Nathanael Farciert

Challenges add spice to life - the challenge itself and solving it. Perhaps that partially explains why I like what I like: toiling through a tricky math problem and weaving an elegant proof from seemingly unrelated ideas. Or looking for a dim star cluster despite terrible light pollution in NYC but finally catching the photons that have been traveling for thousands of years at the speed of light. Or working on a software project where the complexity of a real world problem has to get broken down into manageable components constrained by a framework or programming language. How thrilling!!

One of the challenges I've enjoyed has been becoming a software developer via my own path. I chose not to pursue a CS degree, and that has made the learning experience trickier and more introspective than I could have ever imagined. With so many resources available to learn new programming languages, paradigms, frameworks, data structures, algorithms, and so much more, I had to stop myself several times to evaluate what was worth serious study and what topics could be skimmed over. I did realize that learning to become a software developer is like learning to play instrument. You can only learn so much from reading and watching. You have to play. Well, why not check out some of my projects below!