Andrew van der Westhuizen
Leading with the why. Getting things done!
Welcome to my digital space! I share my tech passions and projects here. Let's connect and explore together.
Stream
Thinking out loud — long-form writing on software, strategy, and the craft of building things.
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Vertical Slices vs Layered Architecture | A practical comparison of vertical slice and layered architectures, including trade-offs in coupling, delivery speed, and long-term maintainability. |
| Push vs. Pull Deployment Models | An analysis of push-based and pull-based deployment models, with a focus on security boundaries, reconciliation, and operational scaling. |
| Compile-Time First for Agentic Engineering | Why compile-time guarantees should be the primary quality control for agent-generated code, with runtime checks handling residual risk. |
| Git Branching Strategies | An exploration of various Git branching strategies, including their advantages and disadvantages. |
| Virtual pet evolution | An exploration of the evolution of virtual pets, from early digital companions to modern AI-driven entities. |
Sandbox
Experiments, tools, and interactive ideas — things built to learn, explore, or just have fun with.
| Project | Description |
|---|---|
| Proximity Playground | An Interactive Guide to Geometric Graphs. |
| Hanabi | Interactive fireworks particle effect converted from Flash ActionScript to HTML5 |
| Minimum Spanning Tree | Minimum Spanning Tree visualization and implementation. |
| Diamond Square | Procedural generation of terrain using the Diamond Square algorithm. |
| 2D RGB Shift | An image distortion technique often seen in glitch art and modern digital design. |
| 2D Flood Fill | Old retro image loading effect which flood fills an image from bottom to top. |
Stack
A career built across consulting, academia, banking and telecoms — driven by a passion for software and people.
| Period | Role | Company |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 - | Product Head Development Manager Scrum Master Senior Software Developer | Capitec Bank |
| 2011 - 2012 | Master of Business Administration (MBA) | Graduate School of Business |
| 2010 - 2013 | Senior Software Developer | University of Stellenbosch |
| 2007 - 2010 | Software Developer | eSight Consulting |
| 2003 - 2004 | Math Tutor | Master Maths |
| 2002 - 2006 | Honours in Computer Science | University of Cape Town |