Edmilson Prata Da Silva

I was born in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 23, 1978. Save the date so you can send me a present!

I had a humble and simple childhood. We didn't have much, but we had electricity and a black-and-white TV. What more could we ask for? 😉

We also had quite a few animals – chickens, goats, pigs, birds, dogs, a family of tortoises, a pair of lizards, a few rabbits, and we even had a monkey at one point. We had our own well, too. As far as I was concerned, we were rich!

That was the countryside-like setting in which I spent my childhood and much of my teenage years. At least until the hill where we lived was suddenly taken over by a massive influx of residents, leaving us with nowhere to graze the animals. Our family grew, too, and the land gradually filled up with houses. The landscape became increasingly gray with asbestos cement and orange with brick.

I started working at an early age in my father's bars and butcher shops, shortly after the animals were gone and I no longer had anything to take care of. Then, one day, my father told me I was going to learn how to use a computer. "That's going to be the future," he said. Until then, I had dreamed of becoming a scientist, although I didn't really know what that might involve.

One day, I started learning about this so-called computer. I remember that, during my very first class, Professor Dalmo walked into the room holding a keyboard and said, "This is a keyboard. This is what you'll use to operate a computer." The approach might sound strange to you, but there were only six computers at the school, and getting access to one was extremely difficult. Since we rarely got to use them, we had to rely heavily on our imagination. That's how I learned to become a programmer: filling page after page with what would eventually become code for a computer program.

Things were quite difficult. There weren't many job opportunities in that field in Duque de Caxias, and I didn't know much about the world beyond it. My world was pretty small and, believe it or not, there was no internet! So getting started was tough, and I had to diversify. I learned to do all sorts of other things: making school uniforms, sewing shirts to sell to friends and at street markets, designing business cards, typing documents, doing electrical installations, a little carpentry, a little masonry, assembling computers, and many other things, until I finally managed to establish myself professionally. 😕

By then, the boy who thought he was rich because of all the animals he had, the vast open space on the hill, and the water from the well... well, he had discovered that he could no longer raise any animals because the land had been taken over by other "owners." And water, which had once come freely from the well, now depended on some utility company to make its way into the faucet, because the well had dried up. In other words, that boy had grown up and realized that, in fact, he was pretty poor after all. The world had become a very different place.

It wasn't long before I found myself going through mandatory military service. I attended CPOR, a training school for reserve officers in the Brazilian Army. When they first told me about it, I thought I might actually become a "real officer." But at the time, I failed to pay attention to that little letter "R" at the end of the acronym. CPOR stands for "Reserve Officers' Training Center." So, after a year and a half, most of us said goodbye to that experience of serving our country "out of love for the homeland" and went back to getting on with our actual lives. 🙄

There were many experiences and struggles along the way. I had a major challenge and a dream: getting a college degree. After seven long years trying to figure out how to afford it, I finally decided to enroll without having any idea how I would pay for it. And then, things started falling into place. Every month was a struggle, but little by little, things got better, and eventually, I made it. I became a formally qualified Systems Analyst, graduating from a college in the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro. The biggest dream of that phase of my life, after more than a decade of waiting, had finally come true! 😆

Soon afterward, I completed several specialization courses, earned an MBA in Software Engineering from UFRJ, obtained several professional certifications, and started teaching at the very college where I had graduated. That was incredible for me, a tremendous personal achievement!

After five years as a professor, I said goodbye to teaching to pursue more financially rewarding opportunities. I devoted myself to the industry and became a Software Architect, working in that field for many years. Around 2020, I transitioned into Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Analytics, becoming a Data Scientist. I earned a master's degree in Mexico, completed an extension program associated with a master's degree in Spain, and today I am pursuing a PhD in Spain. I've already published four books on different subjects, and I'm now preparing to publish my first technical book, which I hope will be the first of many.

I've always been a writer. I started at the age of nine, thinking of myself as a "scientist" while writing a school assignment about the environment. And without copying anything from anywhere – or so I proudly claimed! Later, I started experimenting with fiction, such as the story of a flea that lived on my dog, whose name was Paraíso, and eventually met extraterrestrial beings. Anyway, just the kind of crazy stuff a creative child comes up with.

Today, one of my goals is to encourage people to invest more in reading and education in general. I believe these things can change the world. I often say that "knowledge sets you free," and I genuinely believe it. Knowledge is what allowed a poor boy, who lived on an otherwise empty hill and looked after his father's goats and chickens, to have the opportunity to become "somebody." Not that I ever thought I was a nobody. But education gave me choices, perspectives, and the means to make many of my dreams come true. Although I never became a wealthy man, I live a good and comfortable life. Education is what made that possible. Others who grew up alongside me still struggle to this day because they followed the "normal path" – the path of conformity.

I believe knowledge is freedom in many different ways. It gives those who have little the opportunity to reach for more, and gives everyone the chance to be happy by discovering worlds beyond the one they were introduced to when they first became individuals. It opens up perspectives for a different future and, within one's own personal universe, a better one!

That's why I'm here, and I hope to do work that can move you, shake your foundations, and make you think. Think deeply! It would make me happy to know not that I've convinced you of anything, but that I've encouraged you to question your own certainties. After all, questions are the fuel that powers the engine of change, not certainty or affirmation. I want to bring you doubts that, in turn, may give you the opportunity to become someone greater and better. A better version of yourself.

Shall we question the world together? I hope you'll give me the pleasure of your company.