About Me

Current status: Co-founder / Lead Engineer at Monitaur.

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I’m a full-stack web application developer and software architect that specializes in taking products from inception to delivery across the entire stack. I was an early adopter of Docker and the microservices design pattern. I like working on infrastructure and developer tools since it helps make other engineers more productive.

On a personal note, I’m passionate about educating and developing engineers. I co-founded Real Python (which was a successful exit) and led three cohorts teaching full-stack JavaScript at Galvanize. I also founded TestDriven Labs, a platform for mid-level engineers to learn Test-Driven Development (TDD), microservices, and AWS infrastructure.

Besides development, I enjoy running, building financial models, tech writing, content marketing, teaching, and reading well-crafted project READMEs.

Hey I'm Michael - a ginger since I was born and a Radiohead fan since I developed taste. I can't dance - though there's a video of me on YouTube giving it a try. Seinfeld is the best thing ever, made better when paired with a Colorado IPA. Ask me about the NBA sometime - I absorb what I can before I fall asleep. There's a tattoo under my t-shirt - surprise!

You can view my full resume in JSON @ http://mherman.org/herman-resume.json.

Thoughts

1. Programming languages are all different ways of expressing the same thing. A software developer should be able to understand all of them.
2. Open source software is free as in free house. If you want to fix or improve something, either learn to do it yourself or pay a contractor.
3. If you don’t know how to solve a problem, start by breaking it down into small, manageable pieces. What do you need in order to solve it? What do you already know? Web developers don’t need to know everything; they just need to be able to break a problem up into smaller chunks in order to find the missing information required to solve the problem at hand.

Major Projects

1. Microservices with Docker, Flask, and React
2. Real Python
3. Starter Financial Model
4. DiscoverFlask
5. KickStarter Projects
   • Real Python
   • Real Python: For the Web
   • Real Python: Advanced Web Development

Contact

Email: michael at mherman dot org

Connect with me on LinkedIn, GitHub, and YouTube. Also, check out this ever growing list of personal and professional projects. Cheers!

I am NOT currently accepting new projects.

Tech recruiters: please use “i am the walrus” in your cold email so I know you actually read this.

Articles I’ve written

Besides my posts on this site, Real Python, and TestDriven.io, I’ve published the following articles:

• The Newest Lean Startup Tool: Kickstarter (#1 on HackerNews)
• Learn SQL, dammit! (#1 on HackerNews)
• Content Marketing, Evolved
• Setting up a Django Project for the Non-Programmer
• Learn Indexing, dammit!
• Debugging SQL with the django-debug-toolbar
• Deploying a Django App on Dokku
• From MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) to Micro-Incubator
• How to take on a large Django project (#6 on HackerNews)
• Simple Goods + Zapier & MySQL
• Adding a web interface to our image search engine with Flask

Articles about me

• PyDev of the Week: Michael Herman
• Employee Spotlight: Jeff & Michael of Galvanize

Uses

Hardware

• iPhone SE
• MacBook Pro 15-inch, Mid 2015

Editor and Terminal

• iTerm2 + zsh + oh-my-zsh
• Sublime Text
• Visual Studio Code

Desktop Apps

• Backblaze
• Caffeine App
• Chrome
• Docker
• Filezilla
• Firefox
• ImageOptim
• LibreOffice
• Postgres.app
• Slack
• Skitch
• Skype
• Spectacle
• SQLite DB Browser
• Thunderbird email client
• VirtualBox