Meet Musa! He is a Shopify Developer on our eCommerce team. He has advanced skills in building custom Shopify templates and pushing the limits of what Shopify’s front end can do. In this installment of Behind, The Coding Musa explains the feeling a developer gets when they solve a problem and takes on a trip through his hometown of Lahore’s finest restaurants and a special place he’s planning to escape to.
Hi Musa! Ready?
Hi Sajeel. Yes, I am!
Ok! What are the last 3 things you Googled?
Searching for a good family restaurant
Why are you searching for a good family restaurant?
I am planning on doing a family dinner for my family.
What makes a good family dinner in your opinion?
Two things. The environment and variety of food. Those two things can accommodate people with different tastes.
What places are you thinking about?
There are 4 really good restaurants in Lahore that I am choosing between. One is Monal which has really nice rooftop seating, the other is Chandni Chowk. The final two are Options and Ziafat which is a really good BBQ place.
Which way are you leaning towards?
I think Monal. I’ve been there a few times and have never been disappointed! Ziafat is a close second.
Ok! What else are you Googling?
The US Holiday schedule and when my next one is!
You work the US Holiday schedule. What do you do on those days that aren’t necessarily holidays where you are based?
I’m kind of the man of the house. My younger brother lives out of town so I help my uncle and mom with household repairs, chores, etc. Most of my holidays are full of helping my family.
When is your next holiday? 😊
One week from now!
Ok! What else are you Googling?
Well we are doing this during the Eid season so I am doing festival shopping for a kurta (traditional Pakistani apparel)
What brands are good these days?
Bareeze Man and Junaid Jamshed. They are good but very expensive.
So which brand do you prefer?
Actually, I’ll get inspiration from those brands, and then I’ll get something made custom from a tailor based on those designs.
Really?
Yeah. Tailors can custom-make something at a fraction of the cost of the brand. Why waste money?
Very good point Musa! You are an eCommerce developer. Do you know what these eCommerce sites are built-in? Do you check that often?
Sometimes yes! Actually, both of these sites are built in Magento 2!
Nice! When was the last time you worked after hours to solve a hard problem?
Oh, man. That’s an easy one. You have heard of PSD2HTML. Well for one of our agency clients I had to do HTML2PDF!
HTML to PDF?!
Yeah. We had to take pages and build PDFs out of them. And the client changed the PDF sizes from A4 to A3. That made for a lot of extra work. Because if a pixel is even slightly off in a PDF then everything becomes sideways and the file breaks.
Who are 3 people you'd like to have dinner (davaat) with at the same time and why
My younger brother Hamza for sure. He’s a doctor in another city and we haven’t had dinner together in a long time.
How long?
Almost a year. I miss him a lot.
That is a long time to not have a meal with your brother. Who else?
I have 3 really good friends from University. Kisham, Tayyab and Abdur-Rahim. Haven’t seen them in a while either.
Looks like you want to have dinner with people you don’t see very often.
Yup!
What would you guys eat?
Since it’s my choice we’ll go to Ziafat!
Why Ziafat and not Monal?
Ziafat is my personal choice. Since this question is about my dinner then I’d pick Ziafat. Also, each of those 4 people likes BBQ too.
When was the last time you cried tears of laughter?
I met some University friends after a long time not too long ago. So many good memories and tears of laughter for sure.
What do you love about coding?
The feeling you get when you solve a problem.
What specifically about the feeling do you love?
I mean sometimes as developers we spend hours trying to solve a problem. It’s kind of like a game, but there is pressure, tension, forces pulling you in different directions like a client or project manager and things like that. When the puzzle finally gets solved.....it’s hard to put into words that feeling.
Is it like excitement for you? What is it for you?
It is a big high for sure. Since it’s a unique problem to you it really is some sort of ground-breaking achievement or breakthrough. Regardless of how big or small it might be. You talk about it with your colleagues, clients and whoever else is involved. Solving the problem and then explaining how you solved it is a really special feeling.
Yeah, that’s right. Every development project is unique.
You’re right. These are good brain exercises and refresh the mind. These are the reasons why I love coding.
Where were you when you first saw a laptop/desktop?
I was probably 9 or 10. My dad got me a desktop to study on. I used it to play games instead.
Hahaha! What games did you play?
Tekken, Contra, and Street Fighter for the most part.
Those are classics. Contra in particular.
Contra was way too good. Also, way ahead of its time!
What is something your teammates don't know about you?
Everyone loves to travel, but I would like to live in a remote area for 4-5 months.
Really? Why?
I mean I grew up in Lahore. A town of 13.5 million people…which is significantly more than places like New York City or Toronto. It would be nice to live in a quiet place for a few months to see what it is like. I even know where I’d want to live.
Where?
The Hunza valley. It is a small area near the borders of Tajikistan and China. There is freshwater rivers, mountains, valleys, and the total gift of nature. I think spending some time there would be really life-changing.
