This one will be quick. I mostly wanted to introduce myself and share why I am creating this blog. I feel a little late to the party; it's 2025 and I'm not sure that people out there even read anymore. Still, I need a place to:

• Record my ramblings when I just need to get them out of my head.
• Be my rubber duck when I want to reason through an idea.
• Maybe complain about some frustrations.
• Spread some insights I have to other developers.

As a software engineer constantly trying to improve my craft, I imagine most of my ramblings will relate to writing software and thinking through different philosophies.

My name is Ali and I am a senior software engineer who has mostly worked professionally with Typescript, React, Node, and the AWS stack. Most of my code references will probably be in those technologies, since that's what I am used to. I have mostly worked in large enterprise companies and have been a tech lead for my team on multiple projects.

More personally, I am a mother to two amazing girls. I have two cats and a golden retriever (so I am in a constant battle with fur in the house). My husband is a recreational bodybuilder who got me into lifting weights a lot more casually.

I absolutely love to read! You will see some technical book reviews come up on this page when I get to them, but I also love reading as a personal hobby. I mostly read horror, thrillers, and memoirs. Occasionally I will throw in some other genres from my book club, as long as they aren't romance.

The thought of writing a blog started when I began to mentor junior developers at work. Mentoring gives me an immense feeling of pride, because I get to be a guiding voice as they launch their careers in this field.

And with so much to learn, I'm honored to be able to share my experiences and learnings with them.

But also, they ask some really good questions! I tend to learn a lot when I am explaining a concept, because I want to give them some solid reasoning on why we did something a certain way. The last thing I want is not to be able to be speak to decisions, and then for them to lose confidence in me or my team. It would be a disservice to them and very embarrassing for me.

It's so easy to get caught up in the mentality that we do things a certain way simply because that's just how it's always been done. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of some of our practices until I began mentoring. Even explaining simple topics makes me realize how much deeper we can go in understanding them.

I find it unacceptable as a senior+ engineer to not have the willingness to learn more to provide this kind of mentorship. We should have solid foundations on why we make the decisions we do. We should be able to speak to those decisions and teach others why they were made.

Juniors bring fresh eyes and energy into the project. They also have an optimism that the industry tends to melt away from more veteran developers. Don't take away from their experience, and don't take the experience of teaching them away from yourself.

I hope my content will help someone out there! If not, it’s still going to be a fun adventure to try something new.

Happy coding!