Colin McArthur, jack of all trades, master of none (and proud of it).

My first brush with a computer was pure terror. I was five or six, playing Aztec Challenge on a Commodore 64 at one of my dad’s buddies’ places. The sound alone could make your pulse jump. Once I got past the fear, I was hooked.

Then came the Amiga, Dragon’s Lair , Test Drive , and a few tragic “games” I copied line-by-line from a programming book while Appetite for Destruction blasted in the background. Computers became my world. I taught myself DOS the way other kids learned bike tricks— trial, error, and maybe a few explosions.

I wasn’t confident. Thought I wasn’t smart enough for anything big, so I bounced through grunt jobs until I landed in the fitness industry. Selling treadmills felt like progress, but I knew I was meant for more than upselling ellipticals.

Then life forced a reset. My first daughter was born, and two months later COVID hit. The world shut down and so did my sense of stability. A friend with a software company was hiring. My wife said, “You should reach out.” One five-minute Zoom later, he said, “Let’s give it a try.” That sentence changed everything.

For a month I worked both jobs—6 to 8 AM, day job, 8 to midnight—then got the call: “We want you full-time.” I called my wife; she said, “Quit your job.” I did. Walked upstairs, gave notice, never looked back.

The first year was chaos. I didn’t know an API from a DNS record. “CNAME” sounded like a rapper. Every day I was lost, but I kept showing up—because for the first time, I could be home to watch my daughter grow up. That was all the motivation I needed.

Then came the storm. My wife got sick while pregnant with our second child. We lived at the Ronald McDonald House for nine weeks. I planned her funeral. I thought I’d be raising my daughter alone. It still haunts me. But somewhere in that darkness, a switch flipped. I promised myself that if she made it, I’d learn everything I could about software. No more drifting.

So I learned. FreeCodeCamp. Kevin Powell. University of Michigan for PHP. Late nights with JavaScript docs and AI whispering explanations in plain English. I’ve melted my face off every night for years since.

The detective part of me came from those busted old computers. Commodore, Amiga, 386 — nothing ever worked right. Installing a game was an act of faith. I learned that everything has a pattern. Find the pattern, fix the problem.

These days I’m an IT problem-solver by trade, a developer by obsession. My rules are simple: don’t lie, stay authentic, teach what you know, and never show up with just a problem. Bring a solution — even a rough one.

I love the tech world for its weird mix of genius and chaos. I’ve met some absolute brain-melters who make you feel like an idiot and others who’d give you the shirt off their GitHub repo. Either way, I’ve learned to translate — turn nerd-speak into something people actually understand.

If you’re reading this, I don’t want you thinking I’m the most gifted dev alive. I want you thinking this guy never quits. Determination beats genius every time.