Been quiet around here. Time to change that!

The short version up front: Since starting a family and leaving Stripe, I've pursued the dream that brought me to Silicon Valley. I've founded a startup.

After taking some parental leave, helping found a Python non-profit, and a nice long visit back home, I was raring for a challenge. So these days, outside of family, I'm all in on something new.

Why now?

I've wanted to start my own business since building Access apps in high school. But, the reality of leaving my family and moving to study in the USA, combined with the technical and creative fulfillment of the software industry, took me on a scenic route through enterprise software, free culture, and open-source.

That very same reality has since conspired to convince me to return to my original aspirations. I've lived through some exciting times in software, but nothing like now. What better time to be building and launching my most ambitious project ever?

Full details on that are coming soon¹. For now, here is a post about why.

Applications

To start my career, I worked on software infrastructure, security, observability, and developer productivity. But after eight years, around 2016, I started longing for something more human.

You can see this start to come out in The Packaging Gradient. At a time where it seemed like everyone around me was talking about pip, pipenv, and PyPI, I couldn't help but remind people that the real end goal of software has always been the application (or even the appliance). This impulse came to a head with APA.

Perhaps you, dear reader, have also been "lost in the sauce" of software: When you love computers and it dominates your thoughts, you might also spend most of your time thinking about the software that makes the software possible.

Don't get me wrong. Languages, libraries, compilers, devtools, we need every bit of help we can get. But I fell in love with software for its potential to effect change in the world writ large. I started eyeing product. The famous full stack.

That meant moving on from big tech, to a big startup, to a seed startup. One pandemic-fueled detour through a startup factory later, here we are. Finally, founding the startup. My own full stack.

Monetary misunderstandings

My 15+ year software engineering career can be summed up as:

• Building fintech software for pay
• Shipping open-source Python/wiki for free

Professionally enabling commerce while avoiding it in my personal time. I was young and conflicted. Truthfully, I still harbor some reservations, but I have to build what I know. I know about software and money.

"Money is the root of all evil."

If you look at the state of say, open banking in the USA, or web3isgoinggreat, or just read Money Stuff, you probably agree something's off. Money changes people. But so does the lack thereof.

I've watched more talented and deserving developers than myself befall a variety of fates. Hollowed out by monetary excess, blinded by greed, burned out by FOSS, literally working Doordash to keep the lights on. Dropping out of software completely. Shunning the world's favorite fungible has bad outcomes for individuals.

Bless my friends at Tidelift, OSTIF, and other orgs working to sustain the maintainers. Paying maintainers is a worthy battle. We just need to open more fronts to navigate what's in store.

Showing vs Telling

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my favorite David Lynch (RIP) scene. It isn't from one of his films, it's this quote:

"The film is the talking."

I think it perfectly captures the auteur mindset. Words are extraneous. The consummate creative expresses themselves better in their native medium.

Not that I mind words as a medium. After years of blogging and speaking, I've grown confident in my ability to tell.

But now it's time for the show.