I have been wishing to work with functional languages ever since I started programming, and I am currently living the dream writing Elixir at Remote (the company). At the same time, I strive to always remain grounded and be a pragmatic problem solver. I write a lot of Javascript as well especially in my personal projects, as there is no way around it, plus ES6 is not half bad.
Recently I started to lead a team of engineers. I believe there is a lot of value in serving others beyond just being a good IC. After all, projects come and go; the code you write today might well be dead in five years. But if I am able to help somebody grow and succeed and leave an impact on their career, no matter how big or small, it is much more satisfying and meaningful in the long run. I also enjoy collaborating with stakeholders to untangle projects and ensure everybody is aligned, which is particularly crucial as the organizational complexity grows.
In my spare time, I am interested in everything about (human) languages. I probably went overboard with it and got a master’s degree in computational linguistics. I try to make time for learning and practicing new languages every day. I currently live in Berlin.
I try to blog little things (though I’m probably not converting nearly enough of my countless Org mode notes into actual blog posts, and I haven’t had nearly as much time recently as when I first started out). As long as somebody out there has gleaned something useful from a post, I’m a happy man :)
You may reach me at hi@xiangji.me.