My name is Leon Olszewski. I’m a software architect in Ontario, Canada.

I started coding when I was 10, before I knew what coding was. I’d type something into a file, save and then run to make the computer do things. I didn’t really get it but I knew it was something special and I immediately fell in love. I still love it.

Nowadays I’m a software developer with experience in the telecom and financial services industries. By chance I happened to enter into the Microsoft world with my first job and I’ve stayed in that space throughout my career. Consequently I know a thing or two about C#, ASP.NET Core, Xamarin and many other Microsoft technologies.

Languages, people, technologies and development processes all change, and have changed, but coding is still an activity defined by writing text into files, just as it has been since people started programming. When I first started coding it didn’t even occur to me that there could be something like “bad” code or “good” code; there was just code that either worked or it didn’t. As I gained experience I’ve come see the difference between good and bad code and how this difference significantly affects the success of a software project. But what really fascinates me is that the difference lies in the way the code is organized, or more fundamentally, the way text is written into files. It’s a powerful thing if you think about it: the way you write text into files can make a business boom or drive it into the ground. I’ve learned a thing or two over the years but I’m always looking for ways to improve by trying out new ideas to see what sticks and what doesn’t.

I started this blog to share my own ideas and experiences with software development with the hope that what you read here may help you on your own journey. The topics I cover in my posts draw heavily from real software problems I encounter in my day-today work. I like to talk about design patterns, architecture while maintaining a practical touch (I’m trying to “keep it real”). You’ll even see many original (and sometimes controversial) ideas of my own that I like to put out there as food for thought. I hope you’ll enjoy diving into these topics as much as I do!