From "script kiddo" to software developer

Back during my PhD, I worked as an image algorithm engineer - if that's even a thing? I was all about image segmentation, image registration, image classification, etc. My knowledge in that area is very much out-of-date now, but it is what I grew up with, and you never really lose your affinity for the things you started out with.

During that same time, I was a bit of a "script kiddo". I wrote single, long Python modules that would read images or videos from a folder, run the script manually, and then I'd happily paste the results into whatever document or PowerPoint they were needed in. For the last couple of years, though, I've been getting the hang of being a software developer. Python is still at the core as a very powerful programming language, but you can add a database, build a web front-end for your application, schedule processing jobs, deploy with Docker, or see what clever service AWS has up its sleeve to make your life easier.

And you know what's cool about this? You can really build tangible things for people. It is a bit like being a shoemaker or a plumber - it's a craft where you make something real that someone can actually use. It's practical. You get to serve people.

An added bonus is that you get handed for free some really nice ways of working: version control and collaborating with Git, making sure you fail fast - and especially loud -, breaking projects into bite-sized tasks and actually tracking them, adding a "definition of done" to each one, and so on. Who wouldn't want to apply those principles to everything they do? I am still trying to implement them in our household, but I've run into a bit of resistance from the wifey though.

Soooo.... what is this?

On this website, I will post about tech projects I tinker with in the evenings or on weekends. Most of them are software, but I am also curious about electronics or even robotics. The projects might be things that seem useful to me, cool to build, ideas I heard from someone, or came across on Instagram,... We'll see where it all grows from here.

One of the software developer principles I came across is: 'build in the open'. I am shy about what I do and about the progress I make. As an introvert, this won't change. But hiding in the dark does not feel incredibly productive. So this website is also about 'building in the open'.

Also, there is this spectrum between consuming and producing. When I'm lying on the couch, scrolling through Instagram, I am in the extreme end of consuming things that countless people have spent countless hours producing. I don't aim to create anything remarkable, but I do feel obliged to at least shift myself a bit in the consuming-producing spectrum. This is my way of giving myself a kick off the couch.

To AI or not to AI?

AI can do it better. AI can generate all this. That is a fair critique. These are hobby projects. They're meant to be fun, meant to teach me something, meant to give me that cosy feeling you get when you create and finish something and feel that little spike of endorphins telling you: 'you did good'. Yes, AI can do everything. But that doesn't mean we mustn't do anything anymore.

So, what is the role of AI then here? Microsoft's AI product "CoPilot"'s name is very aptly chosen. I really like the word. AI helps, suggests, fixes, .... It is you and the copilot together in the cockpit, two brains side by side. I could hand over more control to AI, and let it optimize everything and polish every detail. But that's not the goal here. There are mistakes everywhere - grammar slips, rough edges, imperfect tech design choices. These are projects made by a suboptimal human with limited background and limited brain power. But that's okay. Even better, when I need to choose between watching a game of chess between two AI agents or two humans, I would always pick the latter.

Let's build...!

“Motivation is not the cause of action, it is the result. You want to be motivated? Get up and go do something.”