I offer a single bit of advice to friends and family when they become new parents: When you start to think that you’ve got everything figured out, everything will change. Just as you start to get the hang of feedings, diapers, and regular naps, it’s time for solid food, potty training, and overnight sleeping. When you figure those out, it’s time for preschool and rare naps. The cycle goes on and on.
The same applies for those of us working in design and development these days. Having worked on the web for almost three decades at this point, I’ve seen the regular wax and wane of ideas, techniques, and technologies. Each time that we as developers and designers get into a regular rhythm, some new idea or technology comes along to shake things up and remake our world.
How we got here
I built my first website in the mid-’90s. Design and development on the web back then was a free-for-all, with few established norms. For any layout aside from a single column, we used table elements, often with empty cells containing a single pixel spacer GIF to add empty space. We styled text with numerous font tags, nesting the tags every time we wanted to vary the font style. And we had only three or four typefaces to choose from: Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman. When Verdana and Georgia came out in 1996, we rejoiced because our options had nearly doubled. The only safe colors to choose from were the 216 “web safe” colors known to work across platforms. The few interactive elements (like contact forms, guest books, and counters) were mostly powered by CGI scripts (predominantly written in Perl at the time). Achieving any kind of unique look involved a pile of hacks all the way down. Interaction was often limited to specific pages in a site.
Jason's passion lies in developing software, with a particular knack for assembling teams and crafting web applications and marketplace platforms. His expertise in Ruby on Rails spans over 13 years, complemented by his extensive experience as a CTO and Engineering Lead. Throughout his career, Jason has contributed to a diverse array of projects, taking on roles from developer to founder.
Collaborating with clients globally, Jason's work has been integral to organizations like Deloitte, Github, Martha Stewart, Techcrunch, among others. For more than a decade, he has guided software engineering teams, playing a key role in initiating startups and enhancing companies in San Francisco, Melbourne, London, and Manila. Jason is a frequent traveler to these cities, always eager for opportunities to connect over coffee or beer. Renowned for his friendly demeanor, Jason is someone with whom connections are easily made and maintained.
