Not every developer takes a straight path into tech. For Joshua Mo, now a Developer Relations Engineer at Playgrounds, the journey started in music, and eventually led to Rust, open-source tools, machine learning, and the world of Rust for AI development.
FROM RAP DREAMS TO PYTHON SCRIPTS
Joshua originally studied music, chasing a dream of becoming a rapper. When that didn’t pan out, he moved into admin jobs and volunteer roles. It was there that he wrote his first bit of code, a Python script to automate collecting marketing leads. That small project sparked a deeper interest in software development.
GETTING STARTED WITH RUST AND SHUTTLE
By 2022, Joshua had played around with several languages, but it was Shuttle – a platform-as-a-service built in Rust – that helped things click. Shuttle simplifies deployment down to a single command (shuttle deploy), skipping the usual infrastructure overhead. That simplicity caught his attention, and Rust quickly became his language of choice.
He eventually joined Shuttle’s team, spending two years helping developers ship applications faster. Rust powered everything from the CLI to telemetry, giving him hands-on experience with the broader Rust ecosystem.
BUILDING AI TOOLS IN RUST
Today, Joshua works at Playgrounds, contributing to Rig, an open-source AI framework written entirely in Rust. Rig supports multiple model providers, works with local models via Ollama, and integrates vector stores for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines.
The goal? To make Rust-based AI development as accessible as it is in Python, without sacrificing performance or reliability.
ADVICE FOR NEW RUSTACEANS
For developers getting started, Joshua keeps it simple:
- Read The Rust Book
- Build projects in areas you already know
- Don’t get stuck trying to write perfect code when it’s more important to keep shipping
He also talks about the importance of balance, learning where to focus your time, and when to step back and set boundaries.
RUST’S GROWING ROLE IN AI
Joshua sees a strong future for Rust in AI, especially as performance demands increase. Tools like PyO3 are helping bridge the gap with Python, and more startups are turning to Rust for core infrastructure.
One area he’s watching closely is WebAssembly debugging, a space that could expand what’s possible with Rust in both web and AI contexts.
