Episode 0: My story, Why podcasting and the need?

Pramod: I am a software engineer, working at Atlassian Inc. I live in the software-mecca that is the Bay Area. And this my story, I am from Mysore, a beautiful and historical city in India. I moved to the States 5 years ago to do my masters and pursue a career in computers. I have few interests; my first love is programming– security and distributed computing are my fields of expertise. When relaxing, I fancy myself to be an amateur mixologist; I love to play tennis, watch cricket, and often lose to roomie playing FIFA on Xbox. These days I do not have much of social life so followed my dream of creating a podcast. Yes, I am starting a PodCast “Mapping The Journey.” You might have already guessed that English is not my first language, but still, I’m going ahead with this. Before that, I need to answer few questions.

1. My inspiration and the reason for starting the podcast.

First off, I love speaking to individuals who have brilliant minds, excellent skills, and who are over-achievers. Talking to them, hearing their stories, is fascinating. But the real satisfaction comes when I get to share all I’ve learned from the masters of their crafts with you– people who also like taking a peek behind the curtain to see how success is created and multiplied. The theme of the podcast is to unmask the people who are making tremendous strides in tech, yet whose names, and stories are seldom heard.

My biggest inspiration is Harsha Bhogle, a cricket commentator who I grew up listening to as a child, and continue to watch as an adult. Someday, I hope to be as inspiring to audiences as he is, giving regular talks and stage interviews. Mapping the Journey is my first step.

2. Why “MappingTheJourney”???

In the past two decades, Silicon Valley has grown from hopeful seeds into a thriving jungle. The tech industry has expanded dramatically from the days of dot-com to invincible tech giants, with countless startups cropping up hourly. So much has happened in and around technology, and it can be difficult for newcomers to imagine what the tech field was like 20 years ago when this industry was less stable.

In recent years, social media has glorified the icons of Silicon Valley, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerburg. Although the developments of these masters of the craft are notable, there are thousands of building blocks the Greats needed to create the thriving industries they did. You see, ideas advance into revolutionary products when software developers and architects ensure that their code is scalable, efficient, fast and bug-free. These people never see the limelight, but instead, they are behind the scenes, creating high-level innovation. I want to share the stories of the everyday trailblazer with you.

3. Publish Schedule

I will be publishing one episode every week on Thursday. It’s an audio PodCast for 20-30 minutes.

4. Call to Action

• My first episode is available on iTunes, google music, pocket cast, and Soundcloud. Also available on my website mappingthejourney.com. It is my first ever effort of public speaking or podcasting; honestly, I sound terrible. But I will be better in subsequent episodes. Please, show your support by subscribing to the show and leaving a review.
• Also, I would like to thank my first 2 guests
  • Rich Salz, OpenSSL guru
  • Alex Martelli, Python Guru

who generously accepted my requests to be on this show, even though I didn’t have any prior experience.

• Also if you know someone: a colleague or mentor who has made significant contributions in the field of tech, please reach out to me pramodhs@live.com or tweet me at @mappingjourney.
• Finally, I am looking for a co-host to help me out. Podcasting is a lot of work and mostly I am a one-man army. If you are interested, please reach out to me at pramodhs@live.com

Okay bye now, listen to the first episode where we will be following the journey of Rich Salz, security expert, and OpenSSL Guru. Until Then