Jason B.

TL;DR I've been programming for more than 40 years, writing software/architecting/managing teams professionally for more than 30 years, and with more than 20 years of that in Silicon Valley. I really love teaching what I've learned over that time. Read on for more info... :)

Programming is play for me. My passion for it started more than 40 years ago when my best friend brought a computer home from California to the backwoods of Michigan. We didn't realize that you were supposed to buy software for it and it came with a book on the BASIC programming language, so we started creating the software (games of course!) that we wanted to use.

Fast forward 10 years to my junior year of college. I was taking computer classes because they were easy A's while I studied other majors, but had never considered a career in computers until laying in bed one night in an empty youth hostel that I had snuck into above the arctic circle in the middle of winter in Narvik, Norway. It was here in the dark and cold that I realized that I enjoyed writing software enough that I might as well switch one of my majors to computer science. So, I returned home and spent the next 13 months working on a computer science degree. I always preferred Apple computers, so several of my classes were independent studies on programming Macinoshes (since my school did not offer Macintosh programming courses).

Now I've been writing software, architecting systems, and managing software teams on Apple platforms for more than 30 years. I've worked in small startups to large corporations both as a full-time employee and as a contractor. I have been fortunate enough to win several awards for the software that I've worked on, but this as much a commentary on the quality of teams that I've worked with as on my own abilities.

And through it all, even after all of these years, programming is still a passion. And it is still play for me. I love creating software that delights its users.