Today is my last day of work, after 3 ½ years of working at Echobind. It's been a good run. While there, I've built:
A distributed CMS powering dozens of websites
A real-time video education platform
A dynamic video generator and rendering pipeline
A mini social media app, with posts and likes
An AI chatbot for answering product questions within guardrails
A layout and design tool, not unlike Canva
A pay-it-later platform for a healthcare clinic
A website support widget that connects directly to Slack
The details and complexity of these projects won't fit in this post. Suffice it to say, I've had the "with enough time, I can build anything with a computer" hubris for a long time. That feeling remains undefeated.
During that time, I wrote 16 blog posts on the company blog, presented at 4 conferences, and wrote a bunch of RFCs.
In fact, I'm most proud of those RFCs. I transitioned the team from GraphQL to tRPC, from ChakraUI and CSS-in-JS to Tailwind, and from Next.js to React Router v7, among many other things. I collected data, did research, presented arguments, addressed comments and concerns, and got the recommendations over the finish line.
I was also the go-to guy for being dialed in to the broader tech ecosystem, sharing news, tricks, techniques, and new packages and frameworks. I would spend my investment time trying out different platforms and tools and writing reports on how we can take advantage of them.
And I did some open-source work, like fixing bugs and improving docs in React Router, remix-auth-webauthn, svg-icons-cli, and the in-browser video compressor TVC.
I've worked with some excellent people, mentored some excellent people, and learned a lot from all of them. They truly were the best part of coming to work every day, and I wish them all the best.
So, what's next for me? Well, after recovering from having another kid, my hotshot lawyer wife is going back to work. I feel pretty strongly against having a kid in daycare until they're a little older, so that means I'll be staying home to watch the kids. Full-time stay-at-home dad! A dream job! (Though check back in a few weeks to see if my idealized vision matches up with reality 😉)
This is something I've wanted for a long time. I know before my wife and I got married I told her that at some point I'd love to try my hand at staying home with the kids. The opportunity presented itself, and I've taken it.
I'm treating it like a job. My oldest kid and I have made a list of the things we'll do each day, which include some lessons and outside activities. We'll have planning meetings every week to discuss what happened and what we want to do the following week. While I'm on the clock, I intend to focus all my attention on the kids and the home.
As for web development, well... I still love it. I'll still be working on Thorium Nova during naps, in the evening, and on weekends. I'll keep tinkering. I'll be paying attention to developments in the ecosystem. I'll attend the local meetups. I'll try to make it to one conference a year so I can see some familiar faces. I'll try to contribute to open-source a bit. And I'll keep writing on this blog.
This does feel like a good time to get out of tech too, what with layoffs ever looming and AI changing the nature of writing code. I'd love to get back someday, but I have no idea what that will look like. While I'd love to find myself back at a product company, I have more peace imagining this as a permanent departure.
But life is long. There's so much that can be done, and with the power of my kids' curiosity and wonder, I'm sure I'll be exploring all kinds of things in this new chapter.