300 lines of C can change the backend.
Born in Catania, Sicily. Wrote Redis in a weekend in 2009 because my startup was bleeding throughput and I could not wait for someone else to fix it. 300 lines of C turned into one of the most-deployed databases on Earth. I stepped away in 2020 -- the code was done, it did not need me. I write now. Essays, mostly. About code, about retirement, about the difference between making a thing and being the thing. If you are Italian and you are coding alone in a kitchen at 2am, call me. I know the feeling.
Reading books on park benches
Life · 40y
Distributed systems
Engineering · 20y
Technical writing
Communication · 20y
C programming
Engineering · 30y
Four 90-minute sessions. We read Redis source together -- event loop, key expiration, the AOF. You walk away able to find a memory leak in anybody's C code. Bring a laptop and a kitchen light.
I wish I had this when I was 22. So I made it.
€20 per_session
My personal copy of Hacker's Delight by Henry S. Warren Jr. Every bit-twiddling trick I ever used came from here. My margins are covered in Italian swear words where a theorem surprised me. Handle car...
A book teaches you a technique. A book with another engineer's annotations teaches you a mind.
€3 per_day
One hour. I show you my 2009 editor config. We argue about keybindings. You leave with a setup that lets you ship features without your hands ever leaving the home row.
The tool shapes the hand. Pick tools that fit your hand.
€15 per_session
Exported from La Piazza · 2026-04-24