Introducing: From Scratch Code
I'm launching a small business built around my values.
THE BIG CITY—From Scratch Enterprises LLC (ticker: FSEL) announced its newest venture Monday, From Scratch Code (ticker: FSC). Members of the media gathered around the folding chair of its owlish founder, Jones Beach. Refreshments were not provided.
Whispers circulated among the media contingent that this was the same desk which produced the not-a-non-profit, From Scratch dot org (ticker: FSdo). The representative present could not confirm and barely glanced up from their phone.
“After becoming the market leader in telling autism stories no one asked for, we stepped back and asked ourselves what was next,” said Beach. “It became clear that we could go beyond the abcs and move into 1s and 0s.”
The event continued with a personal statement read aloud by Beach, which was a weird format, but seemed heartfelt.
I never set out to make the killer app. When I was building an early project—a website about stadiums—people asked me when they could expect an app, I looked at them feeling under-appreciated and directed them to my clumsy website. I’m not motivated by attempting to build the next big thing, but by creating something genuine and functional.
My skill set as a software engineer is typically valued through monetization rather than words of affirmation. I’m not asking for sympathy about this; I’m incredibly fortunate that people chose to pay me to write code for them for nearly a decade. But when this system stopped working for me, I looked around for what else I could do with my skills. I’m driven by curiosity and a genuine desire to support others, bringing humor and understanding to my work. These values give me far more satisfaction than fitting into the small box an employer needs each quarter, so I set out to build a business that embraces them, with as little BS as possible.
What mentally freed me to arrive at this point was letting go of the need to impress people who didn’t understand my tools, my craft, or my skill set. While that path works for some, it left me feeling unheard and used. Instead of building software to do something interesting, I chose to build software that is, itself, interesting—a kind of art for art’s sake and my personal rebellion against a system that seeks to control my time and monetize my output.
I landed on a service business because I crave 1:1 connection. My favorite moments in my 9-5 weren’t building products but nerding out with a colleague over an obscure programming language feature. Tutoring proved I could make non-zero dollars doing what I love most. Today, I’m expanding this into my own brand and platform, where creativity and emphasis on the individual can shine—free from high platform fees and other external constraints.
From Scratch Code is for people who already know how to write code and want to learn how to write even better code. Who want to build their own libraries in Rust and Python and understand how programming languages and computers work together under the hood. Who want to have a technical support system which takes not being serious very seriously. I’ll continue to work with students and beginner developers on Wyzant, but here, you’ll find a space where creativity and curiosity are the main drivers.
If any of this resonates with you, I encourage you to sign up for my email list. There, I’ll be telling silly stories about the Rust and Python code I’m building—like my current interpreter project—and the things we could learn together, either through mentorship or courses. I’ll continue to discuss the mental health and adult-diagnosed autism side of my story on From Scratch dot org. I can’t think of a better way to fully present the two sides of myself to the modern economy than by maintaining parallel newsletters!
I’ll wrap up with this: my inability to form even a single sentence of what feels like BS played a large role in my decision to leave corporate, so everything I’m building with From Scratch Code is genuine and designed to help you thrive in your technical work. On the flip side, I’m a firm believer that humor and creative absurdism can make people smile and expand what’s considered possible. As such, I found myself with no patience for people who (or systems which encourage people to) say “I’m working with person A on project B” when everyone in the room knows person A doesn’t respond to emails and project B will be scrapped. Perhaps this impatience with non-reality is an autism thing. I’m drawn to the person who says “what if we built project C on the moon?!” Those are the people stretching boundaries and refusing to live in the small boxes corporate life often imposes.
I want to be that person for you, your career, and your technical work. Your unlicensed technical therapist. A supportive listener who doesn’t take insurance but can debug your code.
Feel free to share this message with anyone who might enjoy some offbeat creativity alongside their technical growth—I’d love to connect with them!
This is going to be fun. I hope you’ll join me!
The event concluded ten minutes after it began.
James Beach covers culture and satire in The Big City. He lives in The Big City alongside the rest of the literati. He is in no way related to Jones Beach and believes refreshments at press conferences pose an ethical dilemma.
This is cross-posted on From Scratch Code.
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