Hey, everyone. I'm Shawn Holmes, CTO at Wrapmate. I've been in the software development business for 23 years (π where my fellow Gen Xers at?)
I won't go into my storied history here (you can get the essay version on my blog), but the short version is this:
I won't go into my storied history here (you can get the essay version on my blog), but the short version is this:
- I love tech!
- I love building cool things and building great teams to do the same.
- I'm a naturalized US citizen, hailing from The Great White North.
- I'm self-taught: as a developer, as a people manager, and as a leader.
- I'm a mental-health advocate and am vehemently opposed toΒ the "hustle, work 18 hour days" culture. 40 hrs a week is enough.
- I have ADHD and wish to reduce the stigma surrounding it by supporting others like me with tools, tips, and resources on how to manage work & life under these conditions.
- I'm an ethical technologist, and am therefore always dedicating effort to critically examine what we do and how we do it, so as to not repeat the mistakes of many other companies.
- I love video games! Honestly, hacking games during my youth is ultimately what led to a career in technology.
- I wrote a book (many moons ago) on programming.
- I'm a social media nut (Twitter is my current mainstay), so I'm super excited to see what Polywork is all about!
- I may have had a (very!) small hand in the early days of Discourse, but you'll have to ask Jeff Atwood to be sure. π
- I love 80's pop culture trivia! Name a movie, song or actor and I'll give you a fun fact about them.
- Puns are the highest form of literature.
Oh, and I wrote a 300,000 word essay over the course of four years about how leading a World of Warcraft guild unintentionally prepares you for leadership. No big deal.
- Presently, our tech stack at Wrapmate is the JAMStack, so we're currently swimming in Eleventy, Snowpack, Netlify, and Dynamo (and yes, JavaScript...obviously!)
- We've launched the first nationwide vehicle wrapping e-commerce platform, and have some exciting new features in the works.
- I manage a team of four exceptionally talented developers -- it is because of their dedication and hard work that our aforementioned platform exists.
- I also oversee the development & maintenance of an internal application that bridges our Ops team with our extended Pro Installation network, which expands in functionality on (what seems like) a weekly basis.
- I'm a firm believer in "always-deploy-Fridays", thanks to grueling advocacy of folks like Charity Majors in the DevOps community.
I'm eager to hear from you, and I'm looking forward to sharing some of Wrapmate's discoveries along the way.