As far as I can tell, Introductions usually center around what a person does for Work, where they received their Education, and--if applicable--any accolades or awards they have received in recognition of their accomplishments. So we'll get that out of the way first, and see where it evolves from there. By trade I am a Software Engineer. Though it was not always so. We can dig into the story of how I began working in Tech a little later on. I am a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where I studied Acting. For a brief period during College, I changed my major to Neuroscience, and while I am still curious about the Brain and Consciousness and Perception and so on and so forth, I never really wanted to be a Physician (with all that it entails) and that seemed to be, at the time, the most likely outcome from a Neuroscience degree. So I chose the more, uh, "dynamic" path and completed my BFA in Acting. I was then conscripted into the Food Services Industry, as were so many of my compatriots. My assignment was Front of House, where I worked as a Bartender and a Server. I have tended bar in TriBeCa, waited tables in Midtown Manhattan, served cocktails in Beverly Hills, and created "exceptional dining experiences" in Dogtown. For a time I worked the Cocktail Catering circuit in Los Angeles, which took me to some... interesting places. In the same way that I never really wanted to be a Physician, I never really wanted to manage a restaurant either, so eventually it came time for me to hang up my apron and start on something else. That something else, as we now know, was [[Software]]. My transition from the Food Services Industry is a story in its own right, so I will leave it elsewhere. I began my career in Tech working at a [[FinTech]] startup called Karat Financial. I was, in fact, their very first full-time Employee. I worked at Karat for a little over 3 years, learning a tremendous amount about how to create Software, and also about how to create a Business that runs on Software. The founders of Karat took a chance on me, this green code cowboy fresh out of Bootcamp. It was half parts Luck, half parts Grit, but I landed my first full-time Software Engineer position and was fortunate enough to watch the company grow from Seed to Series A to Series B. A company changes a lot during this period, and with the growing market skepticism of early 2023 I was no exception to the [2023 Season of Tech Layoffs](https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/21/tech-layoffs-2023-list/). Since my departure from Karat, I have been working as a Software Consultant, plying my Trade to help build and optimize products for other clients. Also, I feel this is something worth sharing: my workflow has shifted drastically over the course of 2023. I imagine there are thousands of other developers who have experienced something similar. My ability to acclimate to new technologies and reason through problems has increased significantly with the release of GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT-4. There is much fretting in some parts of the [[Internet]] over whether Artificial Intelligence will do away with the need for Software Engineers. I am of a somewhat contrarian position. I believe that the need for Software Engineers who are *able to reason about complex problems* will only increase. One of my earliest mentors shared this idea which has stuck with me: > "Software is about managing complexity." If AI tools help Software Engineers better manage [[Software Complexity]], this doesn't logically conclude that the need for Software Engineers goes down. It means that a large amount of Software Engineers will now be able to do better work, faster. A rising tide lifts all boats; I am excited for what the future brings. And if we all end up paper clips in the end, at least we had a pretty good run.