Meet Your Meta: Jason Webster, CTO
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What did you do before MetaLab?
I grew up in the trades. My dad was a carpenter, my grandfather was a carpenter. It’s what we did. I started working when I was 12 years old, during my summers, for my dad. I remember being 12, 13, and sheeting a roof for my summer vacation with my dad while my mom took my younger brothers out on vacation. And that was respite. That was what was fun. Why that was fun, I wasn’t particularly sure at the time. But in retrospect, everything about that taught me what was valuable about doing a good job.
Throughout high school, I worked my summers as a carpenter. I put myself through university by working as a carpenter 8 months out of the year, saving up some money, and then paying for a semester of school.
Then one day, when I was about 23, my truck and all my tools got stolen. And being young and stupid, I wasn’t insured for anything, so I didn’t have a job. Now, I had always done web development, but at the time, I’d have never at that time called myself a programmer, because I really didn’t know what I was doing.
Do construction and programming borrow a lot from one another?
Absolutely. Programming is a trade, and it should be taught as a trade. That’s one thing that we try to do here. Great software developers are great tradespeople. They are craftsmen in the truest sense of the word. They are almost artists, building a great system, and engineering the perfect solution - this requires a mind that takes absolute utmost pride in what they’re doing.
Look at the historical ideals of what we value as a society - for example, antique craftsmanship. Furniture builders from the 17th century. We admire the attention to detail in something like that: someone spent 6 months of their life sculpting with hand tools this piece of walnut into this immaculate piece of perfection. And I like to think that that’s what makes a good programmer - is someone that has that drive to do the best job that they can possibly do.
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More About Me
A 6'5 boy trying to make it in a man's world. I'm the Operations Manager at MetaLab
Blog
Mark, Andrew and Brandon went to NYC to receive our Webby. They made us proud.
I’m just reading up on… artillery.
We are excited to announce that MetaLab has won a Webby Award for TED Connect! While having the opportunity to work on this app was a reward in and of itself we’re thrilled and honoured to be recognized – especially when competing with the likes of the BBC, NYTimes, MLB, and 2012 Olympics. Those weeks of late nights were worth it, despite the grumbling from certain significant others. Love you babe.
Liam Sarsfield: Guess What? We're hiring!
We’re looking for front-end developers who want to join our merry team in downtown Victoria. The ideal candidate has a solid understanding of core programming concepts, theories and patterns, and the ability to apply the correct ones to a given problem. In beginners, we’re…
Eighties Draper: Lazer Tag
Okay, gentlemen, to business. War. What is it good for? That’s what we asked ourselves when you brought us your futuristic indoor battle device, and the answer we arrived at was this… anything we damned well please.
Yes, that was a quality slice of banter, go ahead and chuckle while Mister Campbell cuts me a sideways glance and inwardly contemplates our complicated mentor/tormentor relationship.
War: to a young boy it’s a game of Cowboys and Indians. Good versus Evil. Toy gun in trembling hand, he lays low in the tall grass to avoid the gimlet eye of a bloodthirsty apache, waiting for just the right moment to spring forth and unload his six-shooter. If only that boy could deal with his abusive stepfather so easily and avoid yet another merciless beating, but sadly this is only make-believe. I’m sorry, I seem to have gone off topic there with that tantalising glimpse into the life of a young Don Draper that humanizes yet somehow enriches my mythos. Forgive me.
Distraction - Leisure Suit
Leisure Suit just released the first single from their upcoming LP and it’s obviously terrific. The album art is from the video Oliver and I shot at the beginning of the month, definitely the biggest video we’ve worked on. It’s coming once I escape my post-production dungeon.
No! No! No!
