Topconf: What excites you about working in the IT industry?
Harry: That’s a tricky one! I don’t work in the IT industry in the traditional sense; I see working on the web as something a little more specific. The web is a really exciting field at the moment, and whilst I don’t believe it’s necessarily making the world a better place, I do think it’s changing it. I really want the web to win and, with new technologies like Service Worker, taking native applications to an open platform is becoming more and more common. I’m really excited about the future of the web and its ability to make things more accessible to more and more people.

Topconf: What do you like most about your job? What do you like least?
Harry: The thing I like most is the travel. I get to visit all sorts of wonderful places and meet really fascinating, fun, friendly people. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to see so much of the world whilst doing a job that I love so much.
The thing I like least is the travel. For all the fun that traveling brings, it also comes at a huge cost—lots of time away from home, lots of time alone, difficult to create any kind of routine in the rest of my life, meals for one, flights for one, hotel rooms for one. It’s tiring and expensive and inefficient. On balance, it’s completely worth it, but I’m aware I can’t keep doing it forever.

Topconf: What is your motivation to speak at Topconf Tallinn 2016?
Harry: There are a few things! Firstly, I’ve never been to Tallinn before, so I’m really excited to visit the city and explore. Secondly, I spoke at Topconf Linz earlier this year and had a really great time—a very well organised event with great speakers and lots of variety. I’m looking forward to seeing the Tallinn edition!

Topconf: What sessions are you giving at Topconf Tallinn and what will be the take away for the participants?
Harry: I’m doing a couple of things at the event. Firstly, I’m running a full-day workshop about CSS Architecture. Attendees will learn a lot about designing for performance, writing performant code, organising CSS in large and long lived projects.
Secondly, I will be giving a talk about refactoring CSS, in which the audience will learn how to take old, legacy CSS projects and begin to slowly and steadily tidy them up. Refactoring CSS is remarkably tricky, so the talk covers ways of approaching the task whilst avoiding regressions, conflicts, and more mess.

Topconf: What is you life/career motto?
Harry: Someone once told me something that I’ve never forgotten: Don’t do it for the money, don’t do it for no money. This helps me balance business decisions with things of a more personal interest. It’s important that you don’t make money your primary goal; don’t be greedy and don’t let money lead your decisions. However, it’s important—especially if you are inclined to be charitable or incredibly passionate about what you do—not to allow people to take advantage; it’s important to know your worth and value so that you get treated and paid fairly for the work you do.