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Hi, I'm Sean.

About Me

Build Better Websites

I am a tinkerer and a teacher, focused on helping developers build better websites. Though I've worked with many languages and frameworks over the years, I now find myself in this wild and evolving world of decoupled JavaScript frameworks.

After a decade of freelancing and agency work, I'm now the Developer Experience Engineer at Stackbit, where I help developers of all skill levels. And I extend that effort through the content on this site.

When I'm not working with code, I'm either spending time with my family or (much-needed time) in isolation. Hiking. Baking. Reading. Writing songs and stories. Gardening. Eating sandwiches. Dancing to cheesy soundtracks with little kids. These are the things I enjoy.

No matter what I'm doing, I prioritize one thing above all else: Having a little fun along the way.

Connect with Me

I love meeting new people! Send me a message or schedule a 15-minute virtual coffee.

My Journey

2010

Completed HTML and JavaScript courses at the University of Cincinnati (UC).

2011

Graduated from UC (with B.S. in Civil Engineering).

Began working in the marketing department at Messer Construction Co.

2012

Began freelancing (on the side) using WordPress.

Launched The Polymath Lab, a blog with tutorials on a number of different topics. (Some early posts are still on the blog today, like this one.)

Adopted Stella. She has since perfected the art of balancing objects on her nose/head.

2013

Began working at Topic Design (now defunct) as a Ruby on Rails developer.

Launch a CSS framework called Bones because I was too cool for Bootstrap. (Spoiler: This project did not go far.)

2014

Built my first content management system (CMS), Cambium. It was a Ruby gem that could be plugged into any Rails app.

About six months later, I built a second CMS, Sapwood. It was a Rails meta framework for rapid website development.

Married my best friend! Of course, I built the wedding website and a honeymoon photo and journal site. I'd probably cringe at my old writing, but the photos are still some of my favorites.

2015

Extracted technical articles from The Polymath Lab to launch Cobwwweb, a developer-focused blog.

Re-launched The Polymath Lab as a blog focusing on organization, productivity, communication, and inspiration.

Started a storytelling podcast called Squirrel Stories. The stories were recorded live and aimed to recapture storytellers' most embarrassing and awkward moments of their lives. It only lasted two seasons but was one of my favorite projects to date.

2016

Left Topic Design to pursue full-time freelancing. It was a busy and stressful journey, and still one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Launched Sapwood v2.0, the last CMS I've built to date. After discovering Jamstack and headless CMS, I began buying instead of building. I miss working on CMS projects, though it was the right move.

2017

Joined Ample (another small agency) as a senior developer. At the time we were building exclusively with Ruby on Rails.

2018

After learning about Jamstack in 2017, we fully transitioned our development team at Ample to build websites with this new pattern. We went all-in on Gatsby and began experimenting with various headless CMS products.

My first child (Elliott) was born, and my life was ... different.

2019

Promoted to manage all developers at Ample and be the technical lead on all short-term web projects. Director of Technology was the fancy title I gave myself.

2020

Launched new, consolidated blog site on my personal domain (this one)! Sunset The Polymath Lab and Cobwwweb, although remnants of the Cobwwweb brand still live on in The Spinneret.

Gave my first tech conference talk at Next.js Conf 2020. It was called Everything is a CMS!

2021

Left Ample and the agency world to join Grouparoo as their first hire.

After six months, I was presented with a dream job at Stackbit, and that's where I am today.

Somewhere in all that chaos, my second kid (Walter) was born.

Creating content in

Cincinnati, Ohio (US)