A short introduction

3 min readJan 14, 2022

I recently wrote the following short piece for my Github profile. I’m also posting it here, because I’d like the Medium folks to have an idea of who is the person (or cat) behind this keyboard.

A person in a black t-shirt on a blue couch shows the screen of the laptop he is holding to an orange cat perched on one of the pillows, as if it is can read the screen.

Hi there 👋

Intro

I’m Alexandros Papageorgiou Koufidis, a DevOps-focused software developer from Greece, currently living in Amsterdam. Besides creating good software, I believe in diversity of thoughts, bodies and minds, as an inclusive way to address the inequalities we face today and may face tomorrow.

Socials (he/him)

Quick bio

At 18, I started working various entry-level jobs. At 21, and while interning as a SysAdmin for my university I developed an app for hobby games sellers to automatically price their products based on various algorithms and strategies. Next year I dropped out of university and moved to Poland for romance, while working remotely at a VR game development startup.

After going back to Greece, I started a hobby games web store with a friend, then moved to Switzerland when I started working for CERN. On the same year, 2019 I also cofounded Thalatta, a software development startup.

After CERN, I pivoted to DevOps and worked at Zivver, a secure communications company in Amsterdam, then VanMoof, a high-tech ebike scaleup. I’m currently working as an SRE at Miro, a visual collaboration editor.

A close-up shot of a happy open-mouthed man with orange hair and sunglasses. He’s wearing a blue windbreaker and trying hard to look cute. The background is blurred, but it’s the pier in Barcelona.

Quick facts & trivia

I was the youngest presenter ever at CERN Spring Campus
In the same event, I dyed my hair green for my introductory DevOps presentation “Green is the warmest color” and have been painting it various colors since then
Between 21 and 25 I lived in 5 houses across 4 countries (and also spent some months as a digital nomad, which ended with my first burnout)
I was a Magic:the Gathering judge and community leader, and served as Country Coordinator for Greece
This question about whether we have written examples of H.P. Lovecraft’s racism, led me to turn vegan
I have multiple accents of English and I switch between them based on context

My values

Fairness and equality, with an understanding that these concepts exist in a continuum, where past injustices affect present inequalities
Tolerance and empathy of all but the intolerant. A predictable and known paradox
Mistakes are a part of life for which both the intent and the impact matters. Forgiveness is a privilege that can be earned, but is never owed
We live in an ever-evolving world built by those before us, which we evolve and will inherit to those after us. Educating ourselves about the past to make the best decisions for the present and future, is thus an obligation
Minimizing our consumption, is the best prevention for the hard problem of managing our waste

I believe in salary transparency. You can see my tech compensation data here.