I Ran Into Redis Creator antirez on a Quiet Street in His Sicilian Hometown
Redis in the Wild: Unexpectedly Bumping into Antirez in His Hometown
As a Sicilian SRE working abroad, I've followed Salvatore Sanfilippo's work for years. While visiting family in central Sicily, I learned we were both nearby and decided to attend a local festival he'd mentioned. There, I unexpectedly crossed paths with him on his evening walk. We chatted briefly about AI and his recent experiments—a surreal reminder of how small the tech world can be.
It was a great reminder of how small the tech world really is, and how someone who built one of the world’s most ubiquitous databases can just be an approachable neighbor out for an evening walk.
- dewey
> running into them randomly on a small-town street in rural Sicily feels almost fictional
It would feel a lot less invasive and creepy if it really was random and not after looking up an event in someone’s small home town and then traveling there and hoping for an encounter.
- jacquesm
Stalker. It was unexpected but not for the stalker. What a creep.
- springtimesun
Man you people are hard ones. OP had an exchange (as a local) with someone who was impactful in their life. Not to slight Antirez, but I don’t think people are ruining his walks daily to talk about in memory caching. If it was really 5 minutes and a photo (he presumably agreed to) I feel like you all are blowing this way out of proportion.
I remember the first time I ever met someone IRL from a big OSS project. I was a little star struck. Of course he didn’t remember merging my code, but I didn’t expect him to. It’s an experience I will always remember.