How did I get started?
Like most millennials as a pre-teen I have creating AOL Hometown pages, pimping out my AIM Profile. Later on I moved onto messing with HTML on Xanga and MySpace. In my senior year of high school, I took a Robotics course that really peaked my interest in Computer Science. Going from a Lego Mindstorm set to a robot that could execute an array of tasks. This idea really opened the floodgates to possibilities of coding, who needs a website with flashing gifs and CSS templates when you can create things that will make life easier. Way back in 2006 I was imagining Smoke Detectors that would text you when they go off or have a low battery. Alarm clocks that won’t turn off until you actually leave your apartment. Mockups of different ideas and concepts flooded my Evernote account and I burned myself out trying to figure out how to code and create something from nothing. That’s a huge undertaking for an 18-year-old whose main priorities were focused on chasing skirts and lifting plates at the gym. So all the hours of notes and brainstorming sessions just lingered out of sight and out of mind.
At the time I had minimal coding experience, maybe computer science wasn’t for me. Who can create something from nothing? Definably not me, but what I could do is write a VB Script to stop repetitive Help Desk tickets from coming in when I worked at an MSP. So despite venturing onto the IT pathway my roots were still a pinky toe in the coding pool. Bill Gates famous said that he hires the brightest and laziest engineers at Microsoft. Why? Because they will find ways to automate all the tasks that they rather not do manually. I have a lot of that in me, early on and still do this day. Spend an hour once instead of spending 5 minutes once a week on an unfulfilling task.
By this time, I was already knee deep and majoring in confusion as far as college went. Queens College didn’t exactly have a clear academic focus where you could major in pretty much anything from Political Science to Library Studies. Confusion was the best way I could describe it at the time. College life was truly my academic buffet where I accumulated credits in anything that fit nicely in my schedule. When I was pestered about my major from friends and family they would really only react positively when I mentioned possibly going Pre-Med. Yeah, I could do that! Hell, I loved telling people I was a Biology major. Everyone I knew gave me praise and credit even when there wasn’t much praise to be warranted.
Everything I ever did pretty much came effortlessly, who studies anyways right? When you can just show up and play Brickbreaker through boring lectures and remember just enough to ace the midterm. Biology was unforgiving and courses of study go. On the first day of classes, the lecture halls were packed to the gills with students that were eager to take the study of Biology head on. Easier said than done, by the time the midterm results came out the lecture halls went from students being forced to sit on the floor to half empty lecture halls. As the weeks went on the crowd continued to half until there was less than 30 of us left. Bio was as sink or swim as a college course can get. No amount of hours spent studying and memorizing could help me crack anything higher than a B. When I work hard I better see some damn results and needless to say, it was time to pivot.
"I Can't let studying get in the way of my draft preparation"
- Michael Muss
Computer Science seems like the obvious choice. I know a lot about computers, I’ve defragged hard drives, removed viruses and reset countless passwords. How hard could it be? I already have a leg up on the fundamentals. I don’t know anyone else who was writing Visual Basic and batch files, this is going to be a breeze. I did what every other budding mind does before they enter a new space. Buy and read a couple books on the matter. Compile some template code from a tutorial site, easy peasy as everything should be. Just like anything else worth pursuing it wasn’t quite the cakewalk I thought it would be. I spent hours banging my head against the wall, but I got through mastering topics like C++, Java and Assembly Code. Great now what? Another hiatus from coding life because I’m killing it in the IT field. Countless Comp Tia and Microsoft Certifications, I wouldn’t say it was easy but with a reasonable amount of effort I kicked ass and took names. Over time I grew tired of the System Admin life, it was time for a change. What can I do? What do I love? I sat on this question for a very long time. I love chasing skirts and fantasy sports. The later of the two could actually bear some fruit, I don’t think actually playing fantasy sports could earn enough income to quit my job. I had missed the Playoffs back to back years in 2012 and 2013, I'm not too proud out it but College would soon be over and I could return to my craft with a greater focus and dedication. That's when I realized the need for a tool that could help make Fantasy Football as easy as automating the tasks I really didn’t enjoy.
Fantasy Bro Sports was born