Learn Programming

What is Learn Programming All About?

Hi, I'm Benji Asperheim—full-stack developer, writer, and perpetual learner from northern Minnesota. I've spent over a decade shipping software across the stack and thinking about how systems—human and machine—are designed and evolve.

I started by scripting in Python and tinkering with PyGame to make 2D games. That curiosity grew into full-stack work with modern web tooling—plus databases and cloud—and a lot of practical media work with FFmpeg. I still enjoy the craft more than the hype.

I'm also a linguistics nerd (BA in German & English). I love to study languages and etymology, and how it ties into history—you'll see that crossover here.

Learn Programming is where I publish practical notes, short essays, conversations with LLMs, and Answers—concise, skimmable write-ups you can apply immediately. Whether you're here for Postgres indexing strategies or Proto-Germanic suffixes, welcome. For freelance work, see Upwork.

The "Answers" format

"Answers" posts use a fixed structure so you can scan fast and act faster. 

| Section               | Emoji/Icon | Purpose/Benefit                          |
| --------------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Problem               | 🛑         | Sets up user's search context            |
| Solutions             | 🛠️         | Quickest, most direct path to fix        |
| Things to Consider    | ⚠️         | Version/pitfall awareness                |
| Gotchas               | 💣         | Prevents mistakes—saves time/trouble     |
| Sources               | 🔗         | List of trusted sources (`[]()` links)   |
| Further Investigation | 🔍         | Internal/external links for deeper dives |
| TL;DR                 | 📝         | Instant summary for scanners/skimmers    |

Selected work highlights

At Ease Rentals Corporation

  • Shipped responsive front-end features and backed them with pragmatic API endpoints.
  • Owned end-to-end CRUD flows and data hygiene across services.
  • Led containerized deployments and server tuning; automated the boring parts.

500 Rockets Marketing / ObjectRocket

  • Designed data models and queries for reporting and campaign insights.
  • Built media processing pipelines and background workers that actually scale.
  • Wrote clear technical articles and tutorials to share what worked (and what didn't).