The Game

Minecraft is an incredible game. Even with all of this flexibility and creativity, it took some time for me to discover it. My friends and I would pop on a server, spend a few days gathering materials, and the slashing each other to pieces would begin. This was really fun, but I was terrible at combat. I would constantly die, and each time my friends and I played, they got better and better. It was getting old quickly.

For a change of pace, I tried designing cool bases. I liked the idea of being the designer, but in practice I was quite bad. While I'm much better now, at the time I didn't care what my creations looked like. I just wanted it to be functional, better than the bases next to us.

Redstone

Then, I discovered it. Redstone. My thirteen year old head exploded 🤯.

Most of my ideas were pretty useless, but even so, I would spend hours thinking of, designing, and creating these little contraptions. I made elevators, armor equipers, automatic farms, and so much more.

Suddenly, my friends and I were dominating on these servers. We would still die frequently, but the small handful of things I built that were actually useful ended up making us much more efficient, helping us get to the battlefield faster. It was then that I discovered my love for building, something which I am very grateful I get to do today.

Today

Many great engineers have their roots in games. The ability to create & explore worlds full of rich storytelling, awe-inspiring visuals, and addicting mechanics; it's the stuff of dreams.

At 24, I can confidently say that the "redstone" of my life now is programming.

It's the handful of things that are useful that make it all worthwhile.

I still try to approach some of the problems I see today with that same wide-eyed enthusiasm I had as a teen.