To say that I’m a big fan of JetBrains is a bit of an understatement. I’m always talking about ReSharper, dotTrace, dotCover, dotPeek, TeamCity, and many other JetBrains products in person, on Twitter, on my blog, in talks, … Many years ago I released a (now-defunct) ReSharper test runner plug-in. (Defunct because the functionality is now included in ReSharper itself.) I’m one of a team of people running http://teamcity.codebetter.com, which is a widely-used OSS build server run by CodeBetter.com and Devlicious.com in collaboration with JetBrains. I’m on the board of the JetBrains Development Academy. I was JetBrains booth babe/demo monkey at PDC a few years back. I authored the ReSharper course for Pluralsight. (N.B. Through a cross-promotion deal, JetBrains includes one-month access to my Pluralsight ReSharper course for new and existing ReSharper users.) I’m sure there are things that I’m forgetting.
Recently JetBrains approached me about joining their team as a technical evangelist. I was flattered and honoured at being considered for such a position. Then came the hard questions…
Me: I don’t want to be pushing products for the sake of products.
JB: We don’t want you to. We want you to evangelize software best practices and talk about where JetBrains products make developers’ lives easier.
Me: My interests extend beyond .NET. I’ve also done a lot of JavaScript and web work. Plus I’ve been getting into Ruby and Ruby on Rails a lot recently. And I’d like to do some iOS development.
JB: That sounds great! As you know we’ve got products in all those areas and can use someone with that kind of breadth.
Me: I don’t want to put Hadi out of a job.
JB: No worries. You’ll be Hadi’s counterpart in North America. We’ve got enough to keep both of you busy for a long time.
So Hadi and I will be working closely with the rest of the JetBrains team to bring you more awesomeness from JetBrains. More awesome blog posts. More awesome screencasts. More awesome presentations. And of course more awesome information about JetBrains products. (Let’s be realistic. We’ve all got mortgages/expenses to pay.) If you have questions, comments, or quibbles about JetBrains products – especially how we can make them better – Hadi and I are the people you want to talk to. And we want to talk to you, our community.
To answer a few burning questions that I’m sure people have… I’ll still be based out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I’ll still be speaking at various conferences and user groups – and not just about JetBrains products. (It will be the usual mix of software practices, development techniques, and technologies. So expect to see me at conferences and events both as a speaker and representing JetBrains.) I’ll still be producing Pluralsight videos. (NHibernate Fundamentals will be available soon and I’m already work on Git Fundamentals. JetBrains and Pluralsight will continue to partner on various initiatives.) I’ll still be involved in open-source software. And I’ll still be causing the usual amount of trouble on Twitter and elsewhere. Happy coding!
