Tide Flows

Posted on June 6, 2019 in umbraco , life

This is the very first email I have received from Niels Hartvig, founder of the Umbraco CMS, answering some trivial questions I had asked on the contact form, while evaluating Umbraco for a client.

I attended my first Codegarden the next Spring, still trying to figure out how the whole thing was supposed to work, and fell in love with the community. I discovered a honest software ecosystem that did not try to hide its defects, but instead radiated with energy and ideas, and made things possible. Being the "prudent" guy, this felt quite a safe approach.

And so, I started fixing these defects, one small CompletelyBroken™ item at a time. And I started dreaming, about a version that would be cleaner and more stable and more predictable. A few years later, HQ was part-time sponsoring my clean up effort. A few more years later, it was full-time. And by my 10th Codegarden, version 8 was out.

Today, after just a bit more than 4 full-time years with HQ, I have decided it's time for a change for me, time for the tide to turn, and I'll be transitioning back to the community side of Umbraco.

Architecting "v8" and the inners of Deploy, with amazing colleagues, has been a fantastic experience. Built upon the tons of ideas, concerns, thoughts, experiments that arised during my client work, using Umbraco to build sites, discussing with other users. Releasing the result of it all has been quite a milestone. And then: what's next? How can it happen? I feel this need, to get closer to clients and community again, gather new ideas, explore new directions, get inspired.

So, what now? For me, it means that I'll be working for the HQ, ensuring a smooth transition, until the end of September. Then, I'll be freelance again, looking for opportunities. So, if you have any Umbraco job that you need some help on, or any use for a .NET / Umbraco guy, or want to sponsor some Open Source work, or talk about collaboration... drop me a line.

Before this post ends, I'd like to thank Niels and Per for trusting me, and offering me the opportunity to make some of my dreams come true—and for the amazing colleagues who helped me on the way. It's been fun. And I also need to thank some truly helpful friends—you know who you are.

I have always prefered the Atlantic to the Mediterranean because of tides. Twice a day, everything moves, everything changes, everything is clean again. Scary. Exciting. But that is what living is, really.