Profile

I'm akkiirah.

A big dreamer and someone who likes swimming against the current. I like doing things differently than whats normal because I think if everyone keeps doing the same thing, everything gets boring really fast.

Most of what I do happens on a computer. Web development, games, tools, writing, design, tinkering, whatever pulls me in enough. Mostly software though. Hardware interests me too, but I am not that gifted when it comes to actually doing handcraft stuff which is why it feels like I'll break stuff as soon as I touch it.

What I care about

What matters most to me is human-made work with actual intention behind it.

Stuff made because somebody really wanted to make it and did not hold back just because it might not be something everyone likes. Open source and free is of course a plus. And if something is paid, I still respect that way more than pretending something is "free" while selling your data or shoving ads in your face.

In general I think the point of a human life is to create what comes to mind and pursue that without shortcuts. Learning by doing, getting invested, specializing in your craft, becoming good because you actually care.
And of course all of that should happen without hurting other people, exploitation or other garbage like that.

I do not think money creates happiness. So just endlessly wanting more is not something I respect very much. Materialism and capitalism in the way they are currently evolving feel deeply wrong to me. The gap between rich and poor keeps growing and the outlook that almost everything will soon belong to a few dumb rich assholes is not exactly great.

My path

I was born somewhere around the 2000s in Germany.

Connecting with classmates or making real friends was difficult for me pretty early on, so I ended up doing stuff on the PC from a very young age. I started around the age of four and that never really stopped. Later, in my early teenage years, I even did YouTube for a while, which is where most of my video editing experience came from.

I switched schools seven times in total. Sounds worse than it ended up being, because in the end I think it worked out fine. I got my degree, later went to a school where I could learn more specifically about game development, and after that did another apprenticeship because the previous one was still too new for German bureaucracy to really know how to work with it.

My work

Because of the fulltime job, web development is by far the field where I have the most experience.

In comparison to that my experience in game development is lacking and even more in modeling or sound design. But all of those are very interesting to me, which is exactly why I want to learn them more. Right now, as of writing this, I am deepening my knowledge around prototyping and level design in Godot.

In general I want to get better at everything which is hard because I am doing many things at once right now, or at least want to. But the goal is steady progress in all of those fields because they really fascinate me.

AI to me is useful as an aid, not a substitute for craft. I really despise vibe coding. You as the coder or even as a person just get dumber from it because you keep offloading everything, and then once the AI is gone you sit there and have to look at 50k lines of JavaScript that do nothing except center a div.
Also, coding yourself is fun. Thinking about something and implementing it over time is fun. It's rewarding not to take the shortcut to everything.

Collaboration

I work best in small teams. No corporate theater, no "because I say so", no fake communication. Honest communication is very appreciated. Also reassurance helps a lot. Stuff like "did you mean it this way or that way?" just shrinks the chance of miscommunication and anger later on.

It also takes me a long time to really become free around other people or in a new environment. I need time to read people first and figure out how they operate. Because of that I often come across as quiet, reserved, and someone who rather avoids people than forcing interaction too early.

At one point earlier in life ADHD was mentioned, though never medically confirmed. Later, during a stay in a clinic at a time where I was really not doing well, an autism spectrum disorder was noted. I mention that mostly for transparency, because I think it explains some things about how I move through the world.

Linux, self-hosting and control

Linux is just plain better than Windows or even Mac in that sense. More control over your own computer, less bloatware, less spyware, better CPU performance, more customizable, more stable, less nonsense in general. GPU performance is getting there too. I genuinely do not know why not more people use it.

The same goes for self-hosting and open systems in general. I like understanding the tools I use. I like owning my own infrastructure where possible. I like not being trapped inside platforms that can randomly change the rules, shut down, or start feeding on your data even harder than before.

A lot of what I do is shaped by that instinct toward control, independence and learning through building things myself.

Environment

This is roughly the setup I spend most of my time in.

Software-wise:
Arch Linux with cachyos-bore-lto, Hyprland, Waybar, Ghostty, Neovim, zsh and ly.
For notes I use Obsidian with Syncthing for syncing.
For messaging I use Matrix/Element as a Discord replacement.
For music I use Navidrome with Feishin as a Spotify replacement.
For git hosting I use Forgejo as a GitHub replacement.

A lot of that is self-hosted.

Hardware:
CPU: Intel i7-14700K
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
RAM: 64 GB DDR4
Mouse: Roccat Kone Air Pro
Keyboard: Krado66 with FR4 skeleton case

So yeah, this is roughly the kind of human behind all of this.
The rest is in the work itself anyway.