About me

Hello there!
If “General Kenobi” is what came into your mind, we think alike. I’m Kon, a software engineer from Greece.

Snapshot

  • Software engineer with a background in Chemical Engineering.
  • I like building infrastructure and tools that multiply other developers’ impact.
  • Bass player (’60s–’90s rock and beyond).
  • Martial arts enthusiast (Judo, BJJ).
  • Certified scuba diver (up to 18 meters).
  • Fridge-magnet collector with souvenirs from 50+ countries.

How I got into programming

When I was younger, I actually hated programming.
That had less to do with code and more to do with bad teaching.

I studied Chemical Engineering and my first jobs weren’t about software at all. At some point I had to automate boring, repetitive tasks at work using Python. That “small script to save time” flipped a switch in my head. I realized I enjoyed:

  • turning messy, manual processes into reliable tools,
  • understanding systems deeply enough to break them down and improve them,
  • creating things that other people could actually use.

From there, I moved deliberately toward professional software engineering.

Today: what I actually do

These days I focus on:

  • Elixir/Phoenix and Go - mostly for backend and infrastructure.
  • Developer experience - CI/CD, tooling, and automation that remove friction.
  • Multiplying impact - I’d rather fix a bottleneck once than watch ten people hit it every day.

I don’t enjoy manual, repetitive work. If something is done more than a couple of times, my instinct is to script it, automate it, or remove the need for it altogether.

Milestones

  • 2005 - First running program in QBasic (rectangle area calculator).
  • 2012 - First serious program in FORTRAN 90/95 for computational chemistry.
  • 2017 - Automated boring work with Python 3 and fell in love with programming.
  • 2018 - First paycheck from code: Java 7 and Groovy 3.
  • 2020 - Faced a codebase I truly hated and made it orders of magnitude better (Node.js 14).
  • 2021 - First real exposure to CI/CD and cloud-native software.
  • 2024 - Left a job to pursue a long-held dream -an intense learning experience that reshaped my priorities.

How I’m useful in a team

  • Debugging performance issues and weird, “this only happens in prod” bugs.
  • Owning and improving CI/CD pipelines and build/release workflows.
  • Automating everything that doesn’t need a human brain.
  • Making code and systems easier to understand for the next person.

This blog

This blog is my way of giving back to the community that helped me become a software engineer.

Here I:

  • document solutions to problems I’ve actually faced,
  • write about tools and techniques I find useful,
  • use Feynman’s Technique to explain tricky tech, so I understand it better and maybe help someone else.

If you found anything interesting, if you agree or disagree with something I write, or if you just want to say hi, I’d be happy to receive an email from you.