Colin Jones

Software Craftsman

Confidence and empathy are the major skills that he has picked up at 8th Light. While he has to be concerned with the small details of his code, he also needs to empathize with the clients who need to see the bigger picture of the software. A craftsman combines that attention to detail and a vision of the big picture.

Colin has worked on projects like Clojure Koans, Toga, keypressr, and Leiningen, a popular build tool for clojure. He has given talks on Clojure at Agile Conference and Chicago Code Camp. His specialties include Ruby, Java, Scheme, Clojure, and Scala.

Colin received a Bachelor's in Musical Arts and Mathematics (2002) from Vanderbilt University and a Master's in Trumpet Performance (2004) from the University of Georgia. His background in music has deeply affected his approach to programming. Musicians (and programmers) need to work very hard to get good at their craft. However, the work does not end there, you have to work hard to maintain your skill and grow. Craftsmanship is a mountain you are always climbing.