Abstract

📖 - Completing a MSc. Degree in Robotics at EPFL 🇨🇭
🔈 - Fluent in 🇬🇧, 🇫🇷, decent in 🇮🇹, bad at 🇩🇪
📅 - Born in 2000, turning 25 years old
🏠 - Living in Lausanne
⛰️ - Riding in Verbier

Beginnings

Got bit by the engineering bug around 2010 thanks to Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program, Terraria and videos from Mythbusters, Grant Thompson and the ones alike; haven’t stopped building since.

Initially seduced by mechanical engineering, I’ve recently gotten to enjoy the pleasures of electrical engineering and the kinks of Software Engineering. I went through a management mishap for a long while where I tried to engineer out problems from large organisations but I found it much less enjoyable than making cool stuff in small teams so I’m back to that.

Deeply in search of purpose in life, in relationships and in work, the latter seemingly making the most sense when it is done alongside intelligent and driven people collaborating together on meaningful projects guided by a common set of values. See blog post: #B01 Its Always the Values.

–> Check out the: Projects Section of the Website to discover what I build for fun.
–> Check out the: Companies Section of the Website to discover what I build for food.

Future Work

I’ve found that new companies attract people with endless potential, people who want their individual contributions to make sizable impacts, avoiding the #B02 Existential Trap of Mediocrity. As new companies are always on the verge of bankruptcy, they force their collaborators to constanty take action on concrete issues, driven by the frightening reality catching up to them, thus protecting the individuals from the #B03 Paralysis by Analysis.

In addition, as the teams are small and the responsabilities clear, the consequences of mistakes are directly retraceable to the person who made them: #B04 Accountability in Corporations. Giving the individual the chance, if the company culture is right, to admit their wrongdoings and to grow from them personally and as a team; a remedy to stagnation. But most importantly, in small teams struggling for survival, everybody is together on the same ship, there is no space for corporate ego which is a blessing as: #B05 Ego Festers Organisations.

A whole lot of creativity is needed when building something new, from naming it all the way to making it visual appealing; it’s precisely in this creative effort that the project takes its roots and finds its soul! Therefore, having good personal taste and constantly expressing it through one’s work is a prerequisite to making remarkable products. Being somebody with a constant flow of ideas and a deep creative drive, the opportunity to make new stuff on a daily basis becomes an outlet for all that energy.

Working in a new company also means working when you have to, not when you’re paid to. There are no 9-5 weeks, if there is work to do, you do it no matter the time of the day or the day of the week. If there is no more work to do, you go skiing, without counting the days you’re off of work. This workflow is much more human, it’s fueled by motivation and rewarded with rest, the repetitive 9-5 is dehumanising as it doesn’t account for human nature dictated by emotions.

Sports

While on the topic of emotions, I’m also a big proponent of #B06 Sport for the Regulation of Cortisol leading to better nights’ sleep, more empathy, patience and overall, a better life for yourself and the ones around you. The sport that make me sleep at night all revolve around heavy cardio:

• Cycling
• Running
• Swimming

The sports that bring a smile to my face and joy to my heart are all about riding:

• Skiing
• Kitesurfing
• Wakeboarding
• Mountain Biking
• Downhill Longboarding

–> Check out the: Sports Section of the Website to discover what I like to do with my body.

Philosophical Closing

Coming back to purpose in life, it seems like all actions that take on a profound meaning in the long term perspective of one’s life are things done in virtue of others. The human being is wired-up in such a way that they yearn to work for a greater goal, something bigger than themselves. Sacrificing their time, their youth, their energy or their money to a cause that they profoundly believe in. This is often family, children, religion, volunteering or work. Giving oneselve away fully to a profound virtuous cause transcends the human being away from the pain of existentialistic concerns.

Having not found such a cause created by others, I’m working on creating my own which is worthy of receiving my complete dedication and I’m inviting the people who share the passion and the values to come along.

Made,
with Love,
by Loïc