Speaker Interview: Alex Castillo — Software Engineer at Netflix

We are continuing our series of short interviews with this years speakers to offer personal thoughts and perspectives from some of the most interesting personas in the industry.

Today we are welcoming Alex Castillo, Software Engineer at Netflix, who specializes in enterprise single-page applications.

React Amsterdam: How do you feel about working at such a big and world-known company as Netflix?

Alex: I’m honored and grateful. I’ve been using Netflix for several years now and being part of something so many people enjoy, gives you purpose.

React Amsterdam: How Netflix manages to keep it’s focus on top-notch engineering solutions?

Alex: Netflix turns subscriber’s money into joy, and creating that joy involves satisfying many business needs, and therefore, solving interesting technical problems. So, they way I see it, the focus is on creating joy, and top-notch engineering solutions are simply one of the side effects.

So, they way I see it, the focus is on creating joy, and top-notch engineering solutions are simply one of the side effects.

React Amsterdam: How come developers at Netflix get so much time to work on Open Source projects?

Alex: Freedom and responsibility. The Netflix culture believes that everyone should have freedom to do their best work and the responsibility to achieve excellence, including contributing to open source.

React Amsterdam: We’re really curious to know more about https://github.com/NeuroJS , could you tell us more about it?

Alex: NeuroJavaScript is an open source project that aims to make neuroscience and web technologies accessible for everyone. Our first project involves the use of an open source brain-computer interface in order to visualize brainwaves in real time, in the browser.

React Amsterdam: What are the goals of NeuroJavaScript and why to use JavaScript for it?

Alex: The goals are simple to explain yet difficult to achieve: Using JavaScript to work with electrical biosignals and auxiliary signals and, to create APIs that can communicate with biosensing devices such as brain-computer interfaces, wearables and motion control devices. Why JavaScript? Because of its isomorphic nature, its massive ecosystem and its incredible community. One of the goals for this project is to bring neuroscience to a super capable community and leverage its pool of talent to create the next generation of neurotechnology.

React Amsterdam: Do you already have any plans during your stay in Amsterdam?

Alex: I’m so excited about visiting Amsterdam for the first time! I’m planning to check out some castles, museums and hopefully experience some live music. Any recommendations?

We thank Alex for time taken to answer our questions and knowledge shared. At React Amsterdam 2017 Alex will be presenting his talk “Pushing bugs to prod responsibly with React and Redux”.

Let us know whom we should interview next! https://react.amsterdam/#speakers