Francesco Nigro, a performance expert at Red Hat, shares his unique journey from a used Commodore 64 to mastering Quarkus. He discusses the impact of breakdancing on his learning and the role of persistence in landing a position at Red Hat. The conversation dives into high-performance computing, revealing insights on the Disruptor concurrency framework and the evolution from assembly programming to Java optimization. Francesco emphasizes the significance of in-depth technical understanding in today’s AI-driven landscape, highlighting his dedication to open-source contributions.