About

3 min read
Photo of me on my first skiing trip in the French Alpes!

Photo of me on my first skiing trip in the French Alpes!

Hi, I’m Kyle. This is my little corner of the internet where I ramble about software development, artificial intelligence, and whatever else happens to be on my mind.

By day I’m a Software Engineer with over 9 years of experience, specialising in .NET and C# development, leading backend service improvements, and implementing cutting-edge solutions. Over the last few years I’ve built a semantic web component using SPARQL and Apache Jena Fuseki to improve the granularity of content delivered in the platform, completed several stack-wide upgrades from .NET 5 through to .NET 10, spearheaded an initiative to rollout OpenTelemetry across our technology stack, and implemented integrations with ChargeBee and Stripe.

Away from the day job, I’m endlessly curious about where AI is heading, what makes software genuinely good to work with, and the ideas from books that stick with me. Speaking of which, here are some Software Development books I’ve read, along with a few thoughts on each:

Fundamentals of Software Architecture By Mark Richards & Neal Ford
A well paced book on the basic principles of Software Architecture. It explores architectural characteristics, how a system is composed of a series of characteristics and discusses the various trade-offs when picking them. Mark and Neal also talk about established architectural patterns, like microservices and service oriented architecture.
A Philosophy of Software Design By John Ousterhout
Immune: A journey into the system that keeps you alive By Philipp Dettmer
Bonus! I purchased this shortly after the Kurzgesagt YouTube channel announced it's launch. It is a fascinating exploration of the Human Immune system, how it works and how it keeps you alive!
What We Owe the Future By William MacAskill
Bonus! A philosophers perspective on a concept called longtermism. It talks about how we all have a duty to do what we can, and must, to preserve the world, the knowledge within it, such that we can continue on as a species and civilization for the future ahead. It covers concepts like AI safety and Climate change. I like to think I take the on the same ideals when it comes to developing software, ensuring it does not cause harm socially, physically, and environmentally.
The Pragmatic Programmer By Andrew Hunt & David Thomas
The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers By Robert C. Martin
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship By Robert C. Martin
The first Software Development book I picked up when I started my first professional Software Engineering role. It provides an insight to some basic principles within software you can follow to help write readable and maintainable code. For example, by using the DRY (don't repeat yourself) principle and adhering to the SOLID principles.