My life in five minutes

My elementary school report cards never failed to include the phrase "somewhat distracted." My mind was always filled with exciting things, and whenever an idea struck, I had to act on it immediately. During a parent observation class in first grade, I apparently did a handstand out of nowhere.

I kept doing whatever seemed fun. While weight training, I spotted a job posting at the local gym and ended up working as a personal trainer. I loved hip-hop, so I made music with friends. In college, I played on the American football team, competed in bodybuilding and placed in competitions. These days, I'm deep into running.

Becoming a developer was also a coincidence. I entered Seoul National University's College of Liberal Studies and initially chose Mechanical Engineering and Anthropology. Anthropology was out of pure curiosity; Mechanical Engineering was supposed to pay the bills. But through various projects, I realized that building mechanical products took far too long.

While exploring career options, I stumbled upon a booth run by VCNC, the company behind the Tada ride-sharing service. That's how my startup life began.

This was when I first used SQL, and I found the process of extracting the data I needed fascinating. I had assumed I wasn't a computer person since I didn't enjoy gaming, but after this experience, I switched my major to Computer Science.

To learn the fundamentals, I took data structures and algorithms lessons from Sam Lee, now my CEO. When COVID hit, Sam wanted to move this learning online. I joined the team then and started web development for the first time. Five years later, Codetree has become a platform where tens of thousands of developers learn algorithms, and I serve as its CTO.

Curiosity is both my greatest strength and weakness. My quick execution helps me grasp and accomplish things fast, but I always feel I fall short when it comes to going deep in one field. After five years as a developer, I still feel my technical skills as a CTO are lacking—and ironically, this self-doubt has dampened even my strength of execution.

Recently, the emergence of AI agents has lowered the barrier to executing plans I had only dreamed of. This year, I'm focusing on running a technical blog and building a stronger engineering culture on my team. With an explorer's heart.