Michael Newton

I've been working in software development for a couple of decades now ever since I automated myself out of two clerical jobs in a row. I did, in fact, replace myself with a (not so) small script and this seemed like a hint that maybe I should go into programming as a career after all.

Since then I've worked on projects as varied as an agentic AI framework for a brand new start up, an educational website for teaching writing in US schools, and a database tracking where and when fires happen for a UK Fire and Rescue Service. But it soon became clear that sharing my skills and experience was just as important to me as using it, and my professional roles expanded to include being a technical lead, mentoring individuals, teaching groups via professional training courses, and sharing specialist knowledge and experience through conference talks/workshops. 

In my home life I've helped home educate my son and some of his peers in programming, computer security, and telling stories.

In my hobbies I've created shared stories with hundreds of people via role playing and board games.

Mix vigorously with a side helping of ADHD and all the curiosity that implies, and out pops a person who loves the beauty of a good computer science abstraction but still cares about what we're going to use it for. Who finds the logic of computer code fascinating, but still views code as fundamentally a shared narrative told by the team of coders writing it. Who loves stories, but even more loves stories that live and evolve as they are shared and modified by the people taking part in them, whether that's a story of fantastic adventure, dragons, and heroes or whether that's the story of an organization founded by somebody who thought "you know... I've got an idea to make the world a better place."