Hi there! 👋 I’m Aydoğan Gökberk, and this is my story.

I was born in Bayraklı, İzmir, Türkiye—a vibrant city with its fair share of sun and sea. Growing up, I was a shy, quiet kid, the type who observed more than I spoke. That all changed in university, but let’s rewind a bit first.

As a child, I found joy in the simplest things—like pretending to be a drummer with spoons and pans! That phase didn’t last long, though, because I discovered the NES. From then on, my love for technology began to grow, and it hasn’t stopped since.

My first dive into computers came with gaming. Classics like Prince of Persia, Midtown Madness, Need for Speed 2, DOOM, and Half-Life weren’t just games—they were a gateway to a whole new world of curiosity and creativity. Soon, I was tinkering with CorelDRAW and Adobe Photoshop 6, trying my hand at graphic design back in 2004-2005. The thrill of creating something on a computer screen and seeing it come to life was unmatched.

Now, here’s the twist—I had a computer, but no internet connection. So, what did I do? I tinkered, a lot. I broke more hardware than I’d like to admit, just trying to figure out how things worked. Eventually, I persuaded my dad to subscribe to PCNet, a tech magazine. Those magazines came with CDs containing HTML pages that ran locally on the computer. These pages included simple summaries of the topics covered in the magazine, as well as demo installation files for the software featured in that month’s issue. That’s where I wrote my first code in 2006—editing HTML pages in Notepad. With no internet, I took meticulous notes on HTML elements and CSS rules in my notebook. It was slow, but it was magical.

When the internet finally entered my life, it was the dial-up era—the one where the modem screamed at you before connecting. My mom wasn’t thrilled because she couldn’t use the phone while I was online, but I was too busy exploring to care. Those early days were pure gold.

By 2008, I was running internet forums with platforms like vBulletin, phpBB, and SMF. I even created Wikipedia-like sites using Joomla and WordPress about things I loved at the time—TV shows, games, you name it. Summers were spent shadowing graphic designers at a packaging factory, where I drew simple designs and got my first taste of Mac OS. The Power Mac G4 and G5 were my first loves in the Mac world—especially that sleek G5 design.

I didn’t stop there. I tried my hand at almost everything computers could offer: game modding, hacking (yeah, I was that kid hacking public Wi-Fi at Starbucks), DJing with Virtual DJ, programming, hosting Counter-Strike servers—you name it, I probably tried it.

From 2011 to 2018, I ran a WordPress blog. In 2012, I became a moderator on one of Turkey’s most visited tech forums. By 2016, I started working part-time as a developer while studying English Language Teaching (ELT) at university. Yes, I know, ELT and coding don’t exactly go hand in hand, but deep down, my heart has always been in tech. While studying, I also worked part-time at a tourism agency, where I managed their online presence—overseeing their website, social media, online ads, and even creating new websites for them. This experience gave me a solid foundation in web management and marketing, but it also made me realize something important: After graduating from university, I knew that teaching English wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. While I was good at English and enjoyed teaching, the thought of doing it every day didn’t spark the same excitement as coding did.

After completing my military service, I decided to focus on becoming a developer. Since I already had a knack for creating visual content—thanks to my history in graphic design and web development—I felt that front-end development was a natural fit.

So here I am, a front-end developer with a teaching background, bringing together the best of both worlds. Through this blog, I’ll be merging my love for teaching and development by sharing what I’ve learned, because I still love helping others grow and discover new things.

Today, I’m still the same curious kid at heart—always learning, always creating, and always chasing that next big idea. Thanks for stopping by to get to know me a little better! 😊