The short version
I'm a software developer. Ruby on Rails since 2009.
My day job is at Goboony. The side projects are the ones that keep me up too late.
I live in Belgium with my girlfriend and two boys. We have a camper. A lot of our weekends end up somewhere it's parked.
Outside the keyboard
Most of what matters to me happens away from a screen. Family first. Then whatever road the camper is on.
The camper is a slow machine on purpose. It makes you stop in places you'd have driven past. That's the whole point.
Running most days. Snowboarding when there's snow. Camping whether or not the camper is involved. The common theme is outdoors. Skatepunk is usually the soundtrack.
What I care about
- Simple things, built well. Most software has more features than the people using it need. Most furniture does too.
- Writing things down. Memory is unreliable. Notes aren't. Almost every problem I've solved twice, I only wrote down once.
- Owning your own stuff. Your data, your time, your weekends. Default to formats and routines you can leave with.
- Saying what you're not. Clarity is the respectful thing to do. A short "no" beats a polite maybe.
What I'm working on
Hjarni is the main side thing right now. A simple knowledge base with a built-in MCP server. The tool I wanted for my own work and couldn't find. I built it because nobody else was going to.
Where to find me
- X. Occasional, mostly building stuff.
- LinkedIn. The professional story.
- GitHub. Code.
- evert@hjarni.com. Direct, I read everything.
If you're building something, stuck on something, or just want to say hi, write to me. I enjoy that mail.