Meet the Writer: Hacker Noon Contributor Mike Alfa is Excited About Neural Networks

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

Hello! My name is Mike Alfa. Officially - Mikhail, but it can be too complicated for some people and because of that I prefer simple - Mike. I'm a Flutter Tech Lead with work since 2018. I wonderfuling of this technology but not only of this. Also - I really like programming and engineering in general and was very excited last time about the several Next-Gen-Level Neural Networks, such as Dall-E and Stable Diffusion.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

Well, my latest Top story was about my own Open Source project, called nest-transact. It is about a way - how to make transactions with Nest.js - the most "enterprisable" framework for Node.js. Oh, sorry. I didn't tell you that I'm not only a mobile engineer, but also - a backend and a web frontend. It follows that I should call myself not a mobile or Flutter engineer, but - a full stack or just simple - software engineer. Because I think that programming languages and frameworks are just a tool to realize the goal, although I like some of them more than others.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

Usually, I write about Flutter or something which is related to it. But not all the time. Also I wrote about file types / languages / serialization "thingies" - JSON vs XML vs YAML vs TOML. Many different things, but they all are united by one goal - they all are interesting to me and I want to share my knowledge and experience with people around the world! Just kidding, it actually means that I pull my chair up to the highest level, close my eyes, and start remembering some interesting details.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

It depends on the topic of the article. If it is something like "How to make <something> with <name>" - then I first write some code example. Like a demo app or backend service. If the next article will be about my experience - then I meditate well in a dark-dark cave on top of the highest mountains that can be found near me. Then I start to write and the text somehow begins to come out on its own.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

Laziness! That's all that can really get in the way of writing. And that's what will leave this question with so little answer! 😉

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

Well, actually, I've accomplished quite a bit in my career. Of course, it is possible to develop even stronger and stronger, which is what I am doing now and plan to do in the future. But to be more specific - my immediate goal is to finish my child - the child of my mental labor and strong will, which will allow the company, where I am working now, to get a qualitatively new product, which will please businesses and developers for many years in the future.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

Everyone has their own dirty secrets! I'm not an exception 😏. In general, the main source of endorphin for me now is my little daughter (she is 11 months old), who is growing by leaps and bounds, and I really enjoy looking at her, seeing her new skills, and somehow communicating with her.

I used to play computer games sometimes (favorites are Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4, oh, and I almost forgot - Bioshock Infinite). But not so long ago my main laptop burned out, and now I have to settle for developing my own projects as personal entertainment.

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

In the relatively distant past (>= 8 years ago), I was a semi-professional weightlifter - building my body and forging my will. I loved it, but over time I grew mossy and began to devote far less time to this hobby than necessary. Now I'm trying to get back in the saddle, but it's going shaky and wobbly. (I'm a lazy monkey 🦍)

Of the other hobbies, it's driving, spiced up a bit with travel. I just love driving to some new, unexplored (by me) place with my family.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

I'm currently working on an article about choosing the best library for navigating in Flutter (I won't say what the choice is). And also very soon I will start working on an article describing the process of developing a game in Flutter, the theme of which is neural networks - a game about neural networks. Pretty cool, huh?

Thanks for taking the time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

There are a couple - I think developers should not only grow professionally themselves, but it's important to share their knowledge and experience with the community - other developers. Someone is just started learning and for him, every word you say, every letter you write will be useful, and from another side - something you wrote, something very specific - can be extremely useful to another already experienced colleague of yours in the profession. So, if you have the ability - to write articles that will be useful to other people. And I went to do it. thank god - the working day is over 😉