Hello World, I’m David T. Dassau

I have been a creative artist for most of my life. Writing, drawing, casting spells to protect me from the Dark Lord: you name it, I’ve at least attempted it. However, back in 2012, I took the that fated red pill, and wandered down that deep, dark rabbit hole that is web design and development. Once I started learning about the basics, I couldn’t get enough. My very first site was a blog/comedy site that was 100% HTML and CSS, so any time I wanted to move stuff around on the site, I had to do so manually. It was exhausting. Cut to me, 4 years later, back in school at the Nashville Software School, learning how to make websites where you can DYNAMICALLY display content.

I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to do what I do every day. With all the gifts and pleasantries that I am afforded in my daily life, I find that there is little room left to complain.

At the particular junction in my software programming career, I’ve had to ask myself which aspect of development I enjoy more: the front-end or back-end. Ah yes, the famous “would-you-rather” question that all developers just LOVE answering. Well, to be completely honest, I love both sides. I know that answer is seen more often than not, but it’s usually used as a stalling tactic on the interviewee’s part. But me? I actually DO love both sides. My first love in the world of web development was making really pretty, well-functioning web sites. And even after learning the ins and outs of JS, jQuery, Browserify, Angular, React, I still love making front-end websites. However, I love using C#, ASP.NET, and SQL to build really amazing, robust software applications.

If you saw software development at the gym, the front-end would be the guys on the treadmills and ellipticals, while the back-end would be the folks hitting giant tires with sledgehammers. As much fun it is to get your sweat on with some cardio, I also feel the need to work in some crazy cross-fit.