Tell us a bit about you! How long have you been an engineer, what drew you to it, and what did you do before Gigs?
Hi! I’m Matthew, I grew up in Scotland and live in Berlin now. I’ve been a software engineer for a little over ten years, working on all sorts of projects in a bunch of different languages and technologies. Outside of work, I make weird alternative stand-up comedy.
My degree was in pure mathematics. Specifically I really liked things like set theory, category theory and mathematical logic. I taught myself to code after doing an internship with a big accounting firm and realizing that I absolutely could not spend the rest of my life as a tax accountant (no shade to tax accountants, I just don’t share your superhuman capacity for boredom). I didn’t realize at the time quite how relevant my education was, but it turns out there’s a whole theorem (the Curry-Howard isomorphism) which proves that programming and proving mathematical theorems are more or less the same thing.
Before joining Gigs I was lucky enough to spend a year working on the Nickel programming language at Tweag. Before that I spent a few years at SoundCloud working on a whole bunch of stuff: if you’ve ever logged in to SoundCloud, you’ve probably run some code I wrote.
What first excited you about working for Gigs?
Basically, as soon as I understood what Gigs is doing, I knew I wanted to work here. It’s not often that you hear about a company and can immediately see a clear path to success, but that was the case with Gigs. Bridging the gap between legacy infrastructure and a modern best-in-class developer experience is a really interesting and fun challenge, and all the more so because we’re solving a problem with clear real-world impact.
What’s a piece of work you’re really proud of?
My first big project after joining Gigs was a major overhaul of our US telco tax functionality. Getting it right involved understanding and modeling the complexities of a tax system which can vary wildly not just between states, but also between any of the more than 14,000 distinct districts. This is my absolute favorite type of software problem, it feels like bringing a sort of order to something quite chaotic.
Oh, also I diagnosed a tricky race condition recently, and that’s always a satisfying moment.
How would you describe the engineering team at Gigs?
Delightful, super smart, and also hiring.
You’re based in Berlin - tell us a bit about the bürokultur.
We're a remote company with hubs in San Francisco, London and Berlin. My last job was fully remote and when I joined I assumed I’d keep working mostly from home, but then I sat in one of our office chairs (Herman Miller Cosm, chair fans!) so now I come in two or three times a week, and my lower back couldn’t be happier.
I still really value the flexibility of being remote-first: I often focus best at weird times of the day. But I also really appreciate having somewhere quiet and comfortable with a great espresso machine to come work when I need to get out the house.
And finally, what’s your favorite engineering joke?
I’m the worst person to answer this question, because anyone who’s seen my stand-up will know I tend to avoid jokes like the plague (much to the detriment of my audiences).
I asked ChatGPT what the best engineering joke is and it said: “Why do programmers prefer dark mode? Because the light attracts bugs!” So let’s say it’s that. Also that ChatGPT is going to have a hard time making it in comedy with material like that.