Hi, it's Robin. I am a german software engineer and freelance developer from Berlin/Germany. First of all, thank you for reading my blog. It's such a pleasure to have you here!
A couple of words about my professional life: I am a German software and web developer dedicated to learning and teaching JavaScript. After obtaining my Master's Degree in computer science, I gained experience from the startup world where I used JavaScript intensively during both my professional life and spare time. For a few years, I worked closely with an exceptional team of engineers at a company in Berlin, developing large-scale JavaScript applications, which eventually led to a desire to teach others about these topics.
During my time as a developer in Berlin, I regularly wrote articles about web development on my website. I received great feedback from people learning from my articles which allowed me to improve my writing and teaching style. Article after article, I grew my ability to teach others. I find it it fulfilling to see students strive by giving them clear objectives and short feedback loops.
Currently, I am a self-employed developer helping companies in creating their MVPs, conducting workshops and code audits/reviews, and creating large-scale JavaScript applications. You can find more information about me, ways to support me, and how to work with me in the next sections.
Values and Mission
I try my best to have a positive impact on the world. 99% of my code is open source for everyone on GitHub. Every time I build a product/service for myself, I immediately think about how to open source it for others. Even though I open source my work and offer lots of learning material for free, not everyone is able to make use of it. Many people have no access to it because they didn't had the chance to learn the English language in the first place. That's why I try here and there to volunteer or to donate money to good causes. I have the strong believe that the major issue of diversity in our industry is due to inaccessible education for people outside of the western world. Apart from the language barrier, most educational content is too expensive. Whereas a programming course for $99 might be affordable in the US, it's out of reach for any eager programmer in South East Asia. I know that many programmers producing educational courses need to make a living, I am sitting in one boat with them, but there are options to make educational content affordable for others around the world too. After all, I hope that I can give something back by believing in these values and my mission to make education more accessible to everyone.
Passions beyond Web Development
Even though I do a lot of programming in my professional and spare time, there are other things I treasure too. I am an avid reader, but I’m always struggling to memorize my learnings. I guess, that's why I started to write down my notes of books I enjoyed to read. But it's difficult to keep up with all the books. Nowadays I often encourage people to read more, because it's such a fulfilling and meaningful activity. Some of my favorite pieces:
- Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Deep Work by Cal Newport (notes)
- Give and Take by Adam Grant (notes)
- The One Thing by Gary Keller
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- On Writing Well by William Zinsser notes
In another life, I wanted to do music. But I avoided the stage at nightclubs when I got the first requests in my inbox. I preferred the anonymous internet over any stage. That's why I never revealed my identity back in the days and maybe that's why I never tried public speaking for conferences. Eventually, I decided to code and started to enjoy it too. Still, music is one reason why I am staying partly in Berlin. Nowhere else, I believe, will you find such a great selection of electronic music.
What I Use
The following is a selection of my tools that I use for my professional work. The links to the resources can be affiliate links or referral links. The former give me some provision, the latter provides you and me with a discount to a service or product. So most of the time it's a win-win situation and these affiliate links are one way to support me being self-employed. However, most importantly I hope that these resources help you to build your business.
Mac Setup
Technical Gear
I have a couple of technical gadgets I heavily rely on:
- MacBook Pro 2021
- 14-inch
- Apple M1 Pro mit 10‑Core CPU, 16‑Core GPU und 16‑Core Neural Engine
- 32 GB RAM
- 512 GB SSD
- QWERTY = English (International)
- Backup MacBook Pro 2015
- 13-inch
- 2,7 GHz Intel Core i5
- 16 GB RAM
- 256 GB SSD
- QWERTY = English (International)
- Laptop Stand (the best thing to work in co-working spaces when not having an external display)
- Trackpad and Keyboard
- Headphones
- Display
- Microphone
Freelancers
If you are looking for top quality people to help you with your online business, checkout these people I worked with in the past. I highly recommend their skills and abilities to provide value to your company. Let them know that you heard about them from me :-)
Online Marketing and Social Media: Liesa Wieruch helps individuals and companies growing their businesses regarding social media, influencer marketing, content production and distribution. Do you play with the idea to start a blog? Do you want to publish your own ebook? Or do you want to reach people on social social media? If you are looking for a person to help you in marketing and content, don't hesitate to contact her.
Proofreader/Editor: Emmanuel Stalling double checks all my tutorials, how-to guides and ebooks. I want to deliver high quality of educational content and Emmanuel makes sure that everything is well proofread and edited.
Logo Design: I worked with Ahmad Foysal on my website's logo. His creative work and thought process are well suited to meet your needs if you are looking for a new logo or corporative brand design. If you want to see his previous work, ask him to send you his Behance account.
Digital Ocean
When I revamped my website, I decided to use Digital Ocean to host it. I don't regret it and can highly recommend it. It powers all my websites, APIs and applications by using only 3 Droplets (each $5 month). I believe one droplet would be sufficient, but I like to separate them by domain.
In order to use my own domain for my E-Mails, but also to keep my E-Mails private, secure and ad-free, I use Fastmail.
Now you know a bit more about me :) Maybe some of the resources are useful for you as well. I hope to see you again on my website!
