78 karma · joined February 25, 2022
I pivoted from rocks to code
Early on in my career as a Geologist, I was buried under an avalanche of manual processes, something was at fault, it was a bore and it wasn't very Gneiss
I knew there had to be a better way. So I taught myself how to code. All of a sudden I had superpowers, automating processes left, right and center, with some staff not even knowing what to do with their time anymore, I was the schist
It wasn’t enough; I wanted more superpowers. So I spent the next 6 months studying coding after hours, much to my wife and dog’s dismay - not only because I had less availability but because they were forced to look at all the things I had built, “See how I just made that text turn red!”
But eventually I did it! I got my first job as a real live web developer, making websites on the internet! Although even that wouldn’t quench my insatiable thirst for automation…
Shortly thereafter, during a chance encounter with my wife’s employer’s neighbour, I discovered the many gross inefficiencies lurking in the medical industry. This encounter led to me spearheading the development of a mobile app for one of South Africa’s largest hospital networks, Mediclinic, which they used to replace paper at hundreds of sporting events across the country, streamlining operations and saving the planet, #winning
My journey has been fuelled by a passion for automation and shaped by three guiding principles: simplicity, practicality and fun, that I have brought to every endeavour. Fast forward 8 years and many projects later, in the words of Pinocchio, I shout from the rooftops, “I’m a real boy!”
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed my Geology puns
Just curious, do you use any apps or tools to help stick with these habits, or is it more of a mental note thing for you? And how do you figure out if these practices are actually making a dent in your stress levels or boosting your productivity?
Thanks again!
"The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency wanted to know whether any research labs developing Covid vaccines had been hit."
Why were the Covid research labs of most concern to CISA as opposed to something like the presidential office?
- Typescript
- React
- styled-components (I've heard good things about tailwindcss too)
- Jest and react-testing-library for testing
- prettier and eslint for linting
Just throwing it out there in case you'd like to share your code between web, desktop and mobile:
- Electron (desktop)
- React-Native (mobile)
- React-native-web (to bridge it all together)
E.g. One of the questions is "Which part of an upright blender is the most dangerous?". My initial reaction was the blades but apparently the answer was steam. In this case, I'd suggest rephrasing the question to "Which part of an upright blender is the most dangerous with hot liquid in is most dangerous".
My wife and I have been watching a show on Netflix called "How to Change your Mind" and have been contemplating trying either LSD, shrooms or ayahuasca (we're not really druggies, we're just really interested in living more connected and meaningful lives and it seems those substances really help in initiating the process).