brazil

My 2020 retrospective

As my therapist said: 2020 was a year that put brakes on the whole world. And yet, for me, it was one of the best years of my life by far – maybe with the exception of 2012, where lots of other wonderful things happened too.

On this year, my daughter was born. There was also the covid-19 pandemic (yeah, it’s obvious right now, but maybe some years from now someone reading this post will probably not remember that it did exist) so if you join these two things, you’ll see how worried I was. It was always my wife’s dream to be a mother, and to have me at her side on the delivery room, but because of the pandemic, this would not be possible… or would it?

At that time, I was still living in Brazil. There are laws over there for the expecting mother to have someone helping her on the birth process – and we did use these laws so the hospital would be forced to accept that I would be with her. They tried to persuade me to not do it, multiple times, until I was able to get the maternity’s director cellphone and talk to her. So, yes – I was there, saw my daughter born, and I was with my wife’s and my daughter the whole time! It was probably the most incredible, magic moment of my life: when my daughter was born, she stayed with us the whole time, dimmed lights, looking at us. Recognizing us. She kept biting my fingers (when my wife had to rest for a while), and even today (she’s 6 months now) it’s one of her most enjoyable actions: to grab my fingers and gently bite then.
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By Maurício Szabo, ago

Last hours on my country

Right now, as I’m writing this, I have about 6 bags full of (mostly) clothes, a file with different documents, a bunch of fears, and a lot of hope. Tomorrow, if everything goes well, is my last day living in Brazil.

It was a strange adventure, first by making a simple trip (well, as far as “jump on a motorcycle with my wife and travel though the country and beyond, and end up traveling 6,449km” is considered simple), then by staying a whole month on an Airbnb and trying everything, from local meetups to social projects to local culture, restaurants, food, etc, and then finally getting all the documentation to live on the country we chose: Uruguay.
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By Maurício Szabo, ago

What’s happening on Brazil?

I don’t really like to talk about non-technical things here, but… sometimes the circumstances push me to do it.

We are facing strange times: covid-19. We, as people, plural. There’s no individuals in this matter, because if only one person takes action, nothing will change. If only one country, again nothing will change. We need union, more than ever.

Then, comes Brazil. People simply believe that “our climate is warmer”, “the pandemic is nothing to worry about”, and “it’s just a small flu” – I’m not talking only about the bizarre declarations of the president, but from the common person. Our approximate numbers (approximate because we’re not testing all cases: I, personally, know three people that had the exact right symptoms for Covid-19 that didn’t receive any testing, and were asked to just “rest at home, and if it becomes worse search a medic”. One of then, as soon as he felt a little better, was visiting his friends and eating food at restaurants) keep skyrocketing, and fake news are appearing here and there that these numbers were fabricated by the enemies of the current government.

So, there are only guidelines – no official laws, no real restrictions. They all have to be decided by local authorities, and all against the president (that, on this day, made some insinuations that he can start a coup if people don’t obey him!) that I really hope doesn’t have all the power he thinks he have.
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By Maurício Szabo, ago

Stop disrespecting my job!

This will be a bit of a rant-sorry.

I work as a software developer. This means lots of things – the most obvious is that I create and develop softwares. I can’t think of myself as an “IT Analyst”, because I don’t just “analyze” software, and I don’t think of myself as a “Programmer” because I do more things than only program. Also, I don’t like my last two job titles “Software Engineer”, mostly because I associate Computer Engineering with calculus and digital signal processing and neural networks and such. Also, I think that here, at Brazil, people like the “Engineer” status, and I’m don’t care for titles and such – I’m more interested with knowledge and abilities more than anything.

That being said… when I search the internet to find a job, sometimes I find: “We’re searching for computer Jedis/Ninjas”; “If you’re a master of the computer arts, please apply for…”; or the innocent looking “we’re not looking for someone to work, we’re looking to someone to have fun with us while we create a great product”.

So, let’s start by the beginning: I am a professional Software Developer looking for a job. This needs to be clear, and it’s nothing better or worse than that. I’m not a Jedi – sorry to be the one with the bad news, but Jedi doesn’t exist (sorry UK, I know at some time in the past you recognized Jedi as a valid religion). Ninjas do exist, but their primary concern is not software… and yes, I studied a little of Ninjutsu (Bujinkan school) as a martial art, but I’m no ninja (I did not graduate – in fact, I did so little that I wasn’t illegible to even make the test).

We spent years trying to get rid of the title computer boy. Why do we, now, allow ourselves to be called of something we are not? Just because it’s cool to be a Jedi or a Ninja?
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By Maurício Szabo, ago

Mudanças no Blog

Esse será um post rápido sobre pensamentos aleatórios e alguns desabafos. Nos anos que tenho esse blog, percebi que as coisas não são fáceis para quem quer trabalhar seriamente com desenvolvimento de software. Primeiramente, o mercado brasileiro ainda é muito atrasado e engessado nos antigos paradigmas – analista, desenvolvedor, e Read more…

By Maurício Szabo, ago