About Me

Hey there, I'm Amos Machora - a software developer from Nairobi, Kenya. Welcome to my corner of the digital world!

I was born, raised and currently live in Nairobi, since my early days I fell in love with computers majorly by playing GTA Vice City on my uncle's old Dell computer. Since then I went on to study Computer Studies in high school and Computer Science in campus, weird how a shooting game can have such an impact on a young soul. Funny story, for like 5 years I didn't know there was a save feature so each time I played the game I restarted it. So much fun.

I am a christian, a member of the Sevent Day Adventist church and have been all my life. I was born literally in the church, (my mum's labour pains began in the church, nothing crazy) . I am a beleiver in God or atleast act as if he exists as Jordan Peterson would say. I enjoy christian music a lot, something about them is so calming and has been a constant resting place in times of trouble in my personal life.

In 2023, I graduated from Chuka University with a second-class upper division in Computer Science, boasting a GPA of 3.7. Throughout my academic journey, I excelled in subjects crucial for a career in software engineering, in high school for example I attained an A plain (GPA 4.0) in Computer Studies and Mathematics. I also had an A- (GPA 3.7) in physics! achievements I am very proud of to this day. I truly enjoy programming, the process of turning ideas into solutions that work is one I find insanely gratifying. I am planning to go back to school in the near future for my masters degree probably in Computer Science and Mathematics. Fingers crossed everything goes according to plan.

As per the time of writing (December 2024) I am currently not employed. I spend most of my time contibuting to open source majorly working on KenyaEMR and OpenMRS from which KenyaEMR is a distribution of. I also have my own open source project Daraja Kit which I built to make it easy to plug in Safaricom's daraja API to my projects.

I spent roughly 10 months working on a failed startup project called Musterroll. The owners of the project so it best to waste everyones time with a half baked idea, zero business plan and negligible project management skills. Hilarious bit. 8 months in I find out that of our two backend guys, one is an EX-DJ and the other has no clue what git is. Perfect. Anyway after beating that dead horse for 10 months I quit late October 2024 in the middle of the night after I was woken up by something troubling my head so much I couldn't let it wait till the next day.

I have spent some of my time off school freelancing building small websites like ukuzistudio.com, randompest.co.ke and outofthestreet.org to name just a few. Using technologies like NextJS, Tailwind CSS and Sanity I built this websites to serve practical needs for clients I have no clue how they even found me.

I also spend some time doing a bit of leetcode and codewars. To be frank I did stop doing this after the AI burst when I was feeling a bit dejected that a machine could solve leetcode questions with a snap of a finger. After working with AI for like a year now guess what, I am starting to do them again because fortunately or unfortunately I have come to learn that AI can't replace your brain.

In the tech world I started out doing a bit of Java and Spring-boot. I miss that world so much. I remember learning about Spring Batch, Spring Data, Spring Security and Docker, simpler time that was. I transitioned to the frontend world because it seemed the easiest way to make some money building websites. I have since learnt React, NextJS, Framer Motion, Axios, React Server Components, Tailwind, Convex, Sanity (i do hope I am still sane), Firebase, Firestore, Vercel, Netlify, etc etc. So much fun. I do not know if this came across but I do not shy way from learning things. I love learning things and besides at some point you start to even know about things before you even have to learn about them. Beauty of programming.

As I continue my crazy software engineering career I am starting to learn how to build my own SAAS products. In fact I am currently (dec 2024) building two products , they are still in the oven so can't really say so much about them.

During my leisure time I do play a lot of football, or soccer if you are american. I live next to the airport so there is a massive buffer zone on which a bit too adventurous people like me go to play. I love listening to Dr. Jordan B Peterson on Youtube and his book 12 rules for life has been instrumental in shaping my perceptions towards philosphy, truth and life in general. His views on the bible, stories, philosophy and psychology can truly not be replicated. I also spend a lot of time listening toTheo from whom I have learnt to approach the balance of technical expertise and product development in a quite unique way. When I am up to listen to hot takes and alternate views on programming my go to channel is The Primeagen , if you want someone who mixes programming passion with fun and vibes, thats the one. Casey Muratori and Dave Farley are big inspirations.

I am also a big Manchester United fan my favourite player is probably Marcus Rashford but I am starting to be a Bruno Fernandes fan boy. I have spent over a thousand hours listening to Mark Goldbridge rant, ask for referees to have their bank accounts checked whenever they make decisions he is not in agreement with and make insanely creative jokes during Manchester United watchalongs or playing EAFC. Some of the best I have heard are 'as useless as t*ts on a nun', 'its like watching a field with a swarm of cows on laxitives, it is full of sh*t' , 'more holes than a hedgehogs pillow' , 'a hedgehog at a balloon party', 'Panicking like a cat trying to bury its sh*t on a marble floor' etc etc. Some guy on youtube has made a hilarious compilation you can watch it here.

My favourite movie ever is Friends and my favourite character is Chandler Bing, actually scratch that, that is one movie where it is actually impossible to have a favourite as they are all so good. I have also rewatched The big bang theory probably three times from Season 1 to 12 - crazy i know. I also enjoy Brooklyn nine nine, Modern family, The office and How I met your mother. As you might have noticed I am more of a sitcom fan I can't manage 2 hours in front of a screen its a bit much.

Join me on this journey of bytes and narratives, logic, fun and creativity, code and prose. Together, we can explore the boundless possibilities of technology and storytelling, all while reveling in the sheer beauty of thoughtful design.

Thank you for being here, and I can't wait to embark on this adventure with you.