About

I’m Rhys Powell, an extremely online guy from Wollongong, Australia. Since my uni days, I’ve built a bunch of iOS apps you’ve probably deleted off your phone at some point, most recently as part of the team at my wonderful employer Bilue. In more recent times, I’ve picked up modern JavaScript, along with React and Redux and found a lot to like about that software stack. On my own time, I also enjoy toying around with Elixir, messing around with cloud infrastructure, and voraciously reading about as many new and interesting topics as I can.

I’m passionate about writing software that’s well designed, elegantly engineered, and built to last. I think learning how to write good software involves being open-minded to new approaches, constantly seeking out new ideas, and applying that knowledge with pragmatism and restraint. It also involves recognising software is never done, that good software engineering extends beyond just writing code, and that it’s important to recognise the social, collaborative nature of software development to deliver the best product.

Outside of software development, I love watching old movies and TV shows, playing esoteric indie games, and listening to a dizzyingly vast array of musical genres. I try to seek out and understand things I’m unfamiliar, to expand my ideas of what’s “for me”, and appreciate perspectives other than my own. That said, I also love to sit down and watch goofy-ass giant robot anime from the 80s from time to time as well; I know my comfort food.

A Brief History of The Author

• Some time in the mid-to-late ’00s your author discovers the world of phpBB forums and the intoxicating power of Macromedia Dreamweaver MX. He creates a lot of really terrible websites, launches a flash game portal with a few friends to get around the NSW schools internet filter, and learns how to write PHP and ActionScript really quite poorly.
• Later, in the early ’10s the author takes the only programming course offered by his high school, learns enough Python to decide he doesn’t like it, and luckily discovers Ruby, which he does like quite a bit. He read’s _why’s guide cover to cover a few times, before learning Rails, getting completely fed up with Windows, and switching to tolerable UNIX so he can use TextMate like that Railscasts guy does.
• Circa 2012 your listless author enrols in his local uni’s surprisingly good Computer Science degree, and spends many dry lectures writing Ruby code on his rapidly ageing MacBook. Also hey, those things have Xcode on them it turns out, so he spends enough time messing around with that to learn iOS development. This potent combination of skills gives him license to quit his retail job and subsist on a mix of contracting, tutoring, and work for his university. He makes a few neat apps under the employ of that university, organises some hackathons, takes part in a lacklustre internship, and eventually graduates.
• Recent years a buddy from uni contacts your employment-seeking author and says “hey, remember that cool iOS stuff we did for the uni? I’m working at a place now that does even better work.” So the author applies, gets that job, and has worked there up until now. It hasn’t been smooth sailing the whole time, but there’s something special about that place that’s kept him there despite that.