Ben Hatfield
Web Developer | Tech Enthusiast | Lifelong Learner | Endurance Athlete
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About Me
Hi, I'm Ben Hatfield, a passionate and curious computer science student with a strong drive to build, experiment, and understand systems from the ground up. Whether I'm reverse-engineering how domain names work, deploying a full-stack application on a Raspberry Pi through a secure Cloudflare tunnel, or fine-tuning a Next.js frontend with Chakra UI and Tailwind, I thrive on learning deeply and solving real-world challenges with clean, practical solutions.
I'm currently developing this personal website as both a portfolio and a technical playground. The stack is self-hosted: a React (Next.js) frontend served through Cloudflare, with a Node.js/Express backend and a MySQL database — all running on my Raspberry Pi. I've built it with security and maintainability in mind, separating public-facing services from private ones and exploring how far I can push resource-constrained environments without compromising usability.
In addition to web development, I'm also deeply interested in backend architecture, Linux systems, and self-hosting infrastructure. I enjoy working close to the metal — learning how things like tunnels, proxies, and sessions work behind the scenes — and I'm not afraid to dig into cryptic stack traces or low-level server configuration errors to get things running.
Outside of code, I value simplicity, clarity, and the feeling of solving tough problems. I'm always building something — whether it's an API from scratch, a new UI layout, or a more efficient way to manage my own dev stack.
This site is a living demo of my skills, my curiosity, and the kind of developer I am. Thanks for visiting — and feel free to reach out if you want to chat about projects, systems, or how to run a web server from your bedroom.