I'm Jack Lawson, a software engineer at reddit. I've worked in many different languages and parts of the stack, although I specialize in front-end developmernt. I believe strongly in building good software that optimizes efficiency for developers in order to make it easier to delight users. My core belief, and what inspires me, is that the greatest tragedy is the loss of creative potential, which means my mission is to help people to create things. Everybody is, at some level, with some medium, a creator of things; everybody has a unique viewpoint and life experience that allows them to produce something special. My skill is software engineering.

I've been programming since I was 11. I've worked in BASIC, html, JavaScript, CSS, ASP, TI-BASIC, PHP, ColdFusion, C#, bash, vimscript, Python, Scheme, Ruby, Node, Coffeescript, Lua, Moonscript, and Clojure. I'm most familar with the client-side stack, and of these langauges hold Lua and Node as my strongest, although lately I've been working a fair amount in Ruby and Python. I've recently started learning Clojure. I run the Lua meetup group for the San Francisco Bay Area, and I've spoken at a few events such as html5devconf and Waza.

My core technolgical philosophies are based in using the right tool, and not surrendering to the seduction of short-term convenience. Concretely, this genreally involves RESTful APIs, pragmatic TDD, and uncompromising progressive enhancement. I belive in open-sourcing all generic (read: non-business-logicky) components, because a rising tide lifts all boats.

My most interesting work is on my github account and my Olivine Labs LLC, where I collaborate with other friends on open-source projects and online games.

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