Gradually, as a lecturer might say, we are getting to the substance. I was fortunate enough to enter one of the degrees I had considered: Computer Engineering at Universidad Romeo.
I knew very little about computers. The promises I heard about the profession—finding work readily and being well paid for it—helped persuade me to choose engineering.
The first year was hard. I passed only two subjects: mathematical foundations and physics. Almost everything related to computing seemed abstract and inaccessible. My mind had not yet learnt how to work with those ideas.
After a long summer studying programming at a private academy, I returned with more knowledge and more energy. I had come close to dropping out, yet eventually finished in six years: one more than the scheduled duration. It was an early lesson in not throwing in the towel simply because the first round had gone badly.
A university is a particular kind of place. Knowledge is everywhere, and some of it seems to seep through your skin. Its lecturers introduce students to entire worlds of ideas. I now belong to that profession myself, but I have not forgotten the people who helped me enter it.
One professor went further than the others by offering me a scholarship in his laboratory for the final two years of my degree. I learnt more there than I would later learn in many multinational companies. It was not just about technical knowledge: it was about asking questions, testing ideas and taking responsibility for the answers.
I also became involved in student representation at several levels. I even took part in the vote approving the university’s statutes. Technology was not my only education.
Then came PROGRAM-001. From September to December, I studied at Tango University in Finland and discovered independence through all kinds of adventures in the snow. That period could fill a book of its own. Whether I will ever write it is another matter.
At graduation, I faced a choice between doctoral study and employment. For several reasons, including the opportunity to find a job quickly, I chose work. I was twenty-four and eager to take on the world—provided it did not swallow me first.
