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/journey · 6 chapters

Six years from curiosity to craft.

The long-form version of the homepage timeline. Each chapter has the lesson I'd hand to my past self, and links to the projects and notes that came out of it.

  1. 2020// edu

    Started coding

    Education · Self-taught

    Started with the open-internet curriculum — MDN, freeCodeCamp, then Python via "Automate the Boring Stuff." The mindset shift wasn't writing code; it was realising every system has assumptions you can probe.

    lesson
    “Curiosity beats coursework when nothing's on the line.”
  2. 2021// web

    Web development apprenticeship

    Freelance · Client projects

    First paying gigs — marketing sites for small businesses. Production meant uptime, support emails, and a real person locked out at midnight. React, deployments, DNS, basic forms.

    lesson
    “A demo that runs on your laptop and a site that runs for someone else are different products.”
  3. 2022// ops

    IT & technical operations

    Operations role

    Got hands-on with Linux servers, networking gear, and the unglamorous work of keeping infrastructure on. The dev side teaches you how things should work; the ops side teaches you how they actually fail.

    lesson
    “Read the logs before you read the docs.”
  4. 2023// sec

    Cybersecurity deep dive

    Self-directed · Labs

    Moved the curiosity from "how does this work" to "how does this fail." OWASP Top 10 became a daily reference. Built a personal lab. First responsibly disclosed findings on third-party apps.

    lesson
    “Every input is a trust boundary until proven otherwise.”
    Security Labs case studyOWASP in Next.js
  5. 2024// ai

    AI-augmented product work

    Independent · Stockxie + tools

    Started using LLMs as engineering teammates, then as product surfaces. Stockxie was the first thing where AI earned its keep instead of being a marketing wrapper — strict latency budgets, golden eval sets, deterministic narration over generated facts.

    lesson
    “AI is a feature only when it's faster, cheaper, or more accurate than the alternative.”
    Stockxie case studyBuilding Stockxie
  6. 2026// ops

    Head technician · Zone Bowling

    Zone Bowling · Current role

    Head technician at Zone Bowling: tearing down pinspotters, debugging arcade cabinets, and keeping league night running on real hardware. Same instinct as security work — take it apart, find why it fails, put it back stronger. After hours: full-stack security projects and AI-augmented engineering. Open to roles, contracts, and serious freelance projects.

    lesson
    “Real machines fail louder than software — and teach you faster.”
    After hours · the arcadeContact
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