27. Bryan Robinson: From Philosophy to Designer, Developer & Teacher

Today, Bryan shares with Lauren his journey from studying philosophy and working in journalism to becoming a designer, developer, educator, and community advocate. 

In college, he fell in love with philosophy, deep thinking, aesthetics, and the nature of beauty and art. He’s passionate about discourse and dialogue and contemplates their intersectionality within tech today. 

After college, Bryan worked for a local newspaper as a copy editor. He was deeply ahead of his time with visions of taking the news and engaging with readers online. 

He began to teach himself some basic CSS, HTML, and Javascript while working with the Newspaper’s online content. He soon became proficient as a developer and went on to run and manage the development team at a web agency in Memphis, TN. 

Today, Bryan runs his startup, Code Contemporary, where he advocates for the technologies he’s most passionate about. He loves education and learning and loves to help people who are new to tech and are curious to learn more.  

In this episode, Bryan shares advice for those curious to break into the tech industry. He encourages beginners to build what you’re curious about or need in your life. To deepen your understanding of those new concepts, Bryan suggests you teach others how to do so! When it comes to the web, he believes that we should be producers as well as consumers. We spend time discussing Linguistic Relativism and how we must stop associating tech only with business as there is a great benefit to perceiving tech as a hobby and curious DIY pursuit.  And thus, he encourages every listener to tinker and play with HTML and CSS and to explore web development as hobbyists without the pressure of becoming professional software engineers. Bryan believes that through teaching we learn and so he encourages everyone who is learning to code to teach their friends how to do so as well! 

Resources: 

Bryan’s Practical CSS Course with 50% discount code “WEBELONGHERE” 

Find Bryan: 

Twitter: @brob

Youtube: Bryan Robinson 

Twitch: @bryanlrobinson 

Blog: bryanlrobinson.com

Russian Blues: 

First study: https://www.pnas.org/content/104/19/7780 

Second study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797618782181 

Article about both studies: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-language-affects-what-we-see/


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