Meet the Writer: Matt Sokola on Helping People Feel Less Lonely on their Programming Journey

This story is a part of Hacker Noon's Meet the Writer series of interviews. The series is intended for tech professionals contributing the most insightful Hacker Noon stories to share more about their writing habits, ideas, and professional background (and maybe a hobby or two).

If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here.

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

I am Matt Sokola, I work as a Software Engineer - mostly with JavaScript and TypeScript. My career made me an expat for the last 8+ years. I lived in Poland, Austria, and United Arab Emirates. I worked for a very different set of companies from startups to enterprises.

Now I am at the beginning of an exciting adventure. Recently, I started a new job for a distributed remote-first company from the blockchain field, and trying to live in two different cities at the same time - Warsaw and Abu Dhabi. So fingers crossed it goes well.

In my free time, I’m growing my YouTube channel that helps developers to become even better developers. I have quite an interesting career, so I hope I can intrigue readers and viewers with my content.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

My last and the most successful story was on building a clone of the 2048 game using React and TypeScript. What makes it unique is that I describe how I made all animations and wrapped it into a nice product.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

I usually write my stories on programming and related topics. I write articles I would’ve liked to read at the beginning of my career but I couldn’t find them.

A few years ago I stumbled across a keynote given by Charlie Kaufman at BAFTA and he said:

[…] What can be done? Say who you are, really say it in your life and in your work. Tell someone out there who is lost, someone not yet born, someone who won’t be born for 500 years. Your writing will be a record of your time. It can’t help but be that. But more importantly, if you’re honest about who you are, you’ll help that person be less lonely in their world because that person will recognise him or herself in you and that will give them hope. It’s done so for me and I have to keep rediscovering it. […]

So that I write to make people feel less lost and lonely in their programming journey. Most of my stories are unpopular but I always hope there is a person that really needed to read my story. I believe this is the greatest ROI I could make out of my time.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

I write only when I have something to say, so that I write rarely. There is so much noise on the Internet, and I don’t want to clutter it.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

I think Thomas Mann said “a writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Fortunately, I am not a writer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make it any easier.

It is really hard to write a gripping article that everybody loves, and feels intrigued. I’m impressed by DHH from Basecamp because he is such a great writer, and he isn’t even an English native speaker.

I would love to find a recipe for writing.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

Just started to work for stake.fish, so I hope to discover the world of cryptocurrencies in depth. The most of information on crypto is garbage since writers focus on controversy and selling the story of becoming a millionaire overnight. Crypto is way more than that.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

I love gummy candies such as Haribo. I don’t eat them too often though.

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

I’m really into personal finance and the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Also, I do some weightlifting.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

As I said - I write rarely. I still need to digest the success of this story :)

Thanks for taking time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Thank you for publishing my story. Thanks to Hacker Noon I can reach even broader audience.

If you want to hear more for me you can follow me on Twitter, and subscribe to my YouTube channel.