My job title is Senior analyst but it means all and nothing at the same time.
As a highly curious individual, I am passionate about my work in Information Technology and enjoy discovering new aspects of the field. Currently, I am working at European Commission in Brussels, where I am always eager to tackle new and exciting challenges. Twenty years after completing my bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences, I decided to return to school during the Covid pandemic and to pursue a master’s degree in the same field at UMons University. My thesis is about “Reproducibility in Software Engineering” can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12666898.
I consider myself a rational thinker with a Bayesian outlook: I usually form my views based on the available evidence and readily update them when new facts emerge. When I encounter something unfamiliar, I tend to favour Occam’s razor, starting with the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions while recognising that the simplest explanation is not necessarily the correct one. When presented with an unfamiliar claim, I usually ask what evidence supports it, not out of distrust, but out of intellectual curiosity and a genuine desire to understand. I value factual, verifiable information while remaining mindful of uncertainty, assumptions and the possibility that I may be wrong. At the same time, I do not judge people by their personal beliefs, identities, orientations or even their choice of keyboard layout… as long as they recognise that Lenovo makes the best laptops in the world !
2 of my superpowers are anosmia and hyperacusis: I cannot smell a thing, but I can hear noises that nobody else seems remotely bothered by. The former can be remarkably useful in many situations, especially on public transport, while the latter can be rather overwhelming… especially on public transport ! Mother Nature clearly assembled this sensory package without much of a plan, but one learns to work with what one is given ! Add an INTP-A personality type and a healthy appreciation for sarcasm, and you get a reasonably accurate picture of how I experience the world.
As a Linux and FreeBSD enthusiast, I have worked as a full-stack developer with over a decade of experience in PHP. My journey with Drupal began as a hobby, and I progressed to being a contributor, service provider, and eventually, a core maintainer.
In 2019, after careful consideration and a desire for new challenges, I made the decision to resign as a Drupal core maintainer and shifted my career focus towards working with Symfony, a popular PHP web application framework. This transition has allowed me to concentrate on creating framework-independent packages, broadening the scope of my work and fostering innovation in the field of software development.
My passion for functional programming has also led me to become an avid user and contributor to the NixOS operating system. NixOS is a unique, Linux-based operating system built on top of the Nix package manager, which offers several advantages, such as customizable configurations and a strong focus on reproducibility. By contributing to the NixOS community, I strive to enhance the system’s capabilities and help make it an even more powerful and flexible solution for developers and users alike. Recently, I have been promoted NixOS committer. The NixOS repository being one of the most active repository on Github, it is a great honor for me to be part of it.
If you are interested in following my work or staying up-to-date with my latest projects and contributions, I invite you to check out my profiles on Packagist, Drupol’s Github, Loophp’s Github and code.europa.eu. These platforms showcase my commitment to developing high-quality, versatile software solutions and my ongoing involvement in the open-source community, where collaboration and knowledge-sharing are highly valued.
My love for STEM is rooted in a deep fascination for Mathematics, especially numbers and how nature utilizes them. Data visualization is another passion of mine, with my favorite works coming from Jason Davies and Mike Bostock. I also hold great admiration for the late Nick Berry’s blog.
I envision my ideal workplace as one that fosters open-source projects and is filled with passionate, open-minded, non-paranoid and friendly teammates.
Although I harbor no regrets regarding my career choices, reflecting on the possibility of starting anew presents an interesting thought experiment. If given the chance to restart my career, I would undoubtedly immerse myself in the study of Mathematics and Information Technology, and work in a university. Both disciplines share a deep connection that is particularly evident in programming, where mathematical concepts underpin numerous computational processes. By delving deeper into these fields, I could further enhance my programming skills and uncover novel approaches to problem-solving. There is something truly special about the atmosphere in a university. The vibrancy of intellectual curiosity, the sense of community, and the camaraderie among both students and faculty members create an environment that fosters growth and collaboration. I cannot help but feel nostalgic for those days when I was immersed in academia, surrounded by the energy and enthusiasm of those committed to the pursuit of knowledge.
Besides my work and the geek stuff, I am currently fulfilling a childhood dream, I am learning music and piano ! I love photography and I learned by myself most of the secrets of a reflex camera, just for fun. I do swim a lot and I also really like riding my mountain bike. Biking is also one of the reason why I am an heavy user and contributor of OpenStreetMap since more than a decade. When I am not at work, I can often be found wandering around at home in joggers and an old T-shirt.
Lastly, I must mention my cat Apollo and remember the late Izumi and Nakano. With Izumi even having a mention in Drupal core, thanks to a patch I submitted some time ago.
Please feel free to reach out and connect with me, my public key fingerprint is:
85F3 72DF 4AF3 EF13 ED34 72A3 0AAF 2901 E804 0715.
