Fail, learn, repeat.

About the author

I'm a software engineer, technical writer, and librarian. I enjoy language, learning, solving problems, and using technology to improve workflows. In the early days of the Web, I fell in love with metadata (for biodiversity sampling) and began exploring how to make siloed text and data more discoverable, consumable, and actionable.

After earning my Master's in Library and Information Science and learning basic web design, I worked as a reference librarian and managed digital repositories and web projects for Missouri State Government and University of Kansas Medical Center. I've never had patience for manually repetitive tasks, especially when they require concentration and have potential for error. I started using Visual Basic and Windows scripting to automate workflows and I began programming with VBScript and ASP in order to build more dynamic web sites. In order to get stuff done, I learned the basics of configuring and managing Apache, Nginx, and Tomcat servers, and adopted monitoring tools to help keep me sane.

While attending a Code4Lib conference in 2011, I heard about scrum, Kanban, and agile approaches to project management. It just made sense and I fell in love with the practicality, principles, and adaptability. Later, I was fortunate to pair up with great programmers and engineers who taught me the value and practice of automating tests. I learned CI/CD, DevOps, and how to script tasks that I'd never considered.

On my quest to solve problems and make data more discoverable, I kept improving as a programmer, primarily with Ruby on Rails, and later with JavaScript and React. As an engineer, I've worked on:

• React, TypeScript, and API integrations to build a platform for tracking marketing leads and filtering prospective clients.
• Content management and search using Solr with Drupal and Ruby on Rails.
• Payments processing using "plain ol'" JavaScript, jQuery, Java, and Oracle.

When I considered leaving the public sector and joining the for-profit world, I feared that I wasn't "good enough" to be a front-end engineer in a fast-paced, corporate setting. As it turned out, I was far ahead in some respects and technology adoption was often slower-paced than I'd prefer. For everything else, our team relied on each other and figured it out together.

Working as an engineer and technical lead, I found that my technical skills were sufficient, but my superpower was more about helping other developers be successful. I was reminded of what I enjoy most:

• Helping people learn.
• Sharing information.
• Writing and editing.
• Automating to improve quality and to free humans up for more creative work.

I knew that I wanted to improve developer experience, and writing was a natural vehicle for me. I also knew that I wanted to keep coding, learning, and experimenting with new tools. At InfluxData, I found a great team and the perfect mix of writing, automating, and hacking on APIs for developers. So, I took the leap into technical writing and they took a risk on me. I still have a lot to learn, but it fits. Since, I've also volunteered as a technical writer with the Ethereum Foundation, writing guides for the Semaphore protocol and smart contracts.

When I'm not working on docs and code, I'm playing with my family, cooking, cycling, and enjoying music.