NAME
joe - developer marketing engineer
SYNOPSIS
joe [OPTIONS...] [PROJECT]
DESCRIPTION
Joe Karlsson is an engineer who does developer marketing and has
spent the last decade working on databases, real-time data, IoT, and
developer tools. He has spoken at over 100 conferences, given a TEDx
talk, and built an IoT-connected cat litter box that he is probably
too proud of.
Currently leads developer marketing at CData, growing the managed MCP
platform that connects AI agents to live enterprise data. Previously
built DevRel from scratch at CloudQuery; before that Tinybird,
SingleStore, and MongoDB. Before DevRel, was a front-end technical
lead at Best Buy and a full-stack JavaScript instructor.
OPTIONS
--verbose
Enable long-form storytelling about homelabs and databases.
Warning: may not shut up about Proxmox.
--homelab
Activate homelab mode. Deploys 40+ containers, sets up
Proxmox cluster, configures Home Assistant, and wonders
why the electricity bill is so high.
--cats
Enable IoT cat monitoring. Connects litter box to Raspberry
Pi. Generates conference talk material.
--film
Activate Letterboxd integration. Will have opinions about
every movie you mention.
--debug
Increases coffee intake. Decreases sleep. Standard
engineering tradeoff.
ENVIRONMENT
EDITOR=neovim
SHELL=/bin/zsh
CONTAINER_RUNTIME=docker
HOMELAB_STATUS=always-tinkering
CATS=2
COFFEE_LEVEL=critical
FILES
~/.config/homelab/docker-compose.yml
The file that started it all. Now 847 lines long.
/var/log/3am-decisions.log
A growing record of questionable infrastructure choices
made after midnight.
/etc/cron.d/gpu-transcode
Automated GPU transcoding jobs. Yes, at 2am. On purpose.
BUGS
Buys too many hard drives. Cannot stop adding containers.
Occasionally mass-assigns GPU transcoding jobs at 2am.
Has mass-reassigned a variable name in production and called
it "refactoring." Will talk about homelabs unprompted.
HISTORY
2015-2017 Full-Stack JavaScript Instructor, DevLeague
2017-2019 Front-end Technical Lead, Best Buy
2019-2021 Developer Advocate, MongoDB
2021-2023 Senior Developer Advocate, SingleStore
2023-2024 Senior Developer Advocate, Tinybird
2024-2026 Head of Developer Relations, CloudQuery
2026-present Principal Developer Marketing Manager, CData
SEE ALSO
joekarlsson.com/about, joekarlsson.com/work, joekarlsson.com/blog
GitHub: github.com/JoeKarlsson
Bluesky: @joekarlsson.com
AUTHOR
Written by Joe Karlsson, with mass-assistance from mass-caffeine.