I admit it, I am an enabler…

Sian Stanley — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 15:34:19 +0000

Not to date myself (though I do enjoy my own company), but the first web browser I ever used was Mosaic. At the time, it felt revolutionary. Text and images in the same window? Inconceivable.

Here’s the thing: I didn’t really understand what I was looking at.
I didn’t know about the internet, the World Wide Web, HTTP, or any of the terms we’d later take for granted. Social media mostly meant IRC. But I was hooked — not by what I saw, but by what it suggested.

Someone made this.
How?
Why?
And how do I get in on it?

Over time, I realized my fascination wasn’t really about the web or even software itself. It was about possibility — more specifically, what technology could enable.

That’s been the throughline of my career.
I’ve spent a lot of time in a strange space professionally: knowing I cared deeply about something, without having a clean name for it yet. Wearing roles that didn’t quite exist. Doing work that mattered, even when the title didn’t quite fit.

I’m curious — are you doing today what originally pulled you into your field?
If not, what changed?

No wrong answers. Just curiosity.

And if you’re interested, I’ve started writing about my own winding path in a series on Medium called “The ID10T and the Odyssey.”
I’ll drop links to the first three parts in the comments.

DEV Community: Sian Stanley

I admit it, I am an enabler…