Thank you for your interest in learning about the author of this blog. I’m Antonio Cangiano and I work as an Engineering Manager and AI Specialist at IBM.
I’ll start with a disclaimer that is required by both my employer and my type of job. It’s my personal blog, which is entirely independent of IBM. My articles and comments are my own and don’t necessarily represent my employer’s positions, strategies, or opinions.
In case you were wondering, I’m Italian and I was born and raised in Italy. In 2003. I decided to leave my country, foreseeing the worsening of its economy in the years to come. I spent two and a half years in Ireland, and then I moved to Canada in 2006.
The “Zen” in the title of this blog should be intended philosophically and not religiously.
I’m very passionate about programming and AI, and I have a soft spot for mathematics as well (I used to run a math blog before I sold it). I’m mostly interested in dynamic languages, and best known for Ruby, but I also know and program in a few other languages and never stop looking at interesting developments elsewhere. My favorite web framework is Rails, but I’m not religious about it. I am a big advocate of using the right tool for the right job, and whatever makes you happy in the end.
Related interests of mine include applied mathematics, tech gadgets, entrepreneurship, blogging, and digital marketing. On a more personal level, my two main hobbies are photography and fishing (I even launched an online Fishing Store recently). I have a tendency to collect hobbies in my limited spare time, but as I get older, I find myself gravitating towards the two mentioned above.
I have made small contributions to a few books, and authored two full books myself:
- Ruby on Rails for Microsoft Developers (Wrox, 2009)
- Technical Blogging (2nd Edition) (The Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2019)
If you are a regular reader or attended one of the conferences or meetups where I was a speaker, feel free to add me to your network by visiting my LinkedIn profile or by emailing me at acangiano@gmail.com (I trust Bayesian spam filtering).
Feel free to get in touch, but please keep in mind that I receive many emails every day, so if the subject matter is not urgent or important, you may have to wait a while before receiving an answer (if I manage to answer), don’t take it personally. You can also follow me on Twitter, if you’d like to get to know me better.
Legal stuff
Some of the links contained within this site have my referral ID, which provides me with a small commission for each sale. Think of it as a form of tipping that doesn’t cost you anything. 🙂 Thank you for your support.