Chad Fowler
Who is Chad Fowler?
I’m a husband, programmer, musician, learner, teacher, author, (spoken) language enthusiast, recent fitness junkie, and aspiring retiree. I am CTO for InfoEther by day a director for Ruby Central, for which I co-organize the official Ruby and Rails conferences. I also teach for Pragmatic Studio with Dave Thomas of the Pragmatic Programmers.
Where and when did you start programming?
At first it was in Basic on my Commodore 64 as a kid making blobs of color fly around the screen with ridiculous text and awful “music”. I realize now that this describes my ideal project today.
I started in earnest after developing an addiction to Doom death match in the early 90s. I loved Doom so much that I wanted to understand how it worked. Like many naive youngsters I had the fantasy of creating my own amazing game some day. Turns out you have to do too much math to do that kind of work. But the stuff I learned hacking around Doom was enough to kick start me into a programming career, leaving my career as a professional saxophonist on the sidelines for the next decade and a half.
When I started programming I usually did it in the wee hours after playing music in a Memphis bar all night.
What does your typical day look like?
I don’t really have a typical day. Sometimes I’m teaching in a foreign city. Sometimes I’m sitting in my basement writing code. Sometimes I’m sitting with my wife programming by the beach. Sometimes I’m at home playing the guitar. One thing I can say, though, is compared to the corporate background I started my career in, my typical day is pretty much always atypical. I like that about it.
What do you do in your free time?
Travel with my wife, make music, exercise (I took up running and lost 70 pounds semi-recently), play video games (Counterstrike!), read, or watch movies or television.
When I was younger, I used to spend most of my free time working. I don’t do that anymore.
Current favorite apps?
Evernote, mostly because I can sync notes between my iPad, phone, and various Windows and Mac OS laptops. I’m certainly no power user though.
Steam. Hoping they port Counterstrike to the Mac soon. It shouldn’t be long considering they have Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 running. Specifically, my wife and I play a mod called GunGame. I’ve used Counterstrike as my brain rest while writing 2 books. I’ll be sad when it’s finally obsolete.
What OS do you prefer?
All operating systems are infuriating in different ways. I probably use Mac OS more than anything else but I wouldn’t want to give it so much credit as to say I “prefer” it.
Small picture for your Workplace?
My workplace is such a mess you really don’t want to see it.
Favorite: Color, Font, Language, JS Framework?
Green, don’t care, can’t shake Ruby, Node.js if you consider that to be a framework.
Name something that has inspired you recently?
Lately I’m finding inspiration in the work of people who blend art, fun, and software development. Examples from the Ruby community are Aaron Patterson, Greg Borenstein, and Glenn Vanderburg –Glenn specifically for his upcoming Whyday project/celebration.
Another example though a little old is JD Barnhart’s Arduino wine glass player (uses RAD, the Ruby Arduiino framework by Greg Borenstein). I love this mix of software, music, performance, and real world objects. While I was on my weight loss kick, I hooked an Arduino up to my exercycle and used it to drive a little home made video game spike as well as to monitor and graph RPMs over time. I can’t say it directly helped me lose weight but having something nerdy attached to my fitness goals was a motivator.
What do you prefer (and why)? Freelance work or full time employment?
I like a mix of both. I’m currently working full time for a company which provides a freelance-like environment. I love being exposed to as many different people, projects, and technologies as possible. The setup at InfoEther provides exactly those freelance-style benefits while also providing a salary with benefits. I was a freelancer for a while and I hated the constant fear over where my next hour of work was going to come from. In practice I share that responsibility at InfoEther now but it feels much better to do it as part of a team.
In most of the full time jobs I’ve had in the past, I’ve been able to create an environment that was very much like freelancing. As long as you’re willing to lead, you can avoid some of the common traps
What are your personnel projects and goals for 2010?
By the end of the year I want to have run a marathon, played live in a band again, written and recorded a significant number of new songs, and gotten proficient in a new programming language or development environment.
