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The full Java life: Interview with William Weiss at Zappos.com

On passion, determination, and playing at work

By Matthew Heusser, JavaWorld.com, 07/18/12

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I met up with Bill in the "Blue Man Group" room, which is decorated like the famous improvisational show. We only had a few minutes to talk, but we made the most of it.

Figure 1. Meet William Weiss: 'They said you wanted a hardcore Java programmer. But everybody went to lunch, so they sent me.'

Matt Heusser: You've got an interesting resume. Five years as a bartender at OutBack Steakhouse, then you became a programmer in 2002. How did that happen? What can you tell me about your education?

William Weiss: It all started with a little Commodore 64 that my parents had the foresight to purchase in the early '80s. At the time, our family lived in the little Nevada mining town of Round Mountain. Not a whole lot to do there. The closest town with a McDonald's was 57 miles away, and that didn't even happen until 1991! Given the lack of options, my brother and I chose to manually type in games from computer magazines ... and pray the power didn't go out since we didn't have a floppy drive at the time. This led to actually wanting to learn what we were doing, and two BASIC programmers where born.

As far as education, I'm either highly educated, or completely uneducated -- depending on who you ask. I've been fascinated by computers from the first day I sat down in front of one. Since then I've spent countless hours reading, programming, and designing on both my own time and my employer's. From an academic perspective, I took computers in high school, received my diploma and have six totally non-computer related credits from UNLV. I've just never enjoyed the academic setting. It has always bored me to tears. I just wanted the teachers to get out of the way so I could actually do something. On the other hand, my brother went on to get a Masters in Computer Science. Go figure.

Given this background, I never really thought that I would become a "professional" programmer. It was a hobby, something I did because I had a passion for it and enjoyed creating cool stuff, not because I thought anyone would pay me for it. However, I had done a little freelance web work in ASP, and was thinking about applying for web designer position open at the company my brother worked for. Against my better judgement, he convinced me that I should apply for a programming position. Amazingly, I made it through my interview, completing the programming sections in Applesoft BASIC!

In 2000, when I told my regulars at the bar that I was leaving to do programming, they gave me funny looks. They thought you needed a degree to do that. Guess not.

Matt Heusser: I'm curious about the choices you've made. Why Zappos? Why Las Vegas? Why Java?

William Weiss: I'll try and tackle these in chronological order. First, Vegas. I moved to here in 1995, which practically makes me a native. Las Vegas being only one of two decent-sized cities in the state (Reno being the other), it was kind of a natural fit for a guy looking to escape the small town life and find more opportunities. It also helped that my brother was already attending UNLV and I already had established friendships here.

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