The dev behind Vercel's fancy websites Matias Gonzalez

About this episode

Matias Gonzalez discusses his unconventional path to becoming a creative developer at Vercel, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and experimentation in career development.

What if the secret to landing your dream job wasn't grinding LeetCode, but building software for fun? Matias went from creating Counter-Strike levels as a kid in Buenos Aires to becoming a creative developer at Vercel—and his path was anything but traditional. Starting with graphic design, teaching himself Blender's old game engine, and eventually building an emoji programming language "just for fun," Matias proves that curiosity beats curriculum every time. In this conversation, we dive deep into: - How childhood game modding led to a career in creative web development - The process behind building award-winning websites (Next.js Conf, Daylight Computer) - Why WebGL and shaders are underutilized on the web - Building a multiplayer racing game in React (yes, really) - Going from zero to teaching Frontend Masters courses - The "useless projects" that became career-defining skills - Why WebGPU has him excited to play again The golden thread: Keep experimenting with what excites you, not just what seems useful. That random shader experiment? That weird Webpack project? They might be exactly what lands you your next opportunity. Perfect for developers who feel guilty about their side…

People in this episode

Guest: Matias Gonzalez

Topics covered

• creative web development
• game development
• WebGL
• React
• career transition
• software development

Keywords

• web development
• creative coding
• game modding
• multiplayer games
• shaders
• side projects

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vercel, Frontend Masters

Products: Next.js, Blender, WebGPU

Places: Buenos Aires

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