Andy.Writing

I never once had a vision of what I was building. I knew vaguely what I wanted to achieve and what I needed to allow the user to do, but no thought at all was given to how it would look or feel like. I knew that I wasn't good at making things look decent and I would get frustrated at trying so I just lost interest in improving. Could I actually get better though?

Exactly a decade ago I'd just finished my first semester at University studying Computer Science and I'm not going to lie, I didn't take too well to it. I was convinced I'd never get the hang of anything and I was seriously contemplating dropping out. I'm glad I stuck with though it because 10 years later I'm living in London working as a senior software engineer with a tech blog where you're my 5th reader this year! Look at me now, mum!

I've been a full-stack developer for the past 2 years, of which I was the only full-stack developer on my previous project. I feel that it suits me. I don't like staring at the same thing for too long and it scratches that itch that I have; the need to know how something works from back-to-front.

I'm a backend software developer by education and trade. Sure, I dabble in full-stack and have cobbled together a few frontend projects in a hobbyist sort of way, but the main chunk of my knowledge and experience lies in (but is not limited to) Java and C technologies.

Hi, my name's Andy and I'm a dataholic. It occurred to me that I may use too many apps. For some reason, I feel the need to obsessively monitor, track and quantify every recordable aspect of my life. I use Swarm/Foursquare to record my locations, Untappd for beer, MyFitnessPal for diet, Places I've Pooped for... well, it explains itself, Last.fm for music plays, Fitbit for activity, HabitRPG for my daily tasks, YNAB for my financials and Sleep Cycle for my sleep habits.

When I moved out of my family home I wasn't quite aware of the challenge at hand. I owned a lot of stuff. Like, more than I thought I did. Arguably more than a lot of my friends did. I'm not saying this in a pissing-contest kind of way, no. More of a "with this kind of behaviour I'm going to end up on a channel 4 documentary", sort of way.

I apologise for the clickbait-sounding title, but I guess in an intensely annoying way I'm just going to blend in with the rest of the Internet - which I hate. Not because I want to be different, but because I bloody hate clickbait. Perhaps I'm on the Internet far too much to not recognise when "21 unusual uses of cheese - you wouldn't believe #20" will be a pile of garbage. I'm looking at you, Buzzfeed.

Three years ago I was the fittest and strongest I have ever been. I was on my placement year during University, lived five minutes from where I worked, and was going to the gym four-five times per week. My diet was incredibly strict and aside from the fact that I drank more alcohol than during this working year than the University years combined, my lifestyle couldn't have been better.