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#+TITLE: hello world |
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#+AUTHOR: Richard Westhaver <ellis@rwest.io> |
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#+OPTIONS: ^:nil toc:nil num:nil html-postamble:nil |
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#+HTML_HEAD: <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.xz.style/serve/inter.css"> |
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#+HTML_HEAD: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://packy.rwest.io/style/css/new.min.css"/> |
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#+HTML_HEAD: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://packy.rwest.io/style/css/terminal.css"/> |
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If we've spoken recently I may have mentioned this new venture, but I |
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certainly didn't communicate my intentions well. Now is the time to |
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elaborate. |
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* The Compiler Company |
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The name is a play on the phrase /Compiler Collection/, as in [[https://gcc.gnu.org/][GNU |
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Compiler Collection (GCC)]] and emphasizes my approach to |
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problem-solving involving compiler technologies. |
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I recently registered as an LLC, but the purpose of the company is |
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that of a company incubator, or /compiler/ if you will. In other |
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words, I intend for /The Compiler Company, LLC/ to be a hub for |
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developing various interconnected products and services which can be |
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operated and managed independently of each other. |
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/The Compiler Company/ technically provides two things: |
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1. free and open-source software |
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2. professional consulting services |
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The software is made publicly available without restriction and anyone |
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can pay for paid professional consultations/training/etc. |
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The /core/ of our software suite is an insanely powerful development |
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environment built from scratch. It is the catalyst of engineering for |
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every other software component I build and reflects how I believe |
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software should be developed /today/. |
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The suite further contains a mixed bag of plugins, extensions, |
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libraries, and applications intended for software development in |
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addition to /all/ vendored dependencies. This setup gives us complete |
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control over every possible piece of code we encounter in the systems |
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we operate. |
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* About Me |
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Before introducing my company I think it's important to properly |
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introduce myself -- |
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+ Richard Westhaver (ellis@rwest.io) |
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+ 29-years-old (he/him) |
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+ living in CT |
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+ UConn graduate 2016 (economics+philosophy) |
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For most of my life, music has been my muse. I played piano and drums |
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in the school bands, gigs in the local scene and in college started |
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gravitating towards digital recording, sound design, and the process |
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of making music. I started to recognize all the little things about |
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music that made it so attractive to me: Composition, Rhythm, Design, |
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Creativity... All these fundamental concepts, which weave between |
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eachother to produce a piece of music. It's something I started to |
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think about deeply and apply to other mediums -- most importantly, |
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computers. |
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Programming, in many ways is music to computers. Programmers /are/ |
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musicians. This has been my approach ever since I started learning the |
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basics of Python. After college I began tinkering with Arduino boards, |
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learning about basic NLP models, and building digital synthesizers |
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with Max/MSP. I eventually got a job at a SaaS company in an Agile |
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product support role which was the perfect opportunity for me. I |
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learned all about web applications, software lifecycles, APIs, and the |
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usual cloud infrastructure. In a matter of months I knew what I wanted |
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to do for the rest of my life. |
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For the next few years I worked all day and programmed all night. I |
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became fluent in all things software and was in this sort of crazy |
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cycle, but loved it. Around early 2019 I started working closely with |
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a small group of exceptionally talented developers. We were delivering |
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massive projects for our clients while developing our own R&D |
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department. |
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One day, I was unexpectedly laid off. I would be lying if I didn't |
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admit it was absolutely /soul-crushing/. It was at the beginning of |
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COVID and there was a huge corporate shake-up (brand new C-suite), but |
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for someone like me it's impossible not to internalize that and wonder |
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why. This was a difficult time in my life and it took me quite some |
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time to get back on my feet. |
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On the bright side, I did get to spend some time thinking about /how/ |
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I want to program. When you're working 60h+ weeks at a software |
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company, this is something you can rarely afford if at all. I also |
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made an important decision on where I want my career to go - on how I |
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want to make money and participate in the industry. I want to work for |
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myself. |
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* Philosophy |
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I wasn't a Computer Science major at UConn. The only programming I did |
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in a classroom setting was in a statistics class in a program called |
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Stata. As is the case with other self-taught hackers my idea of |
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computer systems and how they should operate is probably worth |
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explaining to avoid confusion. |
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I call this section /Philosophy/, because I want you to question |
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it. Philosophy is the way things are from the leisure of a single |
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man's armchair, so I encourage you to pick it apart for yourself. |
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** Computers |
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** Compilers |
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** Companies |
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* Next Steps |
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We have a long way to go. The important thing is to keep up the |
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momentum. Before the start of 2024 you can expect another update on |
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some of the projects below. |
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** the.compiler.company |
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** infra |
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** core |
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** nas-t |
