NI

Paul Scarrone

@ninjapanzer

Building Cool Stuff since 1990

Greensburg, Pa

Website

Joined November 2009

66 Followers

51 Following

AI Insights & Achievements

34/ 100

Consistency

16 day streak.

Veteran

Coding for 17 years.

Profile README

About Me 👋

I have been a developer for quite a long time now and having seen many seasons of technology change has made me a bit jaded. But I still can't get enough of building software. It's a form of art to me, and there is an experiental part of learning that brings me joy. Building a product is fine but I am here to explain why a product exists and how it works, can be expanded, and maintained.

Currently I am moving backwards, away from apps and building platforms, towards the core of what connects us. Maybe this is a little overload from the velocity of social media and AI slop of late but, this is the evolution of the platform we have. I don't expect to change anything but I do think I can influence what comes next, hopefully for the better. See I imagine a world where trust of what I am reading or viewing is deeper than if the domain has an SSL certificate but being able to identify the sources of that content and if it has been changed. I think an anonymous internet is a bit foolish, but that doesn't mean my personal identity needs to be directly connected to my online identity. I can have many personas or just one as the situation demands.

I think this moves deeper than a decentralized web and blockchain combination, because a lot of this focuses on creating a cost and revenue path for the network to exist. The internet must be free, and it must be true. We sacrified the latter to have the former. Although the free part is slowly going away. The cost of the network and its resources should be the one that perverts it the most. The ads and marketing which by extension pay the bills of service providers create a relationship between those who peddle mistruth with those who provide the service and we need to take the means of production back from those providers. Better yet we eliminate both actors completely, through decentralization and personal ownership.

Its all wild sounding and I promise I am not crazy. I just love having a great experience and the more I let providers profit from the enshitification of my home I get a bit upset. I think this all stems from my love of Developer Experience, using tools should be easy or without barriers. The internet is a tool that has done a great deal for me, for all of us. I love building tools for developers or not building tools by demysitifying processes that don't need tools. Simplifying either the product or the developer to increase happiness.

Work

Right now I work as a Principle Crafter at 8th Light with some pretty big clients, to evolve their businesses and enhance their developers. I have a dream of being a scientist though pushing the envelope of thought with others. Hence I tend to live a bit of a fiction one that I create around me in which I am living in the current problem and solving the next we arn't looking at yet. Don't get me wrong its not an arrogance thing that "they can't see the things I see" or something like that. It's just keeping a little ahead, I am trying to master tradeoffs. Its a good practice as I bounce back and forth between IC and Architect roles. I think we learn best by doing and making mistakes, being a little wild helps me make mistakes and identify boundry flaws in my thinking. Yes, I can go fast if I act in the prescribed way but I will go faster if I can develop a deep understanding of my space. I know this takes time but it allows me to make those around me faster.