5 Questions with Max Li, JavaScript Developer
This series provides a glimpse into the lives of other developers working in the industry. What do we have in common? What can we learn from the journey of others?
1. How did you find programming?
I didn’t know what programming was until college. In 2012, a woman in Taiwan won the grand prize of Facebook World Hack, and I saw her story on Facebook, and it blew my mind. That was the first time I heard this “programming” term and got interested in it. But I didn’t indeed start programming until 2015.
In 2015, a friend of mine said the Facebook World Hack winner was teaching Ruby on Rails in Taipei and suggested that I apply for her course. I did it, and my life as a programmer officially started. (Thank you, my friend. :D)
2. What did you study in school?
I studied aerospace engineering in college. Back then, I didn’t know what to do in the future, so I chose this subject, and it also sounded cool.
I lost interest in my sophomore year and started trying to figure out what I truly love. I also wanted to change my major in the first place but found out the need to spend an extra year in the college, so I gave up.
I wouldn’t say that studying in college with a major I didn’t like was a complete waste of time. At least it broadened my horizons and helped me figure out what I want to do.
3. Why did you pick JavaScript?
When I first stepped into programming back in mid-2015, I was writing Rails and jQuery for an e-commerce website. At the time, I thought that learning Ruby well was more crucial than JavaScript.
In 2016, everything started to change. People started talking about React more in Taiwan, and a post in Ruby China said that there was an outstanding full-stack JavaScript framework called Meteor.js. So I decided to start learning Meteor.js to give it a try.
After graduating from college, I was fortunate to get a job opportunity in Beijing as a Meteor.js developer. And that’s the beginning of my full-stack JavaScript journey.
I would say that learning JavaScript is much more vital than Ruby right now if you want to get a job since the market share of JavaScript is much more prominent than Ruby.
4. What do you think about the rising popularity of functional programming in JavaScript?
Functional programming is not a new term. I think one of the main reasons it’s getting popular is due to the performance improvement of hardware so that people can focus more on other aspects of programming.
I like its paradigm that we should avoid mutating state and write declarative rather than imperative code. By doing so, our program will become more predictable and testable which produces fewer bugs.
5. What is your dream job?
My dream job would be a combination of creating products that are making a difference in the world and getting a chance to share them with as many people as possible.
I’m interested in full stack JavaScript with React, and an opportunity to learn from and share with a team of other skilled developers. I like to learn with an open mind and teach with an open heart.
Max Li is a well trained JavaScript/React developer with remote work experience currently living in Taiwan. He’s the lead developer on the DevAnywhere.io remote mentorship platform, and has a pretty cool cameo in the video. He is available for hire.
Eric Elliott is the author of “Programming JavaScript Applications” (O’Reilly), and cofounder of DevAnywhere.io. He has contributed to software experiences for Adobe Systems, Zumba Fitness, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN, BBC, and top recording artists including Usher, Frank Ocean, Metallica, and many more.
He works remote from anywhere with the most beautiful woman in the world.
