About

Trying to reconcile entrepreneur, manager and engineer in one bio… And actually, there’s more, because as the decades’ pass, barriers go down, and we can now all be activists, developers, journalists. So now we can, we should, and we even have to be more than just one role at a time. But, in the end, what makes life richer is the multitude of experiences, many positions, people and countries visited.

Currently

Also, deeply into thinking about the general direction of things in a particular context (design, legal, tech, and many more) and discussing where we are going in terms of future, freedom and liberties. Finally, I’m always profoundly fascinated by the self-correcting nature of human fortunes and the repetitiveness of history. Easily amazed by our inability to learn from our own mistakes (stupidity), equally about us being able to make the right choices without having the correct data at hand (intuition).

Earlier

I started publishing software in 1997 with the first website announcing Computer Glossary (Leksykon Komouterowy) back in 1997, which was quickly commented on by most popular professional magazines (like Chip) the same year and distributed on CDROMs as well as a download package from a website hosted by my college. In 1999, I started Intelitech- my first software house, as well as a software publisher. The company announced Finance Manager (Menedżer Finansów) the same year. Subsequently, it released three versions (2000, 2001, 2002) of this most popular personal finance management application, which has attracted a wide range of users as well as significant media coverage. The software was published as a shrink-wrapped box version on CD-ROMs, and subsequent versions were offered as a download version hosted on a dedicated product website. In 2010, I started my own publishing company focused on business software, most notably Taskbeat, an online team productivity and project management service.

I’ve programmed with 8-bit microcomputers computers. Since back in the early modern x86 personal computers, there were not that many specialisations in commercial software development, I had a chance to create a variety of frontend, backend, database and desktop projects – something we consider today as a full-stack developer with a solid knowledge of computer architecture and algorithms. I had the pleasure of working for the biggest fin-techs in London and Valetta and the most successful cloud providers and med-tech companies operating in various locations in Poland. I have also tried my luck with the most known e-commerce brands in Berlin and Szczecin. As an entrepreneur, I had the opportunity to work for over a decade on my gigs and spent some more time helping my friends start their businesses. As a generalist, I’ve recently primarily worked as a team leader, architect and director of software development projects, mainly in grid and cloud computing. In my free time, I write articles on society, policies and freedom.

On Software

I find it easier to talk to people about what I do these days because I’m more passionate about it than before. In fact, this is a pleasant topic to discuss because I don’t find software development as rigorous science, as most people prefer to think about it. In fact, I think about it as the most social activity one can do in their professional life. Of course, you can formalise it in a specific scope and quantify lots of things in software development. Still, outside the strict scope of engineering, there’s an immense amount of space for communication, visualisation, imagination, creativity – just as much as about engineering in this industry.

If you can talk to 40 thousand people via a single model in the form of software. A model simplifies reality to solve some of their general problems. At least to some extent, you have to understand the situation you’re dealing with. Still, even more importantly, you have to know how those people understand the solution you’re pitching delivering to them. Therefore you have to bridge as many people as possible with the fewest answers. Most often, you have to look beyond yes/no, and that requires a lot of social skills that are neither scientific nor magical but simply need a lot of work in that area. If you look at it from that perspective, software development is a massively complex and almost purely social activity.

Similarly, there are many more doh moments and fun to it than most people outside the business would think.

Journalism

I have been actively blogging for over sixteen years, and I have been an associated professional journalist for over two decades now. I started publishing back in 1996 by running an independent school bulletin (gazetka szkolna “Veto”) along with a few colleagues from my college. The bulletin was privately financed, published in colour and widely distributed in my college. Since 2000, I have written over one thousand articles on technology, economics and freedom – mostly publishing online on my blog, Zagozda.eu. Having started this website back in 2003, I post some of my personal opinions and my private photos. Articles published on this site are not associated with my employers’ or clients’ views, unions, or associations.