About Me

I’m Ben Ramsey, and I love writing software. You might say I’m passionate about it, but I’m quick to point out that passion is not a defining characteristic of great programmers. Great programmers understand software and how we create it is not the central concern of computing; people are.

For more than 25 years, I’ve dedicated myself to creating people-oriented software, software that solves real-world problems and strives to make the lives of those who use it a little better. From empowering folks to turn their hobbies into careers to enabling users to learn new skills and tap into their creativity, I’ve worked on a wide range of products and have had the privilege of working with and learning from some of the greatest people in the industry. My LinkedIn profile lists the companies I’ve worked with.

Since the early days of my career, I’ve been involved in open source software. While far from perfect, there are some amazing people working within various open source communities to bring a more empathetic, people-centric focus to the way we create software. I contribute to open source because of the people and relationships I’ve forged in these communities. Some of the projects I work on are: the PHP programming language (as a release manager for versions 8.1 and 8.2), ramsey/uuid, and pecl/ecma_intl. Check out my GitHub profile for more.

I like sharing what I’ve learned. I’ve spoken at many conferences, including OSCON, ZendCon, and php[tek]. I’ve published a number of magazine articles, and I’ve contributed to a few books. I stand on the shoulders of many giants, and this is part of how I pass along my knowledge, just as others have passed theirs on to me. Slides for all of my presentations are on my Speaker Deck profile.

If you’d like to get in touch, you may reach me by email, follow me in the Fediverse (on Mastodon) at @ramsey@phpc.social, or chat with me on IRC (Libera) or Matrix, where I’m ramsey and @ben:ramsey.dev, respectively.

When not writing software, I hang out in Nashville with my family. I also play TTRPGs and video games. I love to play chess, but I’m awful. Craft beer and rye whiskey are my drinks of choice.