The header image is Embarking on an Adventure by Mantas Hesthaven

Inspired by James Turner's recent post on beginning a new chapter in the development journey - which, in turn was inspired by a post by DeChamp - I thought that I'd write a public farewell to Audacia Consulting, and all of the wonderful people I've met there. The people I've grown with, and watched grow

I've even had a hand in shaping some of them, too

First: The Beginning

I remember that I was around 6 years old when I first encountered a programmable computer: The Amstrad CPC 464 (which is a terribly British computer)

psst: I've written about that machine before here

From the very off, I loved that I could tell this computer to do things. It's a common enough backstory to the development journey that there's a podcast all about it by Shawn Wildermuth

and he's even making a documentary movie about it

We eventually got a Windows 3.1 machine, and I loved messing around with the autoexec.bat file, having to create boot floppy's to start some games

X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, I'm looking at you

but we mostly used it to help us to do our homework - with my Mum using it to pass all of her college courses.

Around the year 2000, I got my own machine. It had an Intel Pentium CPU, about 64 MB of RAM, and (probably) a 500MB hard drive.

those may not be the correct specs. It's been almost 20 years

I loved that thing, even though I killed Windows on the first day that I had it, and it had to be reinstalled.

It was only natural that I'd take programming classes at college

I keep mentioning college but, as I'm from the UK, this was the 16-18 age bracket

and go on to take a CompSci degree, with the hopes of joining the games dev industry. That dream was not to be, because I found systems and web development, and fell in love with making a server do crazy things.

I've since created R&D applications which talked to experimental hardware (using WinForms); countless web applications (using both ASP NET Framework and Core); mobile applications (using a combination of JS technologies and a little of Xamarin); a bunch of throwaway applications which help me stay productive in the podcasting space; and run the DevOps department for a company.

It's been one heck of a journey so far, and it's just the beginning.

What's Next?

I don't know yet, but I'll be sure to update this post or write a follow up when I figure out just what's next for me.

I could stay in the DevOps space, I could head back to the Dev space, I could move further into the public speaking space

I totally smashed my goals for 2018, regarding that

or take a closer look at what I'm doing with my podcasts

The .NET Core Show, The Waffling Taylors, DevOtaku, and Ask a Brit; if you're at all interested

Or none of the above. I just don't know right now. But I do know that one way to keep up with my journey is to follow me on Twitter, or sign up for The .NET Core Podcast Newsletter.

See You Around Folks

To the all the devs at Audacia who I've worked long into the night with, fixing broken sites or servers (or both); I've helped figure out Core vs Framework differences with; those I've learnt from, and those I've taught lessons to:

Thank you. You've helped me grow and become a much better developer.

It was whilst at Audacia that I started to investigate .NET Core (albeit, in my own time), from that I started writing a blog all about .NET Core. I brought that knowledge to the company and (with the help of the awesome devs) built a number of templates, tools and productivity boosters which helped you all to fly. Once that was done, I started to do talks (both internally and externally)

I even talked at Umbraco UK Festival in November 2018

and I even started a podcast on .NET Core.

I don't know whether we'll work together again, but I hope so. Maybe we'll meet up at a conference or something in the future. Who can say.

Until then: You've got this, just try not to bugger it up 😆