About

I am a fullstack software developer based in Berlin.

I enjoy building and fixing things (sometimes breaking too). Most of my interest is in web development, mostly backend, though I'm curious about DevOps and frontend as well. I don't think web development makes full sense if you look at any one area in isolation. These days I'm also trying to understand how larger systems are built, and what keeps them standing as they grow. You can follow my learning journey here, through my notes and blog posts.

I didn't start my career in software. I worked as a bike mechanic for a while, out of a love for bikes and for the mechanical side of it. I was an amateur drummer through my teens and early adulthood. And I spent a good while in archaeology and museums: I have a bachelor's and a master's in the field, and I worked as a museum professional, where I got involved in a lot of exhibitions and digitalization projects.

I'd been writing code since I was a teenager, mostly small scripts and websites for friends, and it stayed a hobby for a long time. The museum job is where that changed. I kept building things for projects I was already working on, and realized how far a bit of programming could carry a project. It turned out to be the part I wanted to be doing. That pushed me into a second bachelor's in Computer Science, and then into software altogether.

I've clearly got a lot of interests, and so far I've been lucky enough to chase all of them at least some of the way. Each one left me with a way of thinking that I carry into the next thing I work on.

I read a lot and keep track of it on Goodreads. I cycle and hike when I can. I contribute to open source when I have something useful to add.

I'm not very active on social media. Work-related things are on LinkedIn if you want to connect. Happy to talk about books, bikes, music, archaeology, museums or programming in general. You can email me at cihanandac@gmail.com.