The Sweet Spot: Felipe

From under his cap shine two brown sparkly eyes. Felipe Flores (31) is at ease in De Burger in Eindhoven. When talking about the burgers they serve he becomes even more lively in his speech. Arms start emphasizing the quality of the burgers, hand gestures explain that the habanero burger is not as spicy as you would expect and an ear-to-ear grin shows the appreciation for the different beers the restaurant serves. Brewer Oedipus’ Gaia IPA gets his thumbs up.

No knife and fork The only smirk comes when he talks about people eating hamburgers with cutlery. “Hamburgers are made to be eaten with your hands: never use a knife and fork.” Since moving to the Netherlands about eight months ago the born Brazilian has been exploring his surroundings. “I had never been outside of Brazil”, Flores explains. “So moving here was a big change for me and my wife. We have been together for nine years and have a baby on the way now.”

A lot has changed in a short time for both Felipe, who works as a software engineer at Wärtsilä in Drunen, and his wife, who is a chemist. First, the couple came to Eindhoven and lived there. But recently they moved to Veldhoven, where they have more room and it is a lot quieter. Which Felipe likes. He can be a bit of a loner, he admits. Being in Veldhoven makes him feel safe, cozy even.

Windmills and tulips

Before coming to the Netherlands, his knowledge of the country was limited. Shyly he admits to knowing about the tulips and windmills but not much more. Now he doesn’t want to move back to Brazil anymore. Only to visit. He and his wife try to visit historical places every month. They’ve made a conscious effort of visiting nearly all of the museums in Eindhoven. They like the idea of going to places for a longer period, to explore a site thoroughly and not just fleetingly.

When studying in Brazil, Felipe soon found out that academic stuff was not his forte. “I wanted to be hands-on. I loved the experiments and the data tracking, but when it came to documenting the results I lost interest. That’s why I became a software engineer.”

Beautiful things

“I like that you get to create stuff out of nowhere. You have the power to help someone else’s idea become reality. This means you can do something with a purpose”, said Felipe, eyes glistening. “I like to write code. In code, there’s no way you can interpret something differently. You have to be explicit. I can find beautiful things in code. It can be ugly if others don’t care how they write stuff. But I really think through my code. Another person should have to be able to understand it. So I make a conscious effort of creating something beautiful.”

When it comes to coding, it depends on who you talk to when explaining the beauty of the trade. Felipe: “Some like puzzles, others like its structure. I like how it simplifies language. It can be complicated but also really straightforward. I can code in eleven different languages. I visit forums, watch videos, and listen to podcasts just to keep my knowledge up to date. I want to become an expert, so I study every day.”