I've realized that anything innovative has stemmed from an original idea that someone else had. Taking something that is great, and remaking into something that is your own is an amazing feeling, and that's why I've fallen in love with web development.

I am currently a Web Engineer at Spotify. I work on the Spotify for Artists application doing mainly web infrastructure work. This can be anything from repository management and instrumenting telemetry services, to fostering best practices and pairing with other engineers to help them do their job more efficiently!

The story of how I came across web development is actually quite interesting. It began all the way back when I was fifteen when I first learned about it at a computer camp in New York. If you want the full story, check out the video below.

Outside of that, I love to read, play my ukulele, and play intramural sports. As of late, I am exploring the daunting world of writing.

My expertise and interests lie mostly in front-end technologies, including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript as well as popular JavaScript libraries such as React and NodeJS, and frameworks like Angular and Ember.

Most of my initial server side skills stemmed from PHP, but after using NodeJS for a bit, and after a ton of time growing as a developer I've started to appreciate functional programming even more which has led me to explore languages like Scala and Elixir.

My mantra is Keep it Sleek, but Simple. Human nature leads us as consumers to take the path of least resistance. This is why finding the motivation to go the gym, sticking to a diet, or learning a new technology can seem like such an arduous task.

The key to creating awesome user experiences does not lie with the flashiness or the "glam" a website provides, but rather the ease of access to your site for someone who's never visited before.

Create designs that are simple and replicate the world you live in, and visitors will feel a sense of serenity. and maybe even a sense of amazement about why your website is so pleasing to use. Google talks about this extensively in their Material Design guidelines.

I highly recommend you check it out.