K Lars Lohn

Summary K Lars Lohn has had a long and varied career, spending his most recent years at Mozilla. This week he shares some of his stories about getting involved with Python, his work with Mozilla, and his inspiration for the closing keynote at PyCon US 2016. He also elaborates on the intricate mazes that he draws and his life as an organic farmer in Oregon. Brief Introduction Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project We also have a new sponsor this week. Rollbar is a service for tracking and aggregating your application errors so that you can find and fix the bugs in your application before your users notice they exist. Use the link rollbar.com/podcastinit to get 90 days and 300,000 errors for free on their bootstrap plan. Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch. To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas. Your host as usual is Tobias Macey Today we’re interviewing K Lars Lohn about his career, his art, and his work with Mozilla Interview with K Lars Lohn Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? You have an interesting pair of articles on your website that attempt to detail how you perceive code and why you think that formatting should be configured in a manner analogous to CSS. Can you explain a bit about how your particular perception affects the way that you program? On your website you have some images of incredibly detailed artwork that are actually mazes. Can you describe some of your creation process for those? What is it about mazes that keeps you interested in them and how did you first start using them as a form of visual art? At Mozilla you have helped to create a project called Socorro which utilizes complexity analysis for correlating stacktraces. How did you conceive of that approach to error monitoring? Can you describe how Socorro is architected and how it works under the covers? At this year’s PyCon US you presented the closing keynote and it was one of the most engaging talks that I’ve seen. Where did you get the inspiration for the content and the mixed media approach? For anyone who hasn’t seen it, you managed to weave together a very personal story with a musical performance, and some applications of complexity analysis into a seamless experience. How much did you have to practice before you felt comfortable delivering that in front of an audience? In addition to your technical career you are also very focused on living in a manner that is sustainable and in tune with your environment. What kinds of synergies and conflicts exist between your professional and personal philosophies? Keep In Touch Website Twitter Picks Tobias Terry Pratchett Lars Bach’s Tocatta & Fugue in D Minor Links Functional Geekery Episode 65 – Morten Kromberg talks about APL K Lars Lohn’s Portfolio The Well Tempered API Temple Grandin The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA