hello, I am Alin Rauta 👋

I am a frontend engineer with a product-centric focus. I believe the web is still at the beginning, and I hope one day I will be part of building the Sistine Chapel of the web.

I got into blogging by writing about my transition to programming. You can read my thoughts here. I also have some articles about AI as I have been part of a startup in medical AI.

I love to create visually appealing and intuitive interfaces that are aesthetically pleasing to look at and also easy to use (UI and UX). For me, great app design is like water, it just flows. It is obvious to the user how to use it, with no cognitive load. You can find out more about my professional journey in my resume.

Regarding my values, when I say values I'm thinking about who I am and what I stand for. At my core, I'm relentlessly ambitious and I believe in perseverance. I think that persistence beats timing, and execution beats luck, not immediately, but eventually. I value craftsmanship and attention to detail because I believe this is how you can create great work and maybe art. I think the world is more random than it seems (Nassim Taleb is responsible for this one) and staying humble is the most virtuous attitude you can have facing everyday life. I believe in living life with courage and having skin in the game, otherwise, it's just like playing a video game, it's not real.

If I had to pick a philosophy of life that would be stoicism and the principle that guides me is Amor Fati (loving your fate). I don't care how much you make, I care what you make. I value honesty, transparency, and keeping my word. Last but not least, I value freedom, but not just any kind of freedom. I will quote David Foster Wallace because he does a better job than me at explaining which is the important kind of freedom: "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day."