I DIDN'T INHERIT
A PATH INTO

Teachers noticed my dedication and helped me enter public computer programs. One opportunity led to another, until I found myself learning BASIC and QBasic without yet realizing that I had started learning how to program.

My first computer outside an institution was an old XT that an uncle brought home. I played Carmen Sandiego, of course, but I also wanted to understand what happened before the game appeared: how the machine started, where its limits came from, and what made the system work.

Later, I studied data processing, learned Clipper, and started building a system for a neighborhood community center. I took apart and rebuilt my first computer, installed Linux, recompiled its kernel to make a soft modem work, and built a home network. Before being paid to work in technology, I was already learning, building, troubleshooting, and teaching it.

My infrastructure background changed the way I approached software. When servers struggled under traffic, I could follow the problem across the network, web server, cache, database, and deployment environment. I built the CMS that gave editors access to site content, worked with marketing to launch campaigns, and delivered an early banner-serving system for the game websites. As web architecture owner, I carried SEO, accessibility, responsive and mobile-first development, and performance measurement with Google Analytics, Tag Manager, PageSpeed Insights, and Core Web Vitals. I began mentoring a junior developer, moved to the .NET team closer to the core business, and eventually led a six-person team while managing projects and delivery.

Soon after joining, I identified security weaknesses and proposed mitigations. I was technically right, but I had not yet learned how to turn knowledge into organizational action. When the company was later attacked, I joined the incident response effort. Discovering a risk is only the beginning. A leader must communicate it in a way that makes action possible.

At Ceros, modernization was not a single migration. I designed APIs, helped move the frontend from Backbone to React, fixed accessibility issues, strengthened automated testing, and improved the infrastructure and delivery systems around the product.

The work demanded more than replacing old technology. Every architectural decision affected customers, product teams, and the engineers who would maintain the platform after us.

At G2i, AI agents became part of my complete engineering workflow. I direct them across full-stack workstreams by providing the context, architecture, constraints, and acceptance criteria needed to produce useful results.

Agents provide leverage, not accountability. I remain responsible for reviewing the work, challenging assumptions, testing behavior, checking security and performance, and deciding whether it is ready to ship. I was not watching the next era of software development arrive. I was already working inside it.