About

Renato Alves

I'm a Principal Software Engineer at Alley, where I build scalable enterprise solutions for media companies, publishers, and nonprofits.

I'm the author of several open source projects. Including Inglês na Rede, an English-learning blog where I try to help my fellow Brazilians to learn English online.

I'm always curious and thinking. And now in this space, I hope to share, via articles and essays, some of the stuff that's been on my mind. :)

Renato Alves

What am I working on?

My work time is 100% at Alley. In my spare time, I've been interested in, and learning about, some emerging technologies: deep learning, quantum computing (and its usage for tech), Rust, and Zig.

I've also been working on a redesign of the Inglês na Rede blog (the current one is more than five years old), and its sister site, EnglishCast.

Q&A

What is this site for?
A home for essays, articles, and "observations". Oddly, most of the topics I plan to write are not tech-related.
Another blog? Why?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Dunno. A deep desire to put my thoughts and ideas "out there". And see if they resonate with the public. To practice my English and writing skills. And I also feel I have a very unconventional perspective about most things.
Independence note
This is my personal site, maintained independently. The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my employer. This site is not reviewed, approved, sponsored, or endorsed by my employer.
Who designed the illustration on the homepage?
This illustration was designed by my good friend Ulisses Fonseca. He is an architect and artist. Since I don't have a logo, and I had privacy concerns, I asked him to use one of my photos and create a portrait version from it. It's not AI. I don't remember which tools he used to create it. But I'm gonna ask and update it here.
What do you write about?
Some tech stuff, yeah, but mostly non tech-related. Here are some articles/essays I'm writing right now:
  • The effects of transitioning social classes
  • Observations on doing business in Brazil
  • Meditations on reading printed books
  • Common complaints from Brazilian women about the dating market
  • The falseness of social behavior
  • Medidation on footnotes
What are you reading now?
Every year I create a small list of books by topic that I plan to read. And I always find some interesting new ones throughout the year. Here is a small list of books I'm reading or planning to read in very short term:
  • Biography: Dostoevsky by Joseph Frank
  • Tech
    • Dive into Deep Learning by Aston Zhang, et al.
    • The Rust Programming Language by Steve Klabnik, et al.
    • Learning Zig by Alex Rios.
    • Finished recently: Latency by Pekka Enberg.
    • Just finished: The Myth of Artificial Intelligence by Erik J. Larson (very eye-opening).
  • Language: Algospeak by Adam Aleksic.
  • Novel: The Count of Monte Cristo (reading for the second time).
  • Philosophy: Plato - Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper.
  • Science: The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.
  • Writing: Refactoring English by Michael Lynch.
  • ...
Can I reach out with a question or correction?
Yes. Email me at hi@ralv.es.