Programming
When I first entered the world of programming, I never imagined that it would captivate me the way it did. Software requires a classical problem-solving mentality, however it also leaves a lot of room for creativity. This, coupled with the fact that there is so much to learn due to the fast pace of change in the industry, is what made me fall in love with writing code.
I primarily work with JavaScript on both the server-side and client-side and I have a love/hate relationship with the language.Typescript has begun to bring me some joy as well. Outside of work, I am fascinated by functional programming and have begun learning Haskell in an attempt to demystify some of the more advanced FP concepts I read about.
Despite having a clear preference for working on the server-side, I have a lot of experience working with React and do enjoy it as long as it's not my main focus.
Snowboarding
I was introduced to snowboarding 2 years ago by my girlfriend. For that I will be eternally grateful! There's nothing quite like the feeling of riding through fresh powder.
Being fortunate enough to work for a company which is fully remote, this has allowed me to spend a whole season in the Bulgarian mountains without giving up my job as a software engineer. There's no better way for me to get pumped for a day of work than 2 hours of shredding the slopes!
Hip hop
Music has always been important to me and I've prided myself on being open-minded and exploring many different genres and styles. However, one genre has always stayed closest to my heart - Hip hop. It is an injustice to merely call hip-hop a genre though, as it is more of a culture than simply a music genre. Hip hop encompasses more than just the music; It is graffiti. It is rhyming. It is dance. It is turntabling. It is how you dress. It is having fun.
"A lot of times, when people say Hip Hop, they don't know what they are truly talking about. They just think of the rappers. When you talk about Hip Hop, you're talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is." Afrika Bambaataa (DJ, rapper and founder of the Zulu Nation)
The aspect of hip hop which really caught my attention was music production. I got into beat-making almost by accident, but ended up sticking with it for almost a decade. Maybe one day I'll end my production hiatus. For now, you can enjoy my creations on Bandcamp, SoundCloud or Spotify.