I make software that
is easy to live with.
I'm Eddie Ezekiel Ochieng, a software developer in Kenya. I'm calm to work with and particular about details. I like to understand a problem properly before I start building, and to stay long enough to see it used.
It started with a spreadsheet, honestly.
I'd be lying if I claimed a lifelong passion for technology. What I had was an itch to build things that make a real problem smaller. Early on, that meant pushing Excel much further than it was meant to go.
In 2016 I found a free MIT programming course and worked through it. I kept building small things while studying IT at Kabarak University. Over time, the side projects turned into paid work. Today I write mostly Python and JavaScript, with Next.js and TypeScript for full-stack work.
Start a project with me2016
Stumbled into it
I found one of MIT’s free programming courses online and worked through it out of curiosity. I had no plan for a career in tech. I just liked the idea of making a messy problem tidier.
University
IT at Kabarak
Kabarak gave some structure to the self-teaching. On the side I kept building small tools, and many of them started life as spreadsheets.
Now
Real products, real people
Today I build software that people rely on, including a dictionary for Kenyan languages and a safety platform of my own.
A few things I'd argue about.
How a thing feels to use matters as much as whether it works. People keep the tools they enjoy.
Plain is usually better than clever. If I have to explain a screen twice, the screen is the problem.
I would rather ship something small that holds up than something big that wobbles.
The interesting problems usually turn up a month after launch, so I stay around for them.
I'm a serious boxing fan. I don't fight, though I've done some boxercise and light sparring. I read and argue about the sport endlessly, from old greats like Sugar Ray Robinson and Pernell Whitaker to modern fighters like Chocolatito and Crawford. What draws me in is the tension. One punch can undo twelve rounds of good work, and every fighter knows it.
Outside boxing, I read a lot of Dostoevsky and Camus, and I'll happily lose an evening to Kant. St Augustine's Confessions is the book I return to when I need to slow down.
“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.”
Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Lately I've become just as interested in growing things. Deforestation and the state of our rivers bother me, so I'm teaching myself permaculture on a small scale, starting with pots on a balcony. It's slow work, which is probably why it reminds me of programming.
I've since turned that interest into a five-year, self-directed course in maths and practical self-reliance. It's public if you want to see how it's going.
Based in
Kenya
I work remotely and across time zones.