My journey into engineering kicked off back in 2004, just after I graduated from vocational school, where I focused on electronics. At the time, most engineering jobs were reserved for college grads, so I couldn’t land one right away. Still, I was eager to learn, so I bought a computer with a VIA C7 processor, 128MB of RAM, and a 30GB hard drive—just enough to dive into Assembly and C programming on my own.

Then, in 2007, Friendster took off in Indonesia and introduced me to the world of social media. That got me experimenting with PHP, Python, and later on, exploring CMS platforms like Joomla (back when it was called Mambo), Drupal, and WordPress. As websites became more mainstream, that background helped me get involved in a handful of government projects.

Fast-forward to 2015, and I managed my first remote project, handling the Shopify platform for indosole.com and Red Tree Asia. That opened even more doors, and I found myself building web apps for several established Indonesian companies. Some side projects I worked on were picked up by other firms (though, as is often the case, many of those sites have since been shut down).

During my full-time remote work, I kept detailed documentation and journaled regularly in a company account. Even after moving on, I plan to rewrite all my Obsidian notes for my website, making sure to stay within NDA limits.

What I’ve realized over the years is that all the engineering and psychology principles I use are geared toward making sales easier by reducing friction. For me, platform development and sales should work together, not against each other. That philosophy shapes everything I do—from planning and architecture, right down to the user interface and how people interact with my work.

When building something new, I usually steer clear of heavy frameworks at first. It’s all about making sure things are scalable and efficient so the product lasts longer, or at least avoids the extra costs that come with third-party servers or services.

Right now, I’m redesigning the WordPress platform and its default theme, as well as reworking a UI framework I’m developing. My goal? By the end of August 2025, I hope to start selling themes on both the Shopify and WordPress marketplaces—and, of course, using them myself.

If you’ve made it to this blog, thanks for stopping by! Feel free to reach out at [email protected] if you have any feedback or just want to connect.