My name is Ivan, I am 46 years old. I am divorced and have two daughters — aged 14 and 11. Currently, I live in Tbilisi, though until recently I was based in Moscow, and before that, I lived and worked in Rostov-on-Don.
Most of my professional career has been in technical fields: I have worked with video surveillance systems, security systems, and computer networks, and I also served as a maintenance engineer for industrial and agricultural equipment.
At times, I was also involved in developing and maintaining websites. More often than not, I had to handle tasks on my own, which meant learning by diving deep into the problems I needed to solve. I've always enjoyed studying a topic in depth rather than just following templates or instructions. Professional growth has always been important to me, and I've been fortunate to have access to open sources of knowledge.
For that, I’m deeply grateful to the Internet and the people who share valuable information. I'm absolutely convinced that combining open-source learning with hands-on experience leads to strong and practical expertise.
What has always fascinated me the most is the ability to create through programming. My first experiments were personal projects and prototyping with Arduino. There were times when I built websites for small businesses — mostly using HTML with some JavaScript logic.
I also have a passion that’s perhaps more than just a hobby — electronic music.
I’ve always wanted to write music with code — using tools like FoxDot and SuperCollider,
where musical structures are defined through syntax. I found it incredibly fascinating and inspiring.
Later on, I decided to seriously focus on Python, and eventually — to try working as a developer.
I'm a true self-taught learner and genuinely believe that today it's possible to gain solid tech knowledge
with just a desire to learn and access to the Internet.
At the same time, I don’t rely only on online sources. I have a small collection of paper books,
and even more in digital format. Here are some I find especially useful,
and others I keep close as reference material:
- Grokking Algorithms* (data structures and algorithms)
- Code Complete* (on development culture)
- Using Docker* (O'Reilly)
- Kafka: The Definitive Guide* (O'Reilly)
- Fluent Python* (O'Reilly)
- Design Patterns
I also regularly read articles, blogs, and documentation to improve my skills and grow as a developer.
I truly enjoy being a developer — I consider it an art: the ability to operate with knowledge
and create architectural beauty within an application.
To me, building a great application is akin to the work of a talented architect.
I believe our profession has its own Le Corbusier and Gaudí.
I want to grow, gain more hands-on experience, and master this craft.