The Geek Talk

Who is Marcus Westin?

A guy who’s passionate about life in general and tries to smile rather than complain. Tweets at @marcuswestin, loves javascript, and codes at Meebo (and you should, too!). Believes that human beings are good at the core, and that this day and age is the best to live in to date because of the capabilities that technology has given the individual to make a change for the better. Is building Fun, a programming language for the realtime web.

Where and when did you start programming?

In High School, with Lego Mindstorms :) You build robots with Legos and motors that are programmed with BASIC. I made a spider that wiggled its legs and climbed up a wire to the ceiling, as well as a walking bug that detected edges on a table and walked around it without falling off. It was a ton of fun!

With my appetite for programming whetted I set out to learn some more. The first thing was using c++ to build a prime number finder (everyone’s gotta do it once, right?). Later in my senior year I got into chaos theory and dabbled with finite automata – I got some really cool graphics made out of it, but never really understood what I was doing. Then I pretty much stopped coding. In college I studied art history and psychology, but finally took a computer science course just to fill up my schedule. That’s when I realized that code was my calling! I’ve always loved building things, but was never really good with “stuff”. Coding lets me build without the hindrances of physical material.

Meebo found my blog during senior year in college and pinged me – at the time I had no idea there was an industry that needed JS hackers! Getting to join up with a small team of super-talented JS engineers was a dream come true. I’ve never been among a more talented group of people – everyone’s super capable, trusting and kind. And did I mention that we’re hiring :)

Why Javascript?

Ease of distribution. You can send someone a link and the user’s click is equivalent to an install in the old world of software.

That’s how it started at least – soon after I fell in love with the functional nature of javascript. In addition, the fact that it’s trivial to get started with (all you need is a browser) and that the learning curve is so smooth (building UI with html and adding dynamic behavior with javascript is such a friendly gateway) really helped.

You favorite IDE. Language. JS Framework?

I write my code in vim and textmate. My favorite languages are javascript, c and fun. I like my javascript in the raw, sans library/frameworks, but there’s really a ton of cool shit being built in js in the past 2 years! I mean, just check out https://github.com/languages/JavaScript!

What does your typical day look like?

It changes all the time – today I got up early, did just a bit of yoga, had tea, and coded for an hour. I figure we’ve got life at work and our life outside of work – I try to live half of my life outside of work in the morning :)

What do you do in your free time?

Procrastinate.

Code, hang out with my best friend/girlfriend, cook, read.

Oh who am I kidding – what free time?

Current favorite apps?

Do people still use apps?

I guess gmail, the meebo bar, thesixtyone… Does github count?

What OS do you prefer?

OS X, hands down

Small picture for your Workplace?

That’s my current setup at our new NYC engineering office – we’re on the top floor of a building at 20th and Park Ave S. We’ve just started hiring NY engineers! Our most recent addition, Alex, started just two days ago. If you’re a hacker in NYC you should so totally come join up – we’re having a ton of fun creating an awesome workspace together :)

Name something that has inspired you recently?

I visited Kenya over the winter break – the African people I met there have so little yet are so generous. They always smile (why shouldn’t we?) and they taught me to enjoy waiting. It’s a valuable lesson that’s very hard to hold on to in NYC.

What do you prefer (and why)? Freelance work or full time employment?

Full time! I really like being around people, and the relationships you get to build while part of a startup are just amazing. In this day and age there is no good reason to work alone.

What are your personal projects and goals for 2011?

Release Fun and see it in the wild.