How I envied art to becoming a CS student
Hi, Hive! How is everyone doing?
I’m the developer and founder of Crazy Sajangnim, a Korean-American fashion community:
https://saashive.com/products/crazy-sajangnim
I’m a Computer Science student at Boston University, and I’m currently working as a software engineering intern at a Korean startup. Working a traditional 9-to-6 job in Korea is a completely new experience for me, and I’m glad to have this opportunity—even though the heat and humidity are killing me right now!
I used to love drawing and making art because of the freedom to be creative. Most of all, the idea that I could create anything I imagined felt empowering. I eventually became a Computer Science student, which might seem far removed from art—but I’m no longer sure that it is.
What I loved most about art was the ability to create whatever I wanted. Software development gives me a similar freedom: I can build the tools and experiences I wish existed.
That idea led me to create Crazy Sajangnim, a fashion shopping and community platform. The name comes from the Korean phrase “사장님이 미쳤어요,” which roughly means “The boss has gone crazy.” It is commonly used to describe discounts so large that the prices seem unbelievable.
Building Crazy Sajangnim has allowed me to combine creativity with technical skills, so in a way, it feels like another form of art. Even though I did not become an artist, creativity is still an important part of my work as a software engineer. The things we build through code can be meaningful and inspiring, just like art.
Come visit Crazy Sajangnim and use the blog to share your thoughts about fashion, creativity, or life in general! (Upvotes are very appreciated😊)
Awshar AI
Win customers by understanding their pains, gains & thoughts
Comments (2)
Jinny, doing a 9 to 6 internship in Korea while building Crazy Sajangnim on the side is not a small thing, that takes real energy after a full work day already spent building someone else's product. The art to code connection you are describing rings true, the through line for you was never really the medium, it was making something exact to what you imagined. Curious if the internship ever bleeds into how you build Crazy Sajangnim, any habits or standards from the Korean startup you have picked up and brought into your own product?
It definitely does. My internship has taught me to approach Crazy Sajangnim less like a side project and more like a real product that other people need to rely on. I have become much more systematic when troubleshooting: checking the browser, network requests, API responses, environment variables, authentication flow, and database state separately instead of changing several things at once and hoping something works.
That mindset has helped me through a lot of difficult issues in Crazy Sajangnim, from Google login and first-time username setup to product-collection timeouts, missing sale items, admin data, and analytics. I have also picked up the habit of testing edge cases, documenting changes, and thinking about the backend, admin tools, and user experience as one connected system.
The biggest standard I have carried over is that getting a feature to appear on the screen is not the same as finishing it. It also has to behave correctly when data is missing, an API fails, or a new user takes a path I did not expect. The internship has made me a more patient and disciplined builder, and Crazy Sajangnim has become much stronger because of that.
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