Team Highlight: Chris Sell

Since joining us as a Friend of Purple way back in 2014 to assist with all things technical development, Chris Sell has been leveraging his impressive skill set and attention to detail to help get some of our biggest projects deployed. Now, as our Principal Engineer, he continues to lead clients and teams to success, while staying on top of the latest tools and trends the industry has to offer. Interested in learning more about our dev-master? Look no further.

1. What are some of your favorite aspects of your role?

I love learning new things and trying out the latest technologies. I’m not doing the same thing every day. I get to go from building a React app one day, to setting up a CI/CD pipeline the next, to soldering LED rings and building an app using Unreal Engine.

2. What is one of your favorite hobbies and why do you enjoy doing it?

Activities focused around water are my lifeblood. I love swimming whether it’s in the pool, a spring river or the ocean. My kids and I pretty regularly take the kayak out and paddle around various rivers and lakes in the area. I really just love exploring in general, and kayaking gets me into some cool places you can’t get to on foot. But exploring isn’t just limited to that, I love finding beautiful places (like some incredible spots I found in Hawaii). I love exploring new foods and drinks so you’ll find me around at great restaurants, cocktail bars, and breweries and then back at home as I experiment with my own food and drinks.

3. What was one of your favorite PRPL projects and why?

It’s hard to choose just one, there've been many fun projects, but I would have to say Powerpuff Yourself. It’s such a cute concept/experience and we pioneered a hugely successful tech stack! AWS Lambda was brand new at the time, Node.js (simply “Node” at the time) was still in its infancy, the timeline to figure it all out was somewhat tight and the infrastructure held up beautifully under quite a load of visitors. We also brought the app to various installations including a pop-up shop and supported those with some companion technology for printing and order queue management. The team on that project was also incredible and we worked as such a tight unit.

4. What was one of your favorite PRPL memories?

There are so many great memories…maybe the time when “Death” (one of the engineers in costume) fell asleep on the pocket room couch? Or when we all attended client meetings in our Halloween costumes…I think my all-time favorite, though, has to be just on the tail end of the COVID pandemic and PRPL reserved some space over at Wekiva Island for the day. Emerging from a pandemic and seeing friends in person again that we had only recently seen virtually, getting actual real hugs again, all while floating in the cool, clear spring water was quite an amazing time.

5. What types of music or movies do you enjoy?

I’m a huge lover of music! Top genres for me are 90’s alt, indie, progressive bluegrass and basically any kind of rock/pop/synth/electro blend. Some of the bands included would be Pearl Jam, The 1975, The Infamous Stringdusters, Chvrches, Two Feet, Aoife O’Donovan, Ed Sheeran, Nickel Creek, Gorillaz, Muse, Our Lady Peace…how much time do we have?

6. What do you enjoy most about development?

Development is such a weird mix of tangible, abstract, and creative, right? In some senses, computers are very simple. You give it instructions and it does the thing. Boom. Done. Simple. I love that I can be given a problem to solve and be able to solve it with code. It’s so satisfying to see the direct result of your work. The inner workings of that can be extremely complicated of course, but that just adds flavor to the recipe for me. How to approach a solution is really as much of an art form as it is technical knowledge and understanding. That’s why I chose to dedicate my career to it. You’re always learning. You’re always figuring out new things. You’re always unlearning one thing and simultaneously improving and mastering another.

7. What do you enjoy about working at PRPL?

I love the energy of really getting neck-deep in a fascinating project with amazing and talented people. It’s a place where challenges are presented and we get to figure out how to solve them. Solutions are logical, practical, and rooted in best practices, but it’s also just as much an art form in the creativity that it takes.

8. What makes PRPL as a whole, unique?

PRPL is a place that encourages creativity and learning which is at the heart of attracting absolutely wonderful and talented people. It’s been said countless times over the years, but it’s really the people that make PRPL what it is, and I’ve found it to be a uniquely inspiring place to work over the years because of those people.

9. What's your most used productivity hack?

Sprinkling in tasks like cleaning the pool, unloading the dishwasher or putting clothes in the wash. Something that can occupy my hands and visual focus. In a role that can be intensively cerebral and where my engineering brain always wants to analyze and solve problems, finding ways to unload is important to be able to get a break. Also, sometimes the best solutions come when you stop trying to figure out a solution for a few minutes.

10. What tip(s) do you have for being a successful developer?

Always be humble, willing to learn and relentlessly curious. There’s way more out there than any one person could possibly ever know. Be inspired by that. You don’t know it all. I don’t know it all. Someone else always knows something we don’t. Be humble enough to learn from them. Also, truckloads of coffee and patience.