In science fiction, artificial intelligence and machines are often portrayed as drones that take over much of the data crunching and physical heavy lifting from humans. In reality, however, we're finding that machine learning has been used to make art, music, and to hold conversations with us — reflecting the vast amount of content humans have created and shared through the Internet.

For many of us who spend time on social media and technology news sites, the explosion of machine learning-powered technologies felt dizzying. It felt like these technologies came out of nowhere and would "take over." As makers of tools and products, we faced the fears of missing yet another wave.

These user interfaces and technology advancements, in fact, live on a continuum. In 2015, I worked on SimplyInsight, where users could use natural language to ask questions about their marketing data and generate analytics reports. We innovated on chat-like natural language interfaces, integrations with large-scale data platforms, and user interface solutions for live data. SimplyInsight, like many other solution, have been a blip on the thousands of small iterations we have collectively performed to bring about the latest breakthroughs.

This wave, like all other breakthroughs of technology, is but a ripple in the journey of the human experience of being creators, makers & artists.

The Journey is the Destination

With the latest machine learning powered tools, the output is instantaneous, powered by a behemoth of machines. This is a big productivity gain, of course, despite the costs to enable the generative artificial intelligence services.

The focus on the output however narrowly scopes the human need & experience of creativity. In his seminal book, Flow, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi outlines how being immersed in a process and finding one’s flow is crucial to fulfillment and happiness. Always optimizing for the end-goal & output dilutes this experience that we crave.

Further to this, an individual’s journey and story of pursuing a craft is a source of profound meaning to all humans. For creative tools to flourish, with and without artificial intelligence, they have to enable its users’ journey & pursuit.

Mastery Leads to Invention

Understanding the pursuit of mastery has been the practice of many traditions. ShuHaRi for example is at the foundation of Japanese apprenticeship. ShuHaRi describes the three stages of the journey to mastery & beyond.

Shu (protect) describes the early days of learning, replicating and practicing a craft by following its rules and honing its traditional practices. Ha (detach) is the ability to bend & break from the rules of a tradition once someone has learnt the practices of a tradition. And finally, Ri (leave) is achieved when inventions are brought to a tradition by someone who has mastered their craft; usually involving the amalgamation of multiple traditions and unique life experiences.

This process of invention has been a part of the human experience for eons and it is what continues to propel us forward. The mediums that artificial intelligence will enable will be yet another craft that humans will master & invent against.

Invention is Evolution

Throughout history, when anything new was invented, it was often followed by a period of hype, fear and uncertainty. As the dust settled, the applications of the invention became clearer and eventually people adapted their skills and mastered the new.

The hype that everything is dramatically changed with artificial intelligence will be fast to wane. The fear that artificial intelligence will outpace us will slowly dissipate as we discover the evolution we humans undergo in the face of this invention.

In the words of the great Rumi, “You will come to see that all evolves us.”

I’m fortunate to work with a talented team where we continuously expand our knowledge and apply what we learn. This practice will continue for us in 2022 as we scale.

BRIO, Evolved

The amazing work my team & I have had the privilege to be doing at BRIO is evolving with us joining Adobe’s 3D & Immersive team.

Over the past year, we’ve continued to use cutting-edge web technologies to power the creation and delivery of 3D & augmented reality experiences. One of the endeavours we undertook was to consolidate many of our client libraries into a monorepo to streamline our development & release cycles. The change resulted in everything we hoped for: better visibility across the libraries and faster workflows. Of course, there was a lot of wranging of Webpack involved but despite the rumours, Webpack remains an amazing sidekick when building JavaScript applications.

Since it’s early days of what we’ll be building next as BRIO evolves, I’m excited to share the technologies that I believe will continue to be valuable in developing amazing web applications:

• I’m thoroughly enjoying the competition between Nx and Turborepo. We need more of this competition across the many tools used for web development.

• React 18 looks great and I can’t wait to give it a real try to see how it’s concurrency features improve the performance of an application.

• I’m thrilled about the developments in WebAssembly and the Rust tooling is a dream. As WebAssembly matures, I can’t wait to find further avenues to apply its capabilities like we did in BRIO’s Ultra Render.

Project W

Open Worm is a project I’ve always been fascinated with. In 2017 scientists loaded the brain into a Lego Mindstorm. While I have long ways to go, I have been working to recreate this with the latest version of the Open Worm brain in this little guy:

Project Z

My Elixir learning journey continues. For this project, I built an GraphQL-only surface and implemented CQRS/ES patterns with Commanded. The client is an NextJS React application. The entire stack feels like butter. I also leveraged Terraform to deeply integrate the build cycle to deployment and make the experimentation process seamless.

In the upcoming year, I’ll be expanding the features of the project to use upcoming File System Access features of the browser. I’ll also be diving deeper into the real-time features of Elixir & Phoenix.

Building internet-scale applications has never been as enjoyable. The technologies and tooling used to build solutions for the web continue to improve significantly regularly.  I hope in 2022 we’ll see an expansion of these improvements to other areas of technology development.

I was born in Bangladesh, a lush country that was torn by war during its struggle for liberation in 1971 with millions of people uprooted and subjugated to immense suffering. Learning about the destruction & atrocities over the nine months of the war, I’ve often wondered why the superpowers of the world that purport to support freedom and democracy acted in opposition to these values. A half-century later, in the year 2022, the suppressions, oppressions & wars waged across the world continue to raise the same question. And despite the posturing of pundits and politicians, endless suffering is being visited on humankind by its own.

In the face of such arduous circumstances that we face, what can I do to help? My approach to aiding in solving the challenges we face as a global civilization are derived from my background in the realm of creating, making and developing technological solutions.

Technology ("science of craft", from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia[2]) is the sum of any techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation.

Technology in its many forms have been the key to alleviating the many pains we have faced over the centuries. It shaped and elevated societies out of decades of poverty, sickness and wars. Unfortunately though, we lost our way and as Peter Theil puts it, "We live in a financial and capitalist age, not a scientific or technological age, [we have seen] innovation in the world of bits, but not in the world of atoms." While there is no doubt that software has been extremely beneficial technology, I believe we are seeing diminishing returns from our continued focus on it.

The focus needs to shift to developing technology in the world of atoms and kick-off another age of exploration and revolutionary solutions.

Make Democracy Direct

Between the handling of the global pandemic, rising political divisiveness and international conflict it’s clear that governments and their systems have continuously been reactive and failed to achieve results that benefit the people they are meant to serve. And given the retaliatory approach of governments towards the people who give them power, it’s patently obvious that these structures are far too comfortable, bloated and corrupt.

A technological approach to government is necessary to give people the power to truly govern themselves, as was the envisioning of democracy. With the scale at which software is able to operate today, there is no hurdle to bringing direct democracy to fruition. If we believe that an electorate is capable of selecting representatives based on stated policies, the same electorate can determine policies for themselves. As for execution of policies, real-time accountability must be deployed across the executing agencies that are funded by the taxes levied on the people.

While it’s unrealistic that such a change will happen overnight, entrepreneurs can take advantage of the inefficiencies in the processes governments have deployed. Instead of operating within the bounds of bureaucracy, entrepreneurs should operate, at scale, to intermediate bureaucracy. Entrepreneurs & makers should create a layer for people to use as an accessible frontend.

Be your Own Bank

The Loch Ness Monster was first sighted in 1934 and while that’s been debunked as a hoax, what I find even more incredible is the fact that the bulk of United States financial system in 2022 is regulated using laws made in 1934 as well. Though these laws have been incrementally changed over the years, their arcane nature has only obfuscated the system and enabled crimes in broad daylight on Wall Street.

The stark difference in wealth, the tacit destruction of companies and the endless extraction from the people have to stop. It is not an expression of human wellbeing to have to work three jobs to make ends meet and it is unbecoming of our “modern” civilization that it requires people to do so.

It is necessary for us, the people, to take control of the mechanism used to exert power over us — banking. There was a time when banks facilitated the movement of money and provided access to the many. Unfortunately, that time has long gone. Now, banks are in the business of generating wealth through “any means necessary.” This means taking immense risk with people’s money, trading against their own customers and relying on the people’s taxes to save them when they fail.

Technologies like the Loopring ecosystem of smart wallets, guardians, automated market-making and low-cost distributed public blockchain have opened the possibilities for individuals to digitally own all of their money and transact without needing to access a traditional, centralized bank.

The movement to this approach has already began and it is unlikely that the incumbent banks will survive the next financial collapse.

Take Back Art, Science & Engineering

Much of the art, science and engineering that moved technology forward was realized by the individual creator & maker. Over the past century institutions have co-opted the practices of making great art, radical scientific experimentation and inventive engineering. The story of Herbert Needleman is no anomaly and will read far too familiar in this system that encourages conformity over exploration.

While creation of art has exploded on the internet, a similar movement of independent scientists and engineers engaged in self-study, experimentation & invention — in the world of atoms — must be reignited. The Ocean Cleanup exemplifies this story of an independent inventor creating a solution that transcends the decades of ineffective attempts of institutions funded by the public. In Canada alone, $60 billion was spent from 2015 to 2020 to build a clean economy but the results have been far from radical and disappointing at best.

Ultimately the dearth of movement from the institutions of old is a call to us, the individual artist, scientist & engineer, to find the inspiration and manifest another revolutionary scientific and technological age.

I leave the last word to the polymath & symbol of Bengali renaissance:

“We can look upon a road from two different points of view. One regards it as dividing us from the object of our desire; in that case we count every step of our journey over it as something attained by force in the face of obstruction. The other sees it as the road which leads us to our destination; and as such it is part of our goal.” — Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana : The Realisation of Life

It's been a refreshing and rewarding experience which made me wonder about why I had left being hands-on in the first place. After some introspection I realized that it was burnout and disenchantment from the "hustle" culture in the startup ecosystem. I was happy to have left the endless stream of ideas, pitching and building to helping others build their products.

After a car accident, some time off and serendipity, I started working at BRIO in 2019 where I was knee deep in the codebase. The product is extremely interesting and the development problems are challenging which has reignited my passion for building products.

BRIO

BRIO is a platform for creating and delivering 3D, augmented reality & virtual reality experience. Thousands of creators use BRIO to deliver millions of views to their beautiful and engaging experiences every month.

Continuing to build and grow the platform will be my primary focus for 2021 as my team and I reap the rewards of architectural decisions we made to evolve the codebase. I'm also looking forward to learning from the mistakes of our decisions so we can continue to improve and build better.

The product is frontend heavy and the codebase is end-to-end JavaScript with sprinklings of C++ & Python. We've been aggressively transitioning to TypeScript while improving the core architecture in view of our long term aspirations. We are also using WebAssembly to deliver Ultra Render, a GPU-powered path tracing engine that is deeply integrated with our ReactJS application.

In addition to continuing our efforts on the application, we have several services and related infrastructure changes we aim to release in 2021. We'll build most of these services using JavaScript, NodeJS and NestJS.

Project V

As AngularJS was being sunset in 2016, I made the decision to build an enterprise SaaS product for one of my startups using the MEAN stack. Back then, AngularJS had a very healthy ecosystem that helped us ship several versions of the product rapidly. Unfortunately we didn't gain any significant traction and the product has since stagnated.

With the aim to experiment, I hope to revive the product by modernizing the codebase. My initial plans are to migrate to Angular and use NestJS alongside the existing Express application.

Project L

This is a platform to host third-party applications relating to the organization, utilization and workflow of different types of files. The project is in its inception and conceptualization phase so I have been researching and laying out the platform's architecture as requirements are developing.

While my go-to stack for building production solutions has been JavaScript, given the domain & the long-term goals of this project, I am planning to build it with Phoenix. I will likely use LiveView set up with Vite and ReactJS. The Elixir ecosystem is young but the technology and stack is amazing which will only continue expanding.

Project Z

An experimental productivity application that I had started to build with AWS Amplify. After investigating Elixir for Project L, Absinthe and Phoenix emerged as a better solution for the functionalities I aimed to implement.

To improve my UI development skills am also diving deeper with the Material & Carbon design systems.

JavaScript continues to be mainstay in the products I'm developing but Elixir will likely overtake its use towards the end of the year. I'll be sharing more details on these projects as they come alive in 2021 and beyond.

Hard Skills

Being a software developer can be hard. When we're constantly trying to learn something new and it never seems enough, it can feel like we're drowning.​ There are few things we can do that can push us, make it easier to learn and with practice, launch us forward.

Learn the tools

‌As with any trade, there are tools that we have to learn. In software development, learning SVN and subsequently Git helped me manage and write better code​. I learned how to use issue tracking and project management tools​ which helped me better communicate and work with my team. I learned about server management and working with hosting providers which were needed to deploy and operate our products.

The tools will continue to change and evolve and as developers we have to stay ahead by learning the ones that fulfill our most immediate needs.

Understand Design Patterns

‌One of the things that unlocked software development for me was reading Head First Design Patterns. I happened upon it at the Ryerson University library when I was looking to understand the MVC design pattern. It was a fun read and I recommend it as a first reading. I also read Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software and these books laid the foundation for the software I went on to build. (I wrote about both these books and more in Reading on Design Patterns.)

Code a lot

Like any skill, learning to develop software takes practice.​ The great thing about development is that it doesn’t take material resources other than electricity​.

Imagine if we had to actually build the software we were writing, with wood, bricks and cement​! But since we don’t have to, there’s nothing wrong with starting a new project because we felt like it at 3am in the morning. We don’t have to launch it, the experience of putting together an ideas and building is very valuable​.

Having said that, when we have hit upon something that we want to pursue, it’s important to get it out there, show it off, get feedback on the idea and the code. There is this saying that a software project is always 80% done, so we shouldn't be afraid to keep experimenting​.

It's about the details

When I used to work as a junior developer, I often felt the senior developer was far too laid back. I felt he was always taking too much time in planning. I found it very frustrating and I was always itching to get coding.​

After several bitter experiences I learned why he took his time before starting to code​. Thinking things through, planning tasks and the approach is a part of being a software developer.

Focus on landing planes

Launching a project or a feature is very much like landing a plane on the deck of a ship; it's challenging, thrilling and rewarding. We have to learn to get in the habit of doing it, week in, week out​.

Learning project management processes, for myself and my teams helped me tremendously but the processes can often become noise. It's important we focus on launching, delivering and shipping.

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Imagine & read code

‌When I learnt to code, it felt like learning magic. It’s not something everyone could do.​ Maybe we don’t realize it in our day-to-day because we live in our software development bubble but the reality outside makes what we do nothing short of magic.​

Discovering and reading code is another part of this magic. I'm sure many of us have had the experience of looking at an app or a machine and imagining how its programming would have been written, how we would write it.​

Soft Skills

It may not be obvious but being a software developer can get lonely. It’s really easy to lock ourselves in our rooms and code away, as long as there’s the Internet, your brain will never complain because the supply of code, cats and funny videos is endless.​

Make friends

Working on things alone by myself is great fun and I thoroughly enjoy it. I have also found that working with others, even if we were working on different things, made my work better. Making friends with those who work in the same space and complement us can have impact that we may not foresee.​

The friendship of the two Steves and their respective talents has fundamentally shaped our technology space and created new livelihoods for millions of people. This could be called networking but networking isn't useful if we can’t make a connection to benefit and propel each other​.

Follow other developers

When I look back to what impacted my career so far, I realize that following the other developers played a major role. It let me tap into the plethora of experience and knowledge that they shared. I read and went down the rabbit holes, finding out more about the topics I didn’t know or understand. Some of what I learned, I still use, and others I don’t but there was no reason for me to narrow my scope of learning. This brings me to my next point.​

Be open & think large

We tend to live in our bubbles where of us speak English, are right handed and able-bodied. This shows in the code we write and the products we build.​ If the goal of technology is to better our lives, we have to make sure we build for everyone.

There is opportunity in every dimension of our globalized civilization and we can find them by being open-minded. Soundscape for example, is powered by innovative technologies and is helping people with blindness and low-vision to navigate. Thinking large to find and fulfill the needs of everyone will help us push the boundaries of innovation.

Break it down

While communicating with peers we often speak in jargon but part of being more open and inclusive with our work involves communicating with people across fields. It can mean communicating with marketing or the customers and for them we have to break it down​. We have to remove the jargon, listen and speak in clear and simple terms.  

When we can clearly communicate the problems and solutions we are working on we'll have truly launched as developers.

Take care of yourself

There was a time when I used to neglect taking care of my physical and mental needs because programming was just so much fun and rewarding. I could create things out of thin air, I found that very addictive.​

The reality is that we can get burnt out​ and we can experience imposter syndrome​.

We have to step away from the computer, spend time with family & friends, do something else that’s creative​. We should remember to eat well, sleep right and stay active​. I’ve found that I am a much better problem-solver, more creative and focused​ when I do.

‌I hope this was able to help you with some inspiration on launching your software development career​. I often return to this thought that keeps me inspired:

Shipping beats perfection​ because we're shipping magic.

[Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.]