Coding, Managing and Christianity

About Me

Welcome to my Blog. I thought before I write about things related to my job and Christianity, I first should tell a little bit about myself and what got me to write. I’m not even sure I will keep it up or how frequent I will write. I work in the IT industry in the Greater Boston area. It is not far off to say that computers have changed my life. I was an average student in middle school but not particularly good at anything, but I took a Computer Science elective and caught the bug. Not sure my recollection is correct, but back then it was an Olivetti M 20, which had a one-line display, an 8” floppy and a thermo paper printer. From there I got my first job during the school holidays at a German research institute where they allowed me to first code a little Fortran on an IBM 3850, later 8080 assembler, then Sun 3 & 4 systems, even a little bit time on a Gray. I went to college, founded a small IT company with two friends, went on to a job with an US company. Today after a transfer to the US, a Green Card and several other jobs I manage a project with about 40 software and quality engineers here in Boston and India. I don’t code much any longer professionally, but still love it and occasionally steal some time to do it. [August 2017: Things have changed since I wrote this. I now lead a small team of developers at a financial software company, where I find time to code.] A while ago I became a big fan of Python and probably will write about coding in Python on occasion. I will also write about Agile/Scrum. Over the years I have read, heard and learned a lot about software project management, but Agile is the only thing that only sounds good in theory, but also works in practically.

So why writing about software engineering and Christianity? About 8 years ago I got baptized in a Bible based, non-denominational Church. You may think I’m nuts, but I truly believe that my career and being able to live in the United States was God actively intervening (Job 14:5-6). I said earlier that computers changed my life. Wouldn’t it be for the computer science elective in middle school, I probably would still live in the suburbs of Munich, working in some trade after an apprenticeship. I would never have met my wonderful wife, would never have moved to the United States and may not even care about God. I may be a member of the Catholic Church and attend on Christmas and Easter, because that’s what one does in Bavaria. What happened instead was that I left the Catholic Church, because I didn’t’ believe in God any longer, went on with my career and came to the point where I realized that I can’t do it without God. Otherwise it is meaningless - Everything is meaningless (Ecclesiastes 12:8-14).

I suppose I still haven’t answered the question why writing about software engineering and Christianity, but you probably guessed it by now. In my profession it is not so much about engineering, but as a manager it is mainly about people. Christianity is about God and relationships. One can’t live a righteous life just by himself. It is always in the context of my relationships with the people around me. I managed to keep Christianity out of my job for a good part of the last 8 years. This is wrong and must change, so read this as a confession. I hope to write a good deal about what I learn on this journey.