I got here backwards

Most developers start at the interface and work inwards, or at the database and work outwards. I started with a cyber security degree — three years spent studying the ways systems get broken — and only then found out that the part I actually enjoyed was building them.

That order left a mark. I am uneasy about trusting the client, I validate at boundaries out of reflex, and when I build a checkout or an auth flow my first question is which failure costs real money. That instinct is worth as much on the server as it is in the browser, which is a large part of why I stopped drawing a line between the two.

Today I work across the stack at Tech Sonic — Next.js on the front, NestJS and Postgres behind it — and I write Playwright tests for the paths I would hate to break. Outside work I build the things in the work section — usually to answer one question I do not yet know the answer to.