19 years.
Still building.
Self-taught. Started at 13. Never stopped. Here's the honest version.
I started programming at 13 with Visual Basic 6 because I wanted to build a custom skin engine for Windows XP. Nobody taught me. I just needed the thing I was imagining to exist, and the only way to make it exist was to learn to write it.
By 15 I was in C. By 17, x86 Assembly. By 20 I was writing Windows kernel drivers — WDM, direct MMIO, custom ring-buffer IPC. Not because anyone asked, because I needed to understand what happened between my code and the electrons. That curiosity is still the engine.
In 2020 I brought that same obsession to the web. React clicked immediately — the component model felt like object-oriented thinking applied to UI. Five years later I've shipped production React and Next.js applications, an Angular 19 SSR portfolio that scores 99+ across all Lighthouse categories, a SvelteKit headless CMS from scratch, and SysKernel Auth — a licensing platform protecting 1,000+ real customers for 3+ years with zero critical incidents.
The systems background isn't a footnote. It's why I can look at a slow React render and know whether the problem is in the reconciler, the network, or the database — and fix the right one.
The things that don't change.
Ship real outcomes
Not demos. Not prototypes with asterisks. Production software that runs under load and keeps running.
Ask why before building
The best code is the code that doesn't need to exist. Understand the problem first — always.
Own the whole system
UI, API, infra — I treat them as one problem. That's what 19 years across every layer gives you.
Performance by default
Fast isn't a feature. It's the baseline. Measure first, optimize deliberately, never guess.
How I got here.
The Beginning
Started programming at 13 with Visual Basic 6. First real program: a file manager with a custom skin engine. Immediately obsessed.
C & C++ — The Foundation
Discovered C/C++. Spent two years doing nothing else. Memory management, pointers, data structures from scratch. The foundation everything else is built on.
10 Years at the Metal
Deep systems work: x86 then x64 Assembly, ARM, Windows driver kit, kernel internals, hypervisors. Built things most engineers will never see the source of. SysKernel Auth born here.
The Web Turn
Brought systems-level thinking to the web. React, Svelte, Node.js, TypeScript. 5+ years of front-end focus from this point. Same obsession with performance, different domain.
Programming Contractor
Delivered a performance-engineering contract in C++ and x86 Assembly for a custom software solution. Full documentation and seamless client handoff.
Senior Front-End Focus
React, Next.js, Angular 19, SvelteKit. Production applications with accessibility, performance, and CI/CD. legendodin.dev Angular SSR portfolio and this Next.js rebuild.
What people say.
“Built our core licensing and payment infrastructure from scratch. Shipped in weeks, running 2+ years in production without a single critical incident. Rare level of ownership.”
“Angular rewrite cut our load time by 60% and reduced churn immediately. He asks *why* before building — that alone saved us weeks of rework.”
“Only developer I know who debugs kernel code in the morning and ships a Tailwind component in the afternoon. That range is genuinely rare.”