This site has been a long time coming.
I’m not just talking about the content or the design, but the actual idea behind it. I’ve struggled for years to create an online identity that accurately represented the professional aspect of my life. Something that said
This is what I do and these are the truths I learned while doing it.
And although I’m a member of multiple professional networks, they fail to paint a complete picture of my skills and abilities. My LinkedIn profile barely scratches the surface. My StackOverflow profile is only slightly better in that it validates some of my skills. And I don’t have any popular repositories hosted on Github.
What I do have are countless projects under my belt. Projects I helped plan, architect, design, develop, deploy, troubleshoot, and manage. I have the skills necessary to build modern applications that not only perform and scale but also look good doing it. I have the experience and knowledge necessary to provide solutions to difficult problems and to spot and fix issues when things go awry. And now I have a place where all this can hopefully be showcased.
This is the first of what I hope will be many posts about my adventures in software. In the near future, I plan on expanding the site to include a portfolio or a section about the projects I have been involved with - I’ll see what lends itself better to my needs.
Finally, you might be left wondering about the name of the site, Devmatic. The name was adapted from Nas’ debut album Illmatic, one of my all-time favourite hip hop albums and an album I happened to be re-listening to while thinking about names for the site. Aside from sounding awesome, the name also has meaning. The suffix -matic comes from Greek and means willing to [perform], thus Devmatic means willing to develop. As in, “Hi, I’m Bart and I’m willing to develop amazing software.” As in,
Hi, I’m Bart and I’m Devmatic.