archmagus

Up until now, I’ve kept this blog strictly about technical discussions (and there hasn’t been too much interesting to discuss lately that hasn’t had extensive coverage elsewhere, sorry about that!). Today, however, I have some exciting news to share that isn’t strictly technical, though it will no doubt have a major impact on the things that I’m working on and may end up reflecting (positively) on the posts I make in the blog going forward.

I am thrilled to announce that this Monday, August 20th, is my first day at Rapid7, an awesome cybersecurity company that has recently opened a new innovation center down in Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. I’m sure you have heard the increasing reports of how fragile our current online services are to break-ins and theft, and as more and more of us are putting ever greater portions of our lives out in the cloud, it becomes ever more critical that those spaces become secure. Rapid7 is on the side of the good guys in helping companies big and small get a handle on the security of their environments, and I’m extremely excited to be able to do my part to help make the cloud a safer, more secure place. My role at the company will continue to involve a lot of front-end work, and my first goal as I get to work is to build a JavaScript environment for our new tools that will be as healthy and robust an application development environment as any backend work, so watch this space for more tips and ideas on that front!

If I can get a little personal for a minute, this is such an exciting move for me. Not only will I be given the opportunity to take what I have been learning about healthy JavaScript application craftmanship and applying it to an industry that is doing really good work for society, but this will be the first time in my entire Boston career that I will finally be working down in Cambridge rather than the 128 tech circle. This means much more opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas with other developers working on other awesome projects down in Kendall Square, and it also means finally getting to put the Minuteman Bikeway which runs alongside my house to work. No more driving for me; the last couple days have been, in part, spent getting my bike in shape for daily commuting. Oh! And Rapid7 was awarded the #1 best medium sized business to work at by the Boston Business Journal this year. Jealous? We’re hiring!

Of course, a big move like this doesn’t come without ramifications. It is with a heavy heart that I must reduce my role in the company I co-founded, 10×10 Room, to that of advisor. I will be investing a lot of my brainspace going forward into rolling out the best possible front-end architecture I can for Rapid7, and it would not be good for either Rapid7 or 10×10 Room if I tried to ride both horses at once. I have made a ton of friends in the game development industry over the past few years, and I am genuinely sorry that I never did get a chance to meet more of them in person. I will still be following everyone on the social interwebs, and I can’t wait to hear what amazing work y’all will be sharing with us in the future. No matter how old I get, I’m sure I will always identify as a gamer, and it was a true honor to consider myself a game developer for a short while as well. I’m also incredibly excited to know what’s coming down the pipeline for 10×10 Room and Conclave, which makes this an even more difficult departure. Needless to say, Rapid7 had a very, very high bar to hit to get me to leave my current company, which I guess just goes to show once again how excited I am about this new role.

Well, that’s enough nattering on personal life stuff on this blog. For the tl;dr crowd: I’m going to be doing a lot more JavaScript architectural work in the future for a new company, the new company is awesome, and both of those things put together will hopefully mean there will be some more fun JavaScript posts coming your way here soon. Watch this space, and thanks for reading!