About
From training dogs to building software.
My first career was as a professional dog trainer: pet training, classes, service dogs. I enjoyed parts of it. What I did not want was a business where every result required me, personally, every single time.
Why software
The problem someone brings is not always the one that needs solving.
What drew me to software was the opposite of service work: solve a problem once, and the solution keeps working without me performing it again.
I also just like the work. I experience software problems as puzzles: inputs, constraints, rules, edge cases and an outcome someone needs, and the job is to make those pieces fit into something that behaves the same way every time.
How I got here
I trained through Codesmith's Software Engineering Immersive, then went straight into real codebases: open source on Svelvet, contract work on an invite-only mobile social app, and adapting the open-source mempool.space explorer to the Stacks blockchain.
From there came a multi-year relationship with a reserve-study firm through my company, WDD4 Services, where I was usually the only developer: understanding the business, designing the solution, building, deploying and maintaining it.
How I work
Watching the work happen is often the fastest way to understand it.
I ask a lot of why questions. Why does this need to exist, why does the current process work the way it does, what is the person actually trying to get done.
Once I understand the problem, I front-load the decisions: objective, constraints, architecture, trade-offs and expected behavior, so we do not revisit fundamentals halfway through.
Most of my work has been directly with business owners and the people who use the software, not with finished specifications. That is the kind of work I am built for.
Tell me what's still being done by hand.
A 30-minute call. No pitch deck. Bring the spreadsheet, and we'll start with why.
Book a call