Hacker Boss?
My name is Olivia Cassandrae. I’m a hacker (see below). I’m also a boss (ditto). This blog is about programming and software development, and also about managing software development teams. Sometimes at the same time.
The Hacker
Bruce Schneier defines “hacker” like this:
A hacker is someone who thinks outside the box. It’s someone who discards conventional wisdom, and does something else instead. It’s someone who looks at the edge and wonders what’s beyond. It’s someone who sees a set of rules and wonders what happens if you don’t follow them. A hacker is someone who experiments with the limitations of systems for intellectual curiosity.
Just to make it crystal clear: I don’t engage in any illegal activities.
I’ve been programming since the 90s when I got my first computer. Back then it was mostly basic programs to manage my game collection. In high school I spent most nights hacking together demos in i386 assembler and C for the early nineties PC demo scene. At the university I learned a new kind of programming with Scheme.
Aside from coding for fun for well over twenty years, I’ve worked as a programmer in the software industry for more than ten years. I’ve been lucky to be able to get paid while working with interesting programming languages such as Scheme, Haskell, Standard ML, and even a prototype research language.
The Boss
I manage software teams, doing whatever I can to help them be awesome. I’ve done this for a few years now, and I think I’m slowly starting to get the hang of it. Currently, I’m working with XYZ, doing a little bit of everything from coding and UX design to customer support, business, and marketing. I’m a bit of a generalist, so I’m right at home doing all that at once.
Of course, this blog is personal and I speak for myself, not my employer.
