Behind-the-Scenes: Meet Silvio Progonati

Silvio is known for sticking to his guns and having great communication skills. He is energetic and funny and he always finds a way to bring positivity into every room he’s in. This is the way he makes friends. Silvio is a person of adventure and has many things on his bucket list. One day he wants to buy a house and settle a bit, the next he just wants to DIY a van so he can travel places for a year and sleep in his van. All in all,  he likes being around people and people really like being around him.

Q&A with Silvio

What is your role in Runecast?

Well, I am a backend developer and I am responsible for developing and maintaining features and functionalities for one of our main products — RAIKA. This is an internal tool used by our amazing security engineers, and the scope of my work is to make their life easier. Now I don’t offer head massages or a pedicure, but I do try to automate most of their daily tasks and processes, be it security research, or content preparation. 

We know this is a subject you’re passionate about, so how do you think artificial intelligence will impact humanity?

When you look back and try to provide a more rational opinion on this one, you see that generally AI has proved to be beneficial.  At least at the moment it has more advantages than disadvantages, but I believe that later we will see some pretty scary outcomes. I know that we will be able to tackle those problems and make the best out of the situation just like we did with every other amazing invention and discovery. If we take a look at powered transportation and how it made everyone's life easier, it really feels great. On the other hand, the devastating effect it has on the planet makes us feel sad about it, and we suffer the consequences. Despite all this, we try to fix its consequences in different ways while enjoying the perks of having it.  What I am trying to say is that there are always two sides of a story, but I believe we always should look at the bright one and continue our progress. I guess that is what keeps my faith in humanity intact. I believe that this is where our real upper hand on nature lies… we don’t just invent or discover new things, but we never stop improving them. This is something that I like about my work as well because I see that happening a lot at Runecast. I guess that is what makes our product so amazing, iterative improvements.

Can you describe yourself in three sentences?

• I am clumsy, that's for sure.
• I am a rational person, sometimes my rationality scares me as I can go from this caring, subjective person to an analyzing robot.
• I like adventures and being spontaneous.

What’s one thing you wish somebody had told you before going into this field?

That language doesn’t matter. When I started coding, I was looking for the perfect language to learn. The truth is, there is no such thing.

What do you enjoy when you aren’t working?

Engineering. l I have started to code in my free time but that is not the engineering I am talking about, I just like to build things. Mostly DIY home improvement projects, or bringing back to life an old electronic item.

What motivates you to move forward in your life?

Simply life! There is so much to live for, so much to experience that I just can’t focus on some finite thing and say that just this one thing motivates me. Instead it’s almost everything in life. I personally am a man who enjoys the experience. If I listen to “Highway to Hell” I don’t just listen to it because I like the song, I listen to it only when I am in a car on a straight road, flat-out. Because in that particular case I feel like I am in those Hollywood movies, you know, in a Shelby Cobra just cruising.‍

What impression do you think you give when you first meet someone?

Maybe a bit too friendly, which people may not understand. I generally want to be friends with everybody and what I have encountered in northern cultures mostly, is that you can’t socialize that easily and can’t have open discussions with everybody straight away. For me being an Albanian, this is the total opposite of what I am used to. Other than that I try to be funny.

Thanks so much for talking to us Silvio, it was a pleasure learning more about you.