"You can be creative in anything — in math, science, engineering, philosophy — as much as you can in music or in painting or in dance."

I’m a software engineer based in San Francisco and I like to create. There is nothing more gratifying than making something that didn't exist before, whether it's painting a beautiful landscape, composing a symphony, or writing a piece of software. "Creativity" is often a word reserved for the traditional arts but I think it applies as much to Dennis Ritchie as it does to Pablo Picasso.

My journey to becoming a software engineer began after I was lucky enough to tour the Pixar campus in high school. Growing up it was a dream of mine to be an animator and there was, and still is to a certain extent, no better place to be than Pixar. While touring the studio I saw first hand software engineers working side by side with the animators to make the movies I loved a reality.

That day was a turning point. I saw that creativity wasn't limited to just the artists but existed within engineers as well. Both are driven by the desire to make something that didn't exist before. Both take something that starts as merely an idea the transforms it into a reality through hard work and perseverance.

It is this same drive to build and make things that keeps motivated as a software engineer. Having over eight years of professional experience I now know better than ever what it takes and means to be creative. Creativity is the act of creating and that's exactly what I do.