Introduce Yourself!

Welcome to our Community :raised_hands:

We’re so glad you’ve joined us. We’d love to get to know you better, so please take a moment to introduce yourself and share your interests with us.

Whether you’re into music, sports, technology, or anything else, we’d love to hear about it.

Let’s build a strong, supportive Community together!

3 Likes

Nice. I’ll start!

Hi, I’m Jeremy. I’m the co-founder and CEO of Exercism. I’ve been coding for as long as I can remember. While most of my day-to-day work is in web dev (e.g. building Exercism, specifically using Ruby!) I’ve also done various other bits and pieces including building CAD software and creating a Machine Learning algorithm used during Interventional Cardiology. I have a degree in AI (from before it was cool!) and have been passionate about the subject and especially neural networks since my teens.

The other half of my work time is spent being entrepreneurial. As well as Exercism I’ve co-founded a number of businesses including Kaido (a team culture platform), Meducation (now defunct - but a medical education platform used by 20% of medical students worldwide) and Wondr Medical (a medical educational platform for doctors which I’m no longer involved in). I’ve also volunteered as a non-exec director for organisations such as We Don’t Settle.

Outside of work, I like to do things that move my body - climbing, walking and yoga. I used to play Ultimate Frisbee to a high level and played football (soccer for you Americans!) until recently where I decided my knees were better off without it! I’m also currently spending a lot of my free time playing chess, which I’ve not done since I was pre-teen but am really enjoying learning properly.

8 Likes

Hello! I’m Isaac Good. During the day, I am a Site Reliability Engineer. I write a lot of Python and some shell scripting. I spend a lot of time automating things. I’ve taught classes at work, mostly around Python but occasionally around awk, unit testing, OpenSCAD and others. I also spend a lot of time on Exercism.

On Exercism, I mentor Python, awk, bash, occasionally Go and now jq. I’m listed as a maintainer for awk, bash, jq and I occasionally contribute to Python, as well.

Outside of office hours, my hobbies include coffee (including home roasting), sourdough, cycling, hiking and gardening to name a handful. I also enjoy reading fantasy novels.

5 Likes

Bruce Axtens. Writing code since 1977. Getting paid for it since 2006. Currently the senior software engineer for a digital marketing company. Senior because I’m 61 and the only one they’ve got. Before that I provided IT Support to two NGOs, one in Pakistan in the late 1990s and before that in Papua New Guinea in the mid 1980s. And there were other short term contracts inbetween.

While I write this, code I’ve written in a combination of C# and JavaScript manages sales leads for two car-sales yards on either side of the Australian mainland. Another bit of code is currently transferring motorcycle inventory from a manufacturer to a reseller’s WooCommerce site. Current work projects include assorted workflows targeting Google Workspace (particularly Sheets, Docs and Drive) via Google Apps Script.

I’ve had the privilege of being involved with HOPL (the Online Historical Encyclopaedia of Programming Languages) and of being part of the team that brought COBOL to Exercism. I’ve added 8th (a FORTH dialect), in the process of adding Euphoria and would love to add SNOBOL4.

4 Likes

Hello guys! I’m a student from Russia, and I want to study English. Can you help me? Also, if you want, I can help yourself with Russian! I hope that I can find new friends

4 Likes

Hey, my name is Alex. I’m a relatively new coder and have been learning to program for around 2 years but my background is in IT and Computers. I think Exercism is a fantasic platform, the mentoring program has really helped me improve my coding and problem solving skills. I usually lurk in places like this but as I am a big fan of Exercism, I thought I’d go out of my comfort zone and try to get more involved in the community! :slight_smile:

I’ve managed to land on my feet and get a backend position at a startup despite my limited experience. I mainly write JavaScript logic for our tax calculation app. Outside of programming/computers I love languages, I am fluent in English and Spanish, speak some Portugese and Italian and am currently trying to become fluent in French. I also love cooking and exercising.

Hope to become an active member of this great community!

7 Likes

A post was merged into an existing topic: :studio_microphone:NEW COMMUNITY STORY - Prolific Mentor And System Automator - Isaac Good

Hello all,
I’m Torkil, father of 2, former classical musician in the middle of a career change towards software development.
For years I have been using open source software for various needs, including Linux as my daily driver, Firefox, LibreOffice, LaTeX, Frescobaldi/Lilypond for sheet music, the fics database for chess preparation.
I strongly believe that FLOSS is very important not only from a technical, but also from a social point of view, and I hope that one day I will be able to give back to the community.
Which by the way you guys are already doing in a fantastic way by running this site! I’m looking forward to the time I’ll be spending together with other learners and mentors around here - thanks a lot!

7 Likes

Hi, I’m Bob.

I’m a US Navy veteran who served as a radioman on a nuclear fast attack submarine in the late 70s. Learning about boolean logic circuits helped prepare me for programming many years later.

I got started with programming simultaneously for both work and a hobby in the early 90s. For work, I started by modifying screen displays and filtering call lists to be called by bilingual reps for a predictive dialing system. My hobby coding, which included hexing saved Civilization game files, helped me in plumbing the binary files at work for what I needed.

During the dotbom bubble I worked as a consultant on short-term programming projects for three telecommunications companies, a retail clothing company, a mortgage brokerage, a financial services company, and an electricity utility company. After the bubble burst I worked for a parking software company for three years. Then I coded learning management software and simulations for an industrial steam boiler consulting company for eleven years. My last job before I retired was coding logistics software for a US Customs broker for three years.

I’m very fickle when it comes to my favorite programming language. I’ve had a lot of favorite languages.

Besides coding, I write poetry and have been published in various print and online literary magazines over the years.

6 Likes

Hi everyone! I’m Gonzalo, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m a huge fan of learning new stuff – when I have some time.

I joined Exercism a few days ago thanks to a TikTok video! For now, I’m practicing my JavaScript skills, that I’ve learned and never used :frowning: so I hope I can get back in the game soon.

I’d be more than happy to contribute some day, specially for the Spanish-speaker community out there.

I also like reading, cooking and gin-tonic :wink:

5 Likes

So nice to hear from you and thanks for joining. Was the TikTok video by Eugene Fernandes?

1 Like

Hi Loretta, it was actually a Reel on Instagram. Here’s the link

3 Likes

Hi - Love that! I am glad you found us, regardless of the route, but it’s really useful to see who is promoting us out there. Thanks for sending over.

2 Likes

Hello
I am Andreas and I live in Berlin, Germany. I am learning Python and I am glad that I found this very useful site. I tried to learn programming several years ago from a book, (Pascal / Delphi) but I didn’t come very far, so I forgot about it. Some time ago I watched a Youtube video with a short introduction to Python and I immediately realised that this is the perfect language for me and my purposes. Things have improved tremendously since I first tried to learn programming ca 18 ys ago. There are tons of helpful videos to get started and the amount of informations for people who want to learn to write their own programs is mind-blowing. Nowadays, we even have tools like ChatGPT (who already satisfyingly answered me some questions about Python and programming). In my opinion, there has never been a better time to learn programming than now.

I like going to the gym and I also like learning (human) languages like English, French, a bit Spanish and Russian and I’ve also dabbled a bit in Japanese: 初めまして、アンドレアスです。ベルリンに住んでいます。

By the way, I found to this site when I searched for Python learning sites and I stumbled upon this site: 15 Best Codewars Alternatives 2023. Exercism was listed as number 1.

By the way, my nickname here, Firithfenion, is from a (no longer existing) LOTR fansite with a name-generator who told me that in Tolkiens Middle-earth, I’d be an Elve with this name. :star_struck:

6 Likes

こんにちはアンドレアス。 「wanikani」をご存知ですか?

2 Likes

@iHiD some Japanese for you!

1 Like

Hi! I’m Ori, from New York City. I started using Exercism to learn Rust, and have fallen in love with the platform. I’ve never been much for programming competitions, advent of code, LeetCode, etc. – but Exercism’s vibe is really different from all those other sites. The interactions I’ve had here with other members have been uniformly positive and encouraging, and the lack of pressure to complete solutions quickly or to outdo anyone means I can just get into the pleasure of programming. It is helping me overcome burnout at work, and I’m very grateful for it.

9 Likes

ありがとう、ヴァエングさん。知りませんでした。おもに Asahi Kanji や Heisig を使っています。

1 Like

Hi all!

My name is Jesse, I’m from The Netherlands and have been coding for a few years now. First as a hobby, then took up a IT study and I’m now in my first year as a junior backend engineer at a company that creates software for workshops in the automotive sector. Profesionally I use Golang on my day-to-day work, but in my spare time I like to dabble in and learn more about other languages as well.

I’m very much interested in becoming more proficient in Golang but also software engineering and software architecture. I’m using Exercism to become a better coder and have fun while learning new languages. I also like to mentor other coders with less experience if I feel like I am able to. Hope to start meeting some cool new people here.

4 Likes

Hey @atdt - a warm welcome to you and thanks so much for the kind words. Great to have you here with us and looking forward to walking a small part of the programming journey with you!