AboutMe
My Story
I am a late arrival in the tech world. My original studies were in Languages and Linguistics with my undergraduate degree in Linguistics and Japanese at the University of Melbourne. At the University of Melbourne, I studied various languages like Arabic and Mandarin Chinese.
I had always been drawn to languages because of my desire to understand how complex systems work on a fine-grained level. I wanted to understand how this unbelievably complex human process that forms the basis of all our relationships could be broken down into components such as syntactic rules, phonological patterns, and morphemes. For many years, I dedicated my life to studying and teaching human languages, sharing this passion with others.
After spending several years living abroad and learning many languages, I became curious about the concept of a programming language. I was interested to know whether it would be similar to a natural language, even though I had no experience with technology at the time.
So, after feeling content with my level of Russian, I decided that the next language I tackled would be Python. This seemingly small decision rapidly opened up an entirely new world for me, in which I realized that coding and programming combined my love for exploring new ideas and learning new things with my passion for understanding how things work on a fine-grained level. And not only did it allow me to understand this, it also allowed me to use these tools to create something.
It had always been so satisfying for me to use the human languages that I had learned to communicate, to be able to take all these tiny pieces of knowledge and information and to aggregate them into useful speech that could be understood by others. And through learning Python, I realized that programming languages could allow me to do this but on an even more tangible level. Only now, the building blocks that I had learned weren't just creating speech, they were manifesting ideas and concepts into real tools that were useful to people. And unlike human languages, programming languages could be used for so many more things other than communicating. As my interest grew, I picked up more languages, frameworks, and tools. And just like how natural languages open your world up to new cultures and ideas, new programming languages open your world up to new possibilities of what you can create, what you can bring to life.
It was at this point that I decided to leave teaching to jump into the world of web development and programming, and it has really taken off since then.
My Philosophy
For me, there is really nothing more exciting or satisfying than taking an idea that I have dreamed up and working to manifest it into reality. And for me, that is the essence of working in a tech field. It's about translating human ideas into code, bringing the greatness of human creativity to the frontiers of technological development.
I am a person who has never been content to concede that I am unable to do something. In fact, the more obstacles that arise often motivate me to push on and find a way to allow me to create what I want. And I think this is one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about this line of work, because it not only allows me to implement what I know, but it pushes me to learn how to acquire the tools, skills, and expertise to implement what I don't yet know.
It pushes you to get creative and find ways to not let your perceived limits stop you from manifesting what you want. It teaches you to not be deterred by what you think you can't do, but instead allows you to hone the skill of finding ways to conquer any challenge that presents itself to you. This is a field in which you will never know everything, and as such, it pushes you to develop the skill of finding new solutions, finding new ways of looking at things, finding new ways of looking at the world, until you break through and are able to bring to life something that you weren't able to before.