Tell us about yourself?

My name is Filipe Alves, I am a recently graduated Computer Science student that discovered the world of coding while trying to make a platform to share my (at the time) hobby with friends. I really like to play board games and organize game nights, I can however be a bit over competitive. Luckily for me I have managed to secure good friends who haven't killed me... yet. Besides board games I really enjoy exploring new things and new ideas and as my close friends can tell you, I can be very "random" sometimes.

What’s the biggest misconception about you and why?

hmmm.... I think this is a bit hard for me. I believe in Japanese saying

you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The third face, you never show anyone.

and I try to focus on the ones that matter the most to me, like the second and third.

I do doubt my close friends have misconceptions about me, but even if they do, it's the face I show them so it can hold some truth in it, can it not?

What’s something you’re bad at that you really wish you were good at?

Music. As my neighbours and girlfriend can tell you, my ability to produce music is bad, I think bad is not even good enough of a word. Awful!!! Awful gives a more clear image, because it's not the singing/voice, it's everything related from tune and rhythm to pacing... everything basically... If my girlfriend were here she would even make the point that my taste in music is bad... to that I would, however, disagree since I think its pretty good :)

What would the title of your autobiography be?

Work in progress, stay tuned with low expectations*

* "with low expectations" would be hidden in the bottom corner

When is it okay to break the rules?

When the rules themselves are "broken". Rules are static, life is ever changing and dynamic, what is true today can be a lie tomorrow.

And if it won't affect anyone else other than yourself most of the time you can go for it.

If you weren’t getting paid for what you do, would you still be doing it?

I could argue that I am already doing what I do at my job without getting paid, since most of my side projects will never see the light of day or win me any real return.

I really like the idea of building stuff, and it gives me imense pleasure to do so, so if not for my career definitely as a hobby.

How does this position relate to what you really want to be doing?

I am still in the process of discovering what I want to be doing. What I do already know is that I want to work on the field of Computer Science, but it is a big field, and I am still discovering the "specialization" I want to focus on, what is the best mixture of pleasure and personal talent.

Bloco works in different projects and is not afraid to tackle new technologies and challenges, this vision provides me new obstacles to overcome that in turn will lead me to understand what I like and what I don't like so much.

What do you dream of?

Being happy and free.

What is the thing that breaks your heart?

Altruistic sacrifice. I cry like a baby when people sacrifice something big to them in order to make the world a better place. No one should have to sacrifice anything to do make the world a better place!