Hi! My name is Erik Braathen. I'm a Norwegian-born computer scientist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete, raised on a farm in the heart of Värmland, Sunne.
I live in Uppsala with my fiancée Gloria and our miniature poodle Nelson, where I'm working on my Master's degree in Computer Science at Uppsala University.
Computers and problem-solving have been a passion since I was very young and got access to games on the family PC. I started tinkering with mods — sometimes successfully, sometimes just infecting our computer with viruses and cool search bars. That curiosity for modifying (and breaking) things is probably what led me to start programming, which then led me to Teknikprogrammet at Westerlundska Gymnasiet (and eventually to Computer Science at university).
My other passion is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), where I compete at an international level. I've done sport my whole life — mainly football and track and field — but nothing comes close to the satisfaction of BJJ. For the past four years I've also been teaching beginners class alongside the training and competition. Explaining complex movements and abstract positions to people who have sometimes never done sport before is an interesting, but also fun challenge. It's taught me how to be patient, and how to adapt language to a person's level of familiarity.
