Employee bio: Tim Martin

by Nick Franklin
This is the second in a series of employee profiles we're doing to give the outside world an idea of what life is like working at True Knowledge.

Tim Martin was employee number two at True Knowledge.  He has a degree in maths from the University of Cambridge and has been working at True Knowledge as a software developer since 2005.  Tim enjoys cross country running, eating curry and watching Top Gear.

What’s a typical day like for you?
Work starts at 8:30 with coffee and (on a good day) doughnuts. I check the overnight tests for failures, triage any new issues that have been raised, and then get stuck into making the world a better place. Development work tends to split between focussed individual coding and wide-ranging discussions with the rest of the team on how to build a better product. I’m also responsible for architecture, which involves taking half-baked ideas for improvements from other people and turning them into well-defined specifications.

What excites you most about True Knowledge?
The product has great potential and does something that nobody else can do.

What's it like working in the development team at True Knowledge?
There’s quite an informal mood among the developers, but everyone works very hard. There’s no shortage of really hard problems to get stuck into, which is exactly what developers like.

What piece of work are you most proud of at True Knowledge?
Any time I get a speed improvement, no matter how small. There’s something terribly satisfying in making code do everything it used to do, but faster.

What do you like doing when you’re not redefining internet search?
I like to go running; I’m training for a half-marathon in a couple of weeks.

What was it like appearing on BBC News 24 last week?
In a word, unexpected. I had no idea they would be arriving, and when I first saw strangers in the office I assumed they were interview candidates. Before I knew what was happening they’d clipped a microphone to me and started asking me questions. But I enjoy talking about True Knowledge, and it wasn’t that different from talking to anyone else as it turned out.

Name your top 3 questions you can ask True Knowledge.

• Show me the states of the US on the 3rd of July 1832
• Are Jennifer Lopez and Hillary Clinton married?
• When did Rome burn?

Name your top 3 most exciting moments since you started working at True Knowledge (in or outside work).

• Closing our first funding round
• Opening the beta process to the first members of the public
• Completing the British 10k run in London last year

Give me three questions that you'd like to see True Knowledge to answer in the future.

• What is my girlfriend’s favourite colour and dress size?
• List books about software architecture
• Which curry house is nearest to my house?

Comments

[Beth]

Added a few answers for "List books about software architecture". Now to get in touch with his girlfriend...