Chicago + Portland 877-899-9981
I’m Peter, the Solutions Architect at Soliddigital. I’ve been at Solid for about 9 years, and in the industry for over 10. We’re quite versatile at Solid. We’ve worked on mobile apps, TV apps, and of course tons of websites. I’d say our sweet spot is WordPress for most web sites and Node for a variety of custom integrations. We can work with your hosting or setup infrastructure for you. We rely on AWS for our cloud platform, and we like to leverage automation to give ourselves time to work on fun stuff instead of the same old same old.
Originally my degree is in the biological sciences. I began to use web technologies when I realized how many people I can reach with a simple website.
The first program I remember writing was a rendering of the Mandelbrot set based on instructions from Scientific American. This was probably sometime in junior high. My first website was written in ASP.net about nudibranchs, aka sea slugs sometime in 2003. From there I switched careers to web technology, did some freelancing, and worked at a few places before ending up at Solid Digital.
because it highlights how much of life depends on how you look at things. The origins of the quote are essentially unknown, but it does a really good job of summing up a certain point of view.
I’ve always been captivated by computer games, so I’ve tinkered with computers since I was little. When the web’s popularity began to take off, there were just more and more opportunities to work hands-on with computers and websites, so I took advantage of that.
I enjoy creating things while collaborating with others.
I have a lot of experience automating tasks, setting up the scaffolding and plans for our projects, and possibly most importantly debugging things. I bring some formal experience with various languages and commercial solutions such as AWS, but I think my generic debugging ability is probably the most valuable for clients. Whether you’re working with simply getting a template to show correctly, integrating with an API, or getting just about anything to work, debugging is essential. Most projects will hit a road-block where things stop unless you are able to get past this one point where something just isn’t working. I’m good at fixing things to enable getting past that one point.
A lot of programmers like to jump into code as soon as possible. I find that conversations can really guide your solutions both at the outset and as checkpoints along the way. I’d say the ability to listen, interpret, and ask questions is the killer trifecta for Solutions Architects and Developers.
I’ve enjoyed working on the Arnowitz Culture Engine. Creating that platform has been an ongoing partnership for many years, and getting to participate in the building of a product over time is a fun experience. There is more chance for feedback, planning, and adjusting things over time than a one-off or shorter projects.
Outside of work, I spend most of my time with my family. I still find a way to weave programming into the mix there. For example, for her birthday, I made my daughter a WordPress plugin that allows you to write your own “choose your own adventure” stories.
do some side projects using tools I’m interested in at the moment. I’ll take a Coursera course or write a silly game using a game engine I just read about.
I remember being really impressed by the Exploratorium as a kid.
It’s great to work with people you would happily interact with outside of work. Our culture attracts people like that.
I most enjoy the Solid BBQs. It’s fun to get together in good weather, and I enjoy going to a different location each year.
Pepperoni mostly because you can count on it being good. But I really like big chunks of tomato, mozzarella, and basil drizzled with olive oil and garlic (no sauce).
Q: What are three things still left on your bucket list?
Iterate to improve. Getting your foot in the door is relatively easy with programming related jobs at small agencies/companies. Once you do that iterate and build toward what you want to achieve.
Giving a damn. In the world today, whether it’s in the news or at the grocery store there are so many people that are not willing to look carefully at things. They’ll guess but not verify. They’ll talk but not listen. They’ll do but not pay attention. No one gets everything – or even most things – right, but I want to be known for caring about how I’m doing and caring about whether I’m helping.
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