I suppose, in all my life, the overused (at least in computer science circles) phrase “Hello world!” has never held more significance than it does now. For those of you unfamiliar with the ulterior meaning of this phrase, “Hello world!” is generally (if not in fact, then at least in spirit) the output of the first piece of code a programmer writes. In some sense, it is the birth of something new – the result of the first execution of a creation in a new language. Naturally, the program that spits out “Hello world!” is pretty useless, but it is the first wobbly step up a set of tricky new stairs that leads to something — big.
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Michael Chu, and I write code. I’ve been writing code for about as long as I can remember. Like most people who start programming at age seven (well back in the early 1980′s not too many kids were interested in computers – probably because the only game worth playing was Rogue) I started with BASIC and somehow found profound enjoyment in the activity. In 8th grade, my friend Jason and I discovered C. It was at that time when I first realized that computer programming could be something I would want to do to make a living. By the end of college, I had used (and at one time or another had become proficient in) over a dozen computer languages, but found my preferences still lay with C. More importantly, I was a bit burnt out on programming and really gungho about hardware design. I joined Intel and worked (more or less) diligently for them for six and a half years in various capacities. I programmed a little at the beginning, then it became less and less of my job until 5 years ago when programming ceased to be part of my world. In retrospect, my time at Intel was an amazing experience. I was heavily involved in several projects that have changed how computing takes place worldwide – but I wasn’t enjoying my time at work. During my last year and a half at Intel, I started a side project documenting some of my favorite recipes and writing up my kitchen notes in an online format. I started doing this with Blogger and, due to Blogger’s shortcomings (not necessarily as a blog management system, but because my site had grown out of the standard blog mold), I ended up learning php and wrote Cooking For Engineers. Due to a general lack of morale and excitement for my job, I left Intel in the middle of February 2006, intending to concentrate on Cooking For Engineers and building it into a bigger website.
Meanwhile, Dave Lu wrote me an e-mail around the time of Christmas 2005. He had read my site, liked the content, and was wondering if I’d be interested in joining a new start up. I responded with some mild interest, but felt it was unlikely to lead anywhere. I didn’t know who this Dave guy was and I was planning on staying at Intel at least through my 8-week sabbatical (which I would have been eligible for on July 12, 2006). Dave seemed impatient and was not willing to wait until September to hire me on. Actually, he was kind in his e-mail, but suggested that by September most of the hard work would have been done. He would be happy to consider hiring me at that time as a supporting engineer.
When I tendered my resignation with Intel, I sent Dave an e-mail with my resume and mentioned that I’d be interesting in finding out how his company was doing. We met up for lunch (Sushi in Mountain View) where Dave explained his vision for a website called Fansters. I thought it was a pretty cool idea but also explained to him my intentions of concentrating on Cooking For Engineers. I was impressed, though, and, when I got home, explained the concept to my wife, Tina. While explaining it, I thought, “Hmmm… it doesn’t sound nearly as interesting or as cool when I explain it…”, but Tina’s reaction was, “That’s sounds pretty neat. I’d want to use a site like that!” So, I told Dave I was still interested. After a couple weeks of going back and forth between deciding to work for myself or a start up, Dave arranged for me to meet one of his co-founders. Cliff was their lead (and only) developer who had been working on the project in his spare time and had just quit his job to work full-time on. He seemed to know what he was doing and I got excited talking to him about programming. (It sounds strange, but it’s true.) The company (now Fanpop, Inc.) brought me on board with a schedule that would slowly ramp me up on Fanpop and off working on Cooking For Engineers as my full-time occupation. By the last week of March, I was so excited that I started on a regular schedule working full-time on Fanpop.
The experience of working professionally as a coder is a new one for me. I have always programmed computers as a hobby (sometimes not doing it for over a year, but always picking it back up again) and occassionally for work, but never as my primary function. At Fanspots, I’ve managed to work with Dave, Papa (Dave Papandrew), and Cliff to produce something – well, I don’t know any other phrase to describe it, except, AMAZING.
A lot has changed in my life in the last few months since I quit Intel, found Fanpop, and helped build what is going to be an awesome new way to consume content on the internet. Rediscovering my love of programming (solving interesting problems and building something useful) has been the beginning of “something” – and I’m not sure where that “something” is going lead to. So, as we start seeing users playing with Fanpop and getting sucked into the fun, I say again, “Hello world!”