About

• Originally from Kansas City, Kansas. There’s a lot of Christopher Shepherds alive right now. I’m that one. I promise none of the mugshots are me, but give me time to work on that.
• Software Developer: Can do Ruby, Elixir/Phoenix, PHP/Laravel, C, C-Sharp, a handful of Assemblers, and many others. Currently on a Typescript+AWS kick.
• Fitness Nut and (Boxer, Runner, Swimmer…)
• Business Owner (of the almighty BE&L and its spinoffs)

For a living, I do computer stuff: Make web applications, architect systems solutions, optimize processes, and lead teams, and I even have fun doing that! I have my own company that does business development and spinning-off of ideas that live through the difficult process of being born, and we also bid on contracts to keep the lights on. At any particular company or contract, I tend to take the title of “Technical Lead” or “Engineering Lead” or whatever engineering-track leadership position gives me the opportunity to provide lots of architectural guidance and leadership while still letting me get my hands dirty doing work. I can be (and have been) “Engineering Manager” or “Vice President of Engineering” or even “CTO” on a temporary or fractional basis, but I tend to step down from these roles if the line-management (and meetings) aspect of work overtakes the fun of engineering to a great degree. I know where I fit best.

Personally, I have a great emphasis on caring for my family (wife, dogs, cats, no human offspring) and for myself. Currently that means I run at least 3-5 or so miles 6 days a week, and “only” swim a kilometer on my rest day. Five days a week, there’s also strength training, and no, we do not skip leg day. Sometimes we also work some boxing or kickboxing training in there. Also the dogs get walked at least a mile a day and I aim for at least 7 hours of sleep. When you combine that with the aforementioned technical duties, you can imagine the days tend to fill up pretty quickly. I like to think of it as a way of doing my best professional work and also taking good care of myself and the fam. It keeps me busy from about 6:30am until bedtime.

If you guessed that this means I don’t “go out” much, you’d be right. There’s plenty to do and learn in the framework described above, without putting myself in a position to get in a traffic accident, or get COVID, or spend money that my family could use for something cool, or blow up my cardio performance for tomorrow morning by having a lot of alcohol. Likewise, I do not participate in social-networking websites much anymore (Sorry! I hope you’re doing well and that your Gucci purse is fabulous). I have been known to scroll through Reddit as time permits though. Things are mostly predictable and reliable, and graphs go up and to the right, and I like it that way.

I think that’s plenty to know about me. You’re the one who clicked the About button.