David Olubaji’s tech profession started in a cybercafé the place he offered web tickets after faculty. Right now, he’s a senior software program engineer who’s labored on a few of the greatest apps on this planet. However most individuals know him as Blak Dave, the DJ and music producer. What connects each lives? An obsession with getting each single element proper.
A typical weekend would possibly swing from enjoying at Sunday Service, a Sunday midnight rave, to a 9.00 a.m. standup name together with his US-based engineering group.
“My mates all the time ask me like, ‘Are you positive you relaxation? Are you positive you might be good?’” He says, laughing. “I don’t even really feel it as a result of it’s like a daily life for me.”
However there’s nothing common about how Olubaji approaches his work, whether or not he’s writing code or producing music. His secret? An virtually painful consideration to element that he discovered the onerous manner.
The cybercafe child
Olubaji’s tech journey began in 2009 in Surulere, Lagos. He was a secondary faculty scholar residing in a compound that housed a cybercafé. At first, the proprietor chased him and the opposite youngsters away. Then in the future, he requested Olubaji to assist promote web tickets.
“I used to similar to, you recognize, mess around with the pc again then,” Olubaji remembers. “It was simply, like, Fb.” However as a result of he was all the time on the pc, he grew to become extremely quick at typing. The cybercafe proprietor began giving him typing jobs, and he started incomes “small small cash.”
When Olubaji completed secondary faculty the next 12 months, he missed his JAMB registration as a result of he was too caught up with the cybercafé. “I missed that 12 months,” he says. “So I used to be simply there for one entire 12 months doing nothing.”
His father seen. Someday, whereas driving public transport, his dad noticed a flyer for NIIT (Nationwide Institute of Data Expertise) providing net design lessons utilizing Dreamweaver and Adobe Flash. There was a scholarship examination. If Olubaji might go it, he’d get an enormous low cost.
“The catch was clearly it was a really costly course,” he explains. Even with the scholarship low cost, the cash was nonetheless rather a lot to pay. However his father borrowed the cash anyway.
“This was a luxurious to us on the time, you recognize,” Olubaji says. “It had no potential. It didn’t simply make any sense to spend that a lot cash on it at the moment.”
However his father was satisfied. And Olubaji liked it.
The 40k web site that modified all the pieces
After his NIIT lessons, Olubaji continued working towards on the cybercafé and finally acquired a part-time job constructing WordPress websites whereas finding out Laptop Science at Yabatech. He was incomes ₦40,000 monthly.
Then in the future, he created an Instagram advert: “Construct web sites for 40k.”
“I used to be actually good with designs at the moment,” he says. “So I’d simply create random designs myself, placed on IG, and do adverts.”
One shopper noticed his advertisements. She needed an internet site. Olubaji agreed to fulfill. However when he arrived on the workplace, it wasn’t the girl who met him; it was her husband.
The person pulled out a drafting board and began sketching an elaborate web site. Olubaji tried to clarify: “Excuse me, sir, that is what I mentioned with Madam. I’ve the best way I construct these items able to go, you recognize, and 40k.”
The person stated no. He needed one thing advanced. “I like challenges, doing onerous issues,” Olubaji remembers. “I like the best way the man was arranging it. It seemed attention-grabbing. It was simply an excessive amount of work for that 40k.”
However Olubaji did it anyway. When he returned for the evaluate session, the person requested: “How did you do that?”
“I used to be like, ‘Ah, that is what I do,’” Olubaji remembers. Then got here the query that might change his life: “The place do you’re employed?”
When Olubaji talked about his part-time job, the person stated, “Why don’t you come work for me?”
David hesitated. He already had a job paying 40k. However when the person requested how a lot he was incomes, David lied. “I stated 75k.”
“The man was like, ‘I’ll pay you 75k. On prime of that, I’ll provide you with lunch and breakfast.’”
David accepted instantly. The person’s title was Udoka Uzoka, and his firm was Intellia. “That’s after I began seeing that there’s precise cash in tech,” David says. “I used to be incomes 75k, and somebody there was incomes 1 million monthly.”
Assembly Mr. Good
At Intellia, Olubaji met Richard Ekwonye, a front-end engineer who would change into his mentor. Ekwonye’s requirements have been brutal. If Olubaji’s code was off by even a single pixel, he would catch it. “He was very strict, and I really feel blessed that the man skilled me as a result of I grew to become like that. I grew to become obsessive about perfection.”
This wasn’t nearly aesthetics. Ekwonye taught him that as a front-end engineer, “obsessive about perfection” meant “your work would simply be clear and excellent.”
“I discovered methods to write front-end code the correct manner beneath that man,” Olubaji says. Ekwonye is now at Stripe, and Olubaji calls him “among the finest front-end engineers in Nigeria.”
At Intellia, they didn’t use shortcuts. “We didn’t use libraries, you recognize. We constructed all the pieces ourselves – animations, all the pieces from scratch,” Olubaji explains. “I had a part folder that I simply began transferring to new initiatives as a result of buttons, inputs, I had written down with their styling.”
This method would possibly sound gradual, nevertheless it had the alternative impact. “I discovered the artwork of constructing issues from scratch, proper? And that helped me as I moved throughout different corporations.”
“I discovered the artwork of constructing issues from scratch, proper? And that helped me as I moved throughout different corporations.”
From Intelia to the world
Olubaji moved to Andela in 2020, hoping for the chance to construct worldwide merchandise. He did. Andela gave him the pathway to work for the British company, ITV, the place he helped construct the primary net app for a 12 months.
From Andela, he moved to Okra, the place they pivoted to construct Nebula, a cloud infrastructure product. “I constructed Nebula—your entire dashboard—in lower than six weeks. Solely me,” he says.
His perfectionist coaching made him quick, not gradual. As a result of his foundations have been stable, he might transfer rapidly with out slicing corners.
When Okra shut down, Olubaji’s status introduced alternatives. A Nigerian founder within the U.S. reached out to rent him for a challenge utilizing Flutter and Go—applied sciences he had by no means used.
He failed the primary technical interview. Then the second. Then the third. He was fed up, and requested them to “simply give me one thing to do.” So he acquired his fingers on their design and constructed what they wanted in lower than a day.
“The factor that these guys that I failed interviews with have been attempting to construct for over two, three weeks, I constructed your entire factor in lower than a day.”
They employed him instantly.
The perfectionist’s philosophy
Olubaji’s perfectionism isn’t about ego. It’s about requirements. When he talks about different builders, his frustration is evident: “I don’t perceive builders who don’t replicate what they’ve on the design. The specs are there. Why can’t you simply do that very same factor in your app?”
He’s particularly agency about pixel-perfect implementation. “There’s no purpose why the design ought to have one pixel, and also you’re placing two pixels or three pixels. If the colour on the design says pink, use pink.”
This would possibly sound inflexible, however Olubaji sees it as respect; for the designer, for the person, for the craft itself.
At the moment, he works as what he calls a “foot soldier” for a US-based firm. “Inform me what you need to do, I’ll do it for you,” he says. “Don’t push me into administration.”
They tried to advertise him to a management position at Okra as soon as. He stated no. “I don’t need to be pursuing somebody and saying, ‘Oh, the place’s your work? What have you ever completed? What have you ever not completed?’I simply need to write code.”
As an alternative, he focuses on the invisible infrastructure that makes good engineering attainable: “I’m constructing a part library that your entire firm can use. Think about attempting to construct a brand new product, and it’s important to construct a part each time from scratch.”
The place code meets music
Olubaji’s perfectionism doesn’t cease at code. It shapes all the pieces he does, together with his music profession as Blak Dave.
“With coding, I exploit patterns rather a lot,” he explains. “Engineering is like patterns. There’s a sample to it, there’s construction. For those who comply with a method, it isn’t going to fail you ever.”
When he DJs, he applies the identical considering. “With DJing, I DJ in patterns. Music has patterns—there are beats, 4 beats in a bar. There’s that sample it’s important to comply with. So after I’m DJing, I comply with that. I don’t rush. I rely in fours and in eighths and in 16s and in 32s.”
There’s even a manufacturing trick he’s discovered: “Each eight bars, add one thing or take away one thing or change one thing. It makes it attention-grabbing.”
He doesn’t rehearse his DJ units. “Once I come to play as Blak Dave, I play what I play. I’m freestyling for you guys. I’m studying on the job, mainly.” However he can do that as a result of his foundations – musical coaching since childhood, obsessive listening, understanding patterns – are rock stable.
“Earlier than I begin enjoying, my head is already telling me the primary 4 songs to play. And as I’m enjoying one, a brand new track simply involves my head,” he says.
The perfectionist method even extends to his design work. After years of working with designers, he taught himself Figma so he might design his personal initiatives. “I’ve all the time had a excessive eye for design. As a front-end engineer, I believe that trains you.”
“Engineering is like patterns. There’s a sample to it, there’s construction. For those who comply with a method, it isn’t going to fail you ever. With DJing, I DJ in patterns. Music has patterns—there are beats, 4 beats in a bar.”
The muse gospel
Olubaji is evangelical about fundamentals. When aspiring builders ask for recommendation, his reply is straightforward: “Go learn to write code first, correctly.”
He’s pissed off by builders who bounce straight to frameworks. “Study JavaScript, study TypeScript, study CSS. Learn to write code from scratch.”
This isn’t gatekeeping. It’s discovered knowledge. “For individuals like us that began from scratch, that went by way of all of the steps, which have our foundations proper, AI is definitely a blessing, not a curse,” he explains. ‘It simply improves our workflow and makes us ship quicker and higher.”
He makes use of AI instruments recurrently, however the instruments work for him as a result of he is aware of when their output is true or incorrect. “We’re those who construct it. Engineers constructed AI to make jobs higher, quicker.”
With out foundations, AI turns into a crutch. With foundations, it turns into a superpower.
“Basis is essential,” Olubaji emphasises. “While you get to the half the place you simply chill out, it helps create a system, creates a step for you that simply works like autopilot.”
The lengthy recreation
Olubaji’s tech profession is essentially invisible to the general public. “Folks don’t even know I’m a software program engineer,” he says. “I nonetheless write code proper now. I nonetheless do standups. I’m going to do a standup at 3:30 at present.”
Whereas Lagos is aware of him as Blak Dave the DJ, his tech work pays for all the pieces. “Tech is what has been powering my life as a result of clearly the cash is absolutely good, and all of the issues that I love to do are very costly,” he admits, laughing.
He’s earned this autonomy by way of years of proving himself. “There was a time after I was working 24 hours a day. My boss on the time would name me Sunday evening or Sunday afternoon: ‘How far? I’ve not seen this code.’ On a Sunday evening after I’m presupposed to be chilling. I’d go and push the code. I’d not speak, I’d not complain. I’ve completed all these issues.”
Now, he’s at some extent the place “individuals need me for my worth. They know what I can do for them, and I do it for them. In order that they don’t stress me. After they give me the duty, I do it in my very own time and I ship.”
For Olubaji, that’s not nearly code. It’s about craft. It’s about respect. It’s about constructing issues that final.
Whether or not he’s writing React elements at 3 p.m. or mixing home music at 3 a.m., the identical precept applies: do it proper, or don’t do it in any respect.
David Olubaji may be generally known as Blak Dave on Lagos dance flooring. However within the tech world, amongst those that know, he’s the man who will get each pixel proper. And in an business stuffed with shortcuts, that’s turning into more and more uncommon, and beneficial.
“Basis is essential. While you get to the half the place you simply chill out, it helps create a system, creates a step for you that simply works like autopilot.”
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