What’s with the French blog name?
OK. I know the French blog name is a little pretentious.
But "renversé" translates into a number of things — "inside-out," "upside-down," "inverse" — that I think are appropriate for this blog and, perhaps, for me too.
I didn't start out as a programmer. I ended up as one.
And, while I make my living from it (my actual job title is "Software Developer"), more often than not, I feel as if I've got things backwards. Inside-out. Renversé.
So, here's a blog that's going to document my efforts, both general and directed toward specific goals, in the world of programming.
A Bit More About Me
I work for a company called Continuum Analytics. They’re based in Austin, TX, but there are a number of us on the New York team.
Continuum specializes in two things: the Python programming language and handling Big Data. I am among a number of consultants whom they send out to work on various projects for their clients.
I originally come from a Graphic Design and Fine Arts background.
I started out making my living in creative departments, in advertising, cosmetics, and publishing. I learned how to program by being a founding partner in a start-up web site in the late 90’s. A few years ago, I got a job as a front-end developer and UX guy for one of the big banks. This January, I started at Continuum.
From publishing, to banking, to software, the office culture that I was working in kept changing. My colleagues, it seemed, kept getting more and more brainy.
The people at Continuum, though, are super-smart. Scary smart. As a whole, they share what I believe to be a scientist’s temperament: they are ill-disposed to, even disdainful of, any idea or project that is logically flawed or poorly designed. By the same token, they habitually express an irrepressible optimism for any idea or project that is not, of itself, impossible.
While I'm proud to be counted among them, I sometimes feel insecure about my place.
One of my supervisors at Continuum suggested that I start this blog, to record, and to offer a space to comment upon a series of undertakings which I will write about later. In doing so, I realize that am exposing my efforts, not only to the big brains at Continuum, but to anyone on the worldwide web.
It’s a bit scary. But I also know, from past experience, that sometimes being an outsider is a best way to gain insight. And that there might be, somewhere out there, another practitioner in this field who will find a feeling of relief and solidarity knowing that he or she is not the only one out there who feels a bit lost sometimes, a bit the foreigner. Renversé.
(Next: My project(s))