Hi, I'm Andrew Hurle
Closeup of Andrew Hurle, smiling

Welcome to my internet website. I'm a full-stack software engineer who loves Ruby, TypeScript, React, and I guess Python is okay too. I also like videogames, dancing, music, and food. My blog posts are mostly technical, but I'll write about other stuff too.

Here I am on LinkedIn, GitHub, and Twitter. You can also try emailing me at any string at this domain. I may not have time to reply but I appreciate hearing from you.

Recent blog posts

  1. Overengineering a Next.js developer blog in 2021

    April 19, 2021

    I've always wanted a website. They're fun! I've made lots of them, but never one just for me and my long-winded opinions. After a couple of months of on-and-off work, it's live and open source! Here's how I built it. At first, I entertained the idea of sticking HTML and CSS files onto my Raspberry…

    Read More →

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Timeline

2021

  • Started a learning sabbatical 🧙

  • Made this site along with some (minor) OSS contributions 🌐

2020

  • Built an integration testing suite for Hopjump's hotel search backend 🧪

    Learned a ton about Python's testing libraries and how they compare to Ruby/JS

  • Moved to Somerville, MA 🏠

  • Hopjump acquired SmarterTravel Media from TripAdvisor 📈

    I was the tech lead for the transition into our infrastructure - 9 eng on the team over 8 weeks. That was intense! Kubernetes and Java knowledge ++

  • Survived a global pandemic 🦠

  • Had my first-ever fender-bender in midtown Manhattan 💥

2019

  • Visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Seoul 🇯🇵🇰🇷

    Riding a go-kart around Tokyo was a blast 🏎️

  • Converted hopjump.com to React with SSR, styled-components, TS ⚛️

    No more class typo bugs! Happy to return to JS and learn a modern stack

  • Visited Seattle ☕

2018

  • Cognius became Hopjump 🧳

    Focus changed to the travel industry, more product-oriented

  • Built Hopjump's hotel booking website from scratch 🏨

    Ruby on Rails plus good ol' HAML and SASS

  • Hired two more direct reports 🤝

  • Visited Lake Tahoe ⛷️

  • Visited London 🇬🇧

    Went to this, this, and got my steps in

  • Visited Hawaii 🏖️

    I recommend the Polynesian Cultural Center and Volcanoes National Park

2017

  • Promoted (side-moted?) to Lead Software Engineer 🧑‍💻

    Inherited one direct report

  • Became a Certified ScrumMaster™®© 📒

    I am good at Jira

  • Visited Paris 🇫🇷

    First time outside the US!

  • Visited DC 🏛️

2016

  • Promoted to Senior, then Principal Software Engineer 👴

  • Built a Rails app backing 7 websites to secure a new revenue stream 💸

2015

2014

  • Built a 30MM req/day job search service w/ Scala and ElasticSearch 🔍

    80% of the company's revenue passed through this system so that was quite a lot of responsibility!

  • Went to a lot of concerts/raves/festivals 🕺

  • Built my first PC

2013

  • Graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a BS in CS 🎓

  • Moved to Cambridge, MA 🏠

  • Started at Cognius as a Software Engineer 🏢

    First eng hire! Job search slash email marketing (think Indeed, Monster).

  • Learned Ruby on Rails very intensely and fell in love with it ❤️

2012

2011

  • Created Distillery so I could enumerate shared Steam games ♨️

    Since then, Steam implemented its own limited version of this and there are dedicated websites like SteamCompanion. Looking back, this project was kind of neat because I invented my own janky MVC UI framework pre-React and before Angular was really a thing.

2009

  • Began studying Computer Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute 📚

    I also worked at the IT Helpdesk and fixed people's computers

  • Learned JS to make lots of goofy userscripts 📜

  • Created IGN++

    This was a Firefox/Chrome extension that added ~Web 2.0 AJAX~ to a forum to improve its UX. It had like 400 users at its peak and I was very proud of it. Vanilla JS.

2008

  • Started my first programming class in high school 🧑‍🏫

    In C++, perhaps the worst language to start with

  • Implemented games like Conway's Game of Life, Snake, Pong 🕹️

    I also ported pong to run on my hacked PSP 🤙

  • Did a few challenges on Project Euler 🧩

  • Learned CSS so I could create dope userstyles 💅

  • Also took some kind of Web Design class 🔗

2007

  • Learned Flash in a high school class, and got good at Photoshop 📸

    Maybe copy/pasting some ActionScript was my first exposure to code

~1999-2004

  • Played a lot of StarCraft and Unreal (Tournament) 🖱️

    I remember creating custom StarCraft maps and messing around in Unreal's dev console

~1998

  • First home computer 🖥️

    My favorite pastimes were Kid Pix and printing out pages of webdings

~1997

  • First time on the internet thanks to WebTV 📺

    I used it to listen to the soundtrack from Back To The Future

~1995

  • First gaming console - a Sony PlayStation 🎮

    I remember playing on a NES, SNES, Genesis, and Macintosh, but this was the first one that my family owned. Ridge Racer, WipEout, and later THPS massively influenced my taste in music.