Richard Hauer
Provide a short summary of why you should be selected by the community as a Digital Experience MVP
I love to create things. Things that people find useful. I've been doing it for over 25 years, but over the last 15 years I've found that I also love to share this sense of pride and accomplishment with other developers, teaching them how to create things they are proud of, things they want to share with the world and are happy to see their name on. I've been doing this with my development team and through the wider Sitecore Community with the Sydney User Group and SUGCON ANZ annual conference, Slack and StackExchange sites that I helped to establish.
Contributions you have made in the Digital Experience (DX) community online and in-person (i.e., blog posts, podcasts, webinars, encouraged others to join)?
Many blogs over the years, but few these days, sadly, and few that remain online Contributor and moderator of RedDot CMS Blog One of the first Sitecore MVPs in Australia Founding contributor of Sitecore StackExchange Founder and long-time organiser of Sydney Sitecore User Group Founder, sponsor and organiser of ANZ SUGCON annual conference Received 13x Sitecore MVPs across Tech, Cloud and Ambassador categories One of just 10 Sitecore Cloud MVPs worldwide One of a handful of 10-Year Sitecore MVP award recipients Presented at scores of User Groups, conferences and Virtual Dev Days Sitecore MVP Mentor University of Sydney Boot Camp Mentor Contributor to many Sitecore Community Modules and various open source projects
What encouraging words would you like to share with those new to the community and perhaps new in their career?
Software development is part science, part witchcraft, part art. When you follow the instructions and it works... that's science. When it works but you've no idea why... that's witchcraft. When it works, and it's glorious... that's art. You must strive to find the art in all the code you write, in all that you create, because if you aren't proud of what you're making then you won't strive to make it better and it will poison you from the inside, eroding the reasons that brought you to software in the first place. And from there it's just a job, and it's no fun at all. If you strive to create art, not just software, then you'll constantly seek new things to learn - you'll be on a journey of discovery that can last a lifetime. It can be enlightening and rewarding, surely sometimes frustrating, but never boring. But remember that art takes time, practice - it's a craft that must be mastered over many years. As you achieve in your career remember that every year twice as many join the craft as two years before, and it's encumbered upon all of us to teach the skills to newcomers so that they may also feel the satisfaction of creating something that people love.
List other URLs to showcase your work, such as GitHub, StackOverflow, StackExchange, Twitter, and others that are relevant.
https://www.districtgroup.com.au
https://www.meetup.com/sydney-sitecore-user-group
https://github.com/richardhauer
https://stackoverflow.com/users/570705/richard-hauer