Hello there! My name is Gavin, I'm a 28 year old software engineer. I've been coding for around 10 years, and working professionally in the field for 5 years.
I currently live in Richmond, VA — the river city. When I'm not in front of a computer I like getting outdoors into nature, hiking, trail running, and exploring.
Spending time outdoors not only keeps my mind/body healthy, but also keeps me grounded and reminds me that digital spaces should mimic nature; they should be fun, reliable, and intentional.
The modern internet in the era of the smartphone has become an attention arms race. We've traded utility for addiction, and focus for infinitely scrolling feeds. I'm not interested in digital slot machines, instead I like designs focused on mental clarity. I consider this website to be my "digital garden."
Brief History
I studied Computer Science at JMU for 2 years and reached around junior level before I decided to drop out to pursue other goals. At the time I was burned out on academia, and I needed a break. I ended up joining the workforce soon after and I got my start working at a Fortune 500 company (CarMax) doing customer service and sales work.
Throughout my time at CarMax I was re-invigorated to study software engineering, I did not want to keep working in the customer service industry. I had already been coding as a hobby for years (since high school) and I had completed lots of coursework in college. The foundations were laid, but I needed to hone my skills to break into the software industry.
For the next year as soon as my day job ended I spent long hours into the night grinding data structure and algorithm problems, studying architecture, studying the patterns used in industry, mastering git, and building and deploying multiple projects. The capstone project that showcased my skills and helped me land the job was my website at the time:
I built this old version of my site with React, and it had lots of over-the-top fancy pieces such as a 3D star field backdrop, settings, and lots of hidden easter eggs. It was a cool tech demo, but my recent designs have trended far more minimalist. It was a good showcase at the time, my skills have matured since then.
Work History
Now for the last 4 years I've been employed at ScholarRx, a medical education company that builds software both for students studying to become doctors, and for faculty providing and assessing their curriculum.
My primary role has been managing our iOS application — I've led a number of initiatives, including both architecture and implementation. I've added huge new features to the app such as a text-to-speech system for our medical curriculum, and refactors across the entire codebase to support our platform as it has evolved over the last few years.
I've also designed, architected, and implemented core infrastructure for our front-end web application platform (including an entire system that integrates LLM content generation into a CRUD editor with advanced search/filter capabilities and a litany of advanced features). I can not speak much on this as it is confidential, but this job has provided me with a ton of learning and growth, and an opportunity to do work that has a positive value on the world. Something I am grateful to have been able to contribute to.
The Future
With the introduction of powerful AI tools, the landscape of the software engineering world and technology as a whole is changing and advancing rapidly. But I believe "first principles" still hold true - to build systems that are intuitive, reliable, useful, and that solve a real problem, or provide entertainment/enjoyment.
I would like to dive into this realm a bit deeper, and I plan on sharing insights and thoughts (both abstract, and more technically grounded and immediately useful) on my blog.
I'm also building side projects as a form of creative expression and a means to explore and learn new technologies, whenever I build something worthy of publishing I share it on this site. Most of my projects now are shorter-form explorations, things that I've built either in a matter of weeks or months.
But my goal is to work towards the "magnum opus", the months or years long project that is absolutely epic. I am currently prototyping the concepts that will define this next chapter. My goal is to push the absolute limits of my creativity and then share it with the world.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions or would like to get in contact with me feel free to send me a message.
Gavin
Published Feb. 27, 2026