What I do

I have been building web applications for over 20 years. Until recently people simply called me a programmer, because most of the backends I built were written in PHP (yes, I still remember the days of PHP 4). Today a more accurate term would probably be “product engineer”. It feels right to me, because the centre of gravity shifted long ago from programming itself towards planning and design. Instead of waiting for a to-do list, I prefer to understand the context, help choose a sensible solution and then take responsibility for delivering it.

I usually start by understanding what is actually not working, what the users of a given application need and whether the idea we start from will really solve the problem (and how we will measure the result). From this perspective the code itself is secondary, all the more so as AI tools play an ever bigger role in writing it.

Besides programming, I take care of application architecture and maintenance. I work with Linux, manage several servers and deploy the systems I develop myself. This lets me see an application as a whole, not just as a piece of code that ends when the ticket is closed.

You can find more about me and my posts about the changing world of IT on miroslawski.com.