[dmerks]

I have been following my dreams for... perhaps the past 16 years, since late adolescence. It's always been a part of my makeup to chase after what seems most desirable while being somewhat risk averse. It's been a tumultuous ride. I've made plenty of mistakes, of poor decisions, I've tried many ways of living, I've been lucky and unlucky, I've learned a lot, I've suffered a lot, I've changed a lot. I've sacrificed health and relationships, spent resources aplenty... for mixed results. I can confidently say what make me happiest are my partner of eight years and my two daughters. I feel like I (we) built something nice to continue living carefully with passion.

E.g. I decided about two years ago to transition from Education (I was a special ed teacher in the private sector), where I hoped to develop useful tech for learning, to the world of Tech with the same goal in mind. I have always had an affinity for programming-- I have fond memories of making games (e.g. snake), bots, harmless trojans, etc. with the mIRC scripting language--, and an interest in solving problems related to the contents of our minds. I completed a few contracts in web development related to Wordpress (html, css, js, php, mysql) to get myself going, before deciding to learn a stack that would enable me to find better work opportunities or develop a learning product. I settled on React/Apollo/Express/Prisma/Postgres and have been working part-time on a flashcard web app eversince. I'm inspired by the likes of Duolingo, Anki and Quizlet, though I have a special appreciation for Lichess, among others. I wish to make it easier to choose/manage/share what one knows. I would like to generate revenue with this enterprise, but I'm unsure whether I will succeed. If I don't, I wonder how difficult it would be to find work related to what I've learned.