Teenage years
The first blog
The first thing I made running in a browser. It didn't matter that it was simple: it mattered that it was mine and that it worked.
The first real user
A scheduling system
I built it and a clinic used it for years, until they bought a commercial one. My code serving other people every day. That's when it stopped being an exercise.
Education
UTN and Henry
Formally studying what I'd been doing on my own: giving a name, structure and method to a decade of trial and error.
Today
From hobby to profession
Critical public-sector systems used by thousands of people, then applied AI in production. It never stopped being a passion; now it's also a profession.