Technology,
made human.

The first spark

At NOS Technical School, I learned about electricity and electronics—the physical foundations beneath everything digital. I was fascinated by the idea that something complex could become understandable when you followed the connections carefully enough.

By the end of the 1980s, computers were moving from specialist rooms into ordinary offices. In Amsterdam, I managed computer services for companies and professionals. Some days meant installing a new application or choosing the right equipment. Other days meant teaching someone who was hesitant to touch a keyboard. That was when I discovered that understanding people was every bit as important as understanding machines.

When the world became connected

In 1995, my work opened onto a much larger world. As a systems administrator working between Amsterdam and New Orleans, I helped look after email infrastructure used across borders, along with servers, networks, mobile communications and internet security.

The technology had become bigger, faster and more interconnected. There were LANs and WANs, routers and switches, updates, patches and rollouts. Yet behind every system were still people waiting for a message to arrive or relying on a computer to do their work. Reliability was never an abstract idea—it mattered to someone.

Along the way, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office, IBM AS/400 and Cisco networking became chapters in an education that never really stopped. Windows, Mac and Linux each brought their own logic. Every new system was another language to learn.

Technology became personal again

From 2005, independent consulting brought me closer to the human side of technology once more. I worked with organisations and individuals, sometimes in person and sometimes remotely. The problems varied, but people generally wanted the same things: a clear explanation, a dependable solution and the feeling that someone was genuinely listening.

Living in France added another layer to the story. Dutch and English came naturally to me, while French became part of everyday life. Technology crossed those language barriers surprisingly well; patience and a little humour usually did the rest.