about Josh

I'm a product engineer in Atlanta working on Makeswift. I'm passionate about building creative tools that are sexy and fast. This page is essentially my resume in long form.


Most of my free time goes to building two side projects.

Type the Word

Type the Word is a typing practice tools similar to monkeytype, but instead of typing through random words you are typing through the Bible. Since it's release at the end of 2023, 450+ people have typed the Bible over 6 times. 100k verses were typed in 2024, and we are on track to 4x that in 2025.

42colors

42colors is a pixel art editing game. Each player will start with a grant for ten thousand pixels. They can use these pixels to claim "land" and draw. Once you have drawn something other players can upvote or downvote your art, which results in you recieving more pixels. Pixels are currency.

The canvas is realtime and infinite which presents some performance challenges. I've been curious about Elixir for a long time so I'm using the project as a reason to learn Elixir and I'm limiting the color palette to 42 colors per region. 42 things can be represnted with 6 bits so there are all sorts of interesting optimizations to use. For example, this thread describes how I'm using a file system cache and sending binary data so loading the canvas is as fast as possible.

So much of art is making the most of constraints, and I can't wait to see the art people make with the same pixel density and color palette.

This project is getting most of my time and is still a WIP, but it's reawakened my love for art and making me realize that creative tools are my future.


In the past, I've used this blog to break down different UI patterns in React, but now days I only write blogs when I've gone down a rabbit hole on something that isn't well documented like how to implement drag to select on the web.

In 2021, I consistently illustrated. I paused this habit to focus on programming, but a big part of why I'm building a pixel art editor is so I can justify creating my own art again.

I have a beautiful wife and some cool cats named Thomas, Daisy, and Bear. And I love the outdoors, gardening, and running.

my timeline

2024

🎒 - Backpacked for the first time. We did the first 30 miles of the AT.
🏃‍♂ïļ - Broke my half marathon PR @ 1:37.
âŒĻïļ - Maintained Type the Word. Over 100k verses have been typed this year.
✏ïļ - Started blogging again
🖌ïļ - Started 42colors.

2023

ðŸ‘Ļ🏞‍ðŸ’ŧ - Makeswift was acquired by BigCommerce
✏ïļ - Stopped blogging to focus on Type the Word
✏ïļ - Shipped Type the Word on Reddit and got a few commited users.
ðŸĄ - Changed my mind and moved to Atlanta, GA

2022

ðŸŽĻ - Stopped illustrating to focus on this blog again :)
ðŸ˜ļ - Got more cats — Daisy and Bear
ðŸĄ - Bought a house and decided to stay in Iowa City long term
ðŸ‘Ļ🏞‍ðŸ’ŧ - Joined Makeswift

2021

ðŸŽĻ - Started learning illustration and shared my progression
✏ïļ- Created a blog and wrote about job searching

2020

ðŸ‘Ļ🏞‍ðŸ’ŧ - Joined Clearcover
ðŸ˜ģ - Was unemployed for two months
👋 - Left my job because of how they treated a friend
ðŸĪŠ - Worked intermittently on a bunch of things
ðŸ˜ŧ - Got a cat named Thomas

2019

💍 - Got married to Izzy Wootonn
📈 - Started Graze Analytics with a friend
ðŸ‘Ļ🏞‍ðŸ’ŧ - Joined Digital Diagnostics full time
📚 - Graduated college from the University of Iowa

2016-2018

ðŸ‘Ļ🏞‍ðŸ’ŧ - Interned at Digital Diagnostics
ðŸ‘Ļ🏞‍ðŸ’ŧ - Worked on some time tracking software for All American Concrete inc
ðŸĪ“ - Completed The Odin Project

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