Introducing Developer Evangelist, Enterprise, Chris Gargotta

One of my wacky and intense hobbies is Triathlon. Triathlon is a sport that combines swimming, cycling, and running together. The average person doesn’t walk out of their house and do a full distance triathlon or run a marathon without training for it first. The training for these events takes time, commitment, and most of all consistency. Whenever I talk to people about doing a triathlon or running a half marathon I normally get responses like “That’s nuts!” or “I could never do that.” I used to have that mentality too.

Over the years triathlon has taught me that people are capable of accomplishing amazing things when they set a goal and have the determination to reach it. I have signed up for races that were daunting and I was unsure of whether or not I could actually finish. I have learned that you cannot attempt to tackle the entire distance all at once up front. The secret to any endurance race is to take the big scary event, break it into small manageable chunks, and take the journey one step at a time.

Every race that I have ever done has been just as much of a mental exercise as it has been physical. When I think about the mental journey that happens during a race this meme comes to mind.

I believe we could rewrite this to be the 6 stages of being a developer and it would be very similar.

Triathlon, like many sports, parallels life as a developer. We take large problems and break them down into small manageable chunks. We work on those manageable chunks one line of code at a time and eventually we reach our goal. The journey is never without hiccups and sometimes involves a great deal of discomfort and frustration. That being said, when you reach the finish line all the pain and discomfort are soon forgotten, and we find ourselves eagerly searching for the next challenge.

As a child the professions that I dreamt of always had to do with helping people. Software developer was never a part of that lineup, but I would argue with my younger self that it should have been. I was amazed the first time that I was able to make a computer do something with lines of code that I had written. It’s always thrilling to see an idea evolve and eventually grow into a final application. Over the past few years I decided that I wanted to get more involved in the developer community. I started streaming on Twitch to learn new skills and also to help share my experience with others.

Working with developers, regardless of their experience level, is always rewarding. This is why I was so excited to be a Developer Evangelist. I love writing code and building solutions, but it is even more rewarding to partner alongside fellow developers, listen to their unique stories, and celebrate their accomplishments.

My name is Chris Gargotta and I am thrilled to be a Developer Evangelist at Twilio. I would love to connect with you. Feel free to reach out to me or come catch me live coding on Twitch and every once in a while I sneak in some Triathlon stuff too!

Email: cgargotta@twilio.com

Twitch: https://twitch.tv/ToeFrog

Twitter: @TheToeFrog

Github: ToeFrog