Chris Chedgzoy — Programmer & Systems Architect — 46+ years and counting

I started out writing BASIC and assembler on micro computers and never really stopped. I was building websites and writing server software before most people had even heard of the internet. When the tools didn't exist yet, I built my own. Over the years the languages and platforms changed but the work stayed the same: figure out what the business actually needs, then build something solid that lasts.

Most of my career has been spent in e-commerce, manufacturing, telecoms and consumer-facing platforms. I've built ordering systems, print workflows, stock management tools and more websites than I can count. C#, classic ASP, JavaScript, jQuery and SQL Server have been my bread and butter, though I've picked up plenty of others along the way.

I've led teams of all sizes, from solo projects to groups of 20+ spread across the UK and Europe. I care about clean code, proper testing and not overcomplicating things. I've always built with longevity in mind.

These days I'm semi-retired. I still take on the odd consulting job and I build small utilities for developers when something useful comes to mind. I also mentor a few people one-to-one, mostly helping them get past the stuff that textbooks don't cover.

I've been getting into AI lately and I love what it does for the repetitive stuff. The boilerplate, the scaffolding, the bits you've written a hundred times before. It's not that I can't write it, it's just tedious. AI takes that pain away and lets me focus on the interesting problems.