Tyler Burdsall from the United States, has been nominated in the Software Development category for an award as Hacker Noon's "Contributor of the Year" in Python! He is a software developer at AWS Elemental, who loves video games, likes playing music, but doesn't like seafood? Let's find out why below!
1. Which 2020 Noonie have you been nominated for?
2. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm a software developer at AWS Elemental working on live video technologies. I live in Oregon and I love exploring the Pacific Northwest with my wife. It's a lot of fun going on hikes, discovering new places, and trying new foods. Like many developers, I also love video games, playing music, cooking, and seeing new tech to work on!
3. Tell us about the things you make / write / manage / build.
Professionally I work on MediaStore at AWS Elemental. it's a low-latency, strongly-consistent origin for livestream workflows based in the cloud. MediaStore has been used for a lot of big sports events, such as the Super Bowl in 2020 and 2019. When I'm not working, I typically tinker around with new technologies at home, mostly writing my projects in Kotlin, Python, Swift, or C.
4. What are you most excited about right now?
I'm super excited to see the development of Apple's ARM silicon chips in their laptops. I think ARM offers a lot of performance while still being energy efficient, so it will be really cool to see how this influences both the software and hardware markets in the next 5 years.
5. What are you worried about right now?
Like everybody else, I'm really hoping this pandemic will eventually end without more suffering.
6. What's the most useful advice you've ever given somebody?
I don't know if there's "useful" advice I've been aware of, but I always try to tell people to not fall prey to Imposter Syndrome. Everybody has a lot of skills in what they do, and being surrounded by people you perceive as "smarter" or "working harder" offers a lot of learning opportunities to help yourself grow.
7. How has the pandemic changed your life and/or career?
On the positive side, I've been able to work from home which has given me so much more time with my wife and dog. I've spent less money on food, transportation, and I've gotten a lot more sleep. Unfortunately, like many others, I haven't been able to travel or see family and friends. But I'm making the best of what I can while remaining safe so we can all be healthy.
8. If we gave you $10 million to invest in one thing right now, where would you put it?
I don't know exactly where it could go, but where $10 million dollars could help bring justice and equality to those less privileged than I have been.
9. What's an opinion you have that most people don't agree with?
I don't like a lot of seafood. I know a lot of people swear by some chowder, lobster, shrimp, or fish, but I just don't think they're as good as people say they are.
10. Which apps can't you live without?
Definitely Spotify. It's cross-platform and well worth the monthly fees to have a curated music experience wherever I go.
11. What are you currently learning?
I'm currently learning Swift for native iOS app development. I've developed an Android app with React Native, so this is a new challenge!
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