About Me

I was born on the 20th of April, 2000 in Cairo, Egypt. When I was nine I found YouTube, and with it the fact that everything on a screen had been made by somebody. That was the hook, less the technology than the idea that all of it is someone’s decision.

I came at the work sideways: a degree in Electronics Engineering, finished in 2023, with CS50 somewhere in the middle of it in 2021, which is where I started actually building things rather than reading about them. The pull has never been a particular language or framework. It’s the stretch between not knowing how something works and having it running.

I still work that way, which mostly means making the same thing twice: once to find out what it is, and again now that I know. This site is on its third pass. Most of what I write is about the second one.

Somewhere in there I picked up Toastmasters Cairo, and won Best Table Topics Speaker three times: two minutes on a subject you were handed ten seconds ago. It is the closest thing I know to thinking out loud on purpose.

Photos

When I’m not working, I’m at the gym, trying out new coffeeshops, or playing the violin.

Books

Not a reading list, just the three I’ve gone back to. Sapiens for the argument that most of what feels permanent was invented by someone; Austen for the sentences; the Isaacson for how unpleasant taste can be up close.