Unlike most people, coding came more natural for me. I started programming when I was 6 years old on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 my family had at home. I guess you could say I spent half my time as a young kid learning cursive and the other half smashing the keyboard trying to code, so it’s kind of a second language for me. You could think that’s the reason I love being in IT so much, but there is more: As
technology is always changing, I can fulfil my innate curiosity and never stop learning, playing and improving. Working in this industry makes me regularly learn new frameworks and programming languages to optimise resource usage and ingenious ways to solve problems.

Contributing to Open Source projects is a big part of what I do, specially during my free time. The Free Software community has given us ridiculously good tools. But, above all, it has opened the gates to the world of open and universal knowledge. One cannot think how much Free Software shaped the world as we know it. Giving back feels like the right thing to do. Reporting bugs, proposing changes in code, updating documentation... every single bit helps.

Developers that do this for nothing more than a pat on the back are vital, yet, it can be difficult to rely on the Open Source ecosystem itself. I've always wished I could financially help projects and make a difference. We can’t really expect people to work for free all the time. At some point, people have to cover costs, pay the bills and... well, earn one's keep without falling into the so-called “maintainer burnout”. Let's face it, even if you love what you do, getting paid for it is always welcomed.