Meet The Speaker: Dan Shappir
As part of our preparations for YGLF 2019 Code Camp we're excited to share with you another interview, in the series of interviews, with this year's amazing speakers. Hear their stories and their professional insights. This time we're with Dan Shappir (@DanShappir).
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself
I'm a web developer that's old enough so that I should know better ... I currently work at Wix as Performance Tech Lead, where on a good day I get to make over 100 million websites built on the Wix platform load and execute faster. I'm very passionate about the Open Web, and consider it as one of the great technological achievements of humanity.
I hope my work on performance helps to make the Web better. Previously I've worked on missile trajectory simulations, multi-user games, and Web-based remote access solutions. I'm also a husband and a father of three.
Q: Who is your favorite tech thought leader and why?
My favourite tech thought leaders are Alan Kay - literally everything he's ever said on technology is worth reading or viewing, and often worth quoting - and also Linus Torvalds (@Linus__Torvalds) - not so much a thought leader as an amazing engineer who gets awesome shit done.
Also, every few years I like to listen again to Steve Jobs' presentation of the original iPhone. It's an amazing presentation to watch, especially given how the iPhone has changed the world. (It's also amusing to consider that at present the least important aspect of the iPhone is the fact that it's a phone). And I've learned a whole lot from my father, Joe Shappir, physics professor, and one of the pioneers of the semiconductors technology
Q: What advice would you give yourself at the outset of your career?
The most important thing I would tell myself is to always follow my passions. Never waste time working at a job you don't enjoy, even if everybody tells you it's a promotion, and the pay is better. Also, life's too short to waste it on people who don't get it.
Q: What will you teach us at YGLF Code Camp 2019?
At YGLF 2019: Code Camp I will be presenting a workshop on the awesome, and surprisingly large, Web Performance API. This is actually a collection of APIs, or even an API category, that provide access to internal performance information collected by the browser. Using the Web Performance API it's possible to collect useful, detailed information that you can use to pinpoint performance bottlenecks, so that you will know where to concentrate your efforts in order to achieve meaningful results.
It also enables you to monitor performance over time, to ensure that you're progressing and not regressing. This API is a W3C standard, and is supported by all modern browsers.
Thank you, Dan!
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