SUBJECT: MOUAD ESSALIM · FIRST PROGRAM: AGE 13
I was thirteen, trying to make a game in a place that was never designed for it. That stubborn experiment became a long search for the right way to turn logic into useful, visible software.
What kept pulling me forward
Each tool was an attempt to answer the same question: how do I turn an idea in my head into something real, understandable, and useful to someone else?
The recurring motive
A terminal game was enough at 13, but scripts quickly stopped being enough. I kept chasing the moment when logic becomes something another person can see, touch, and actually use. That search took me through Python GUIs, Flutter, and eventually the web.
The present lens
Clinical study trained me to slow down, notice weak signals, and resist an answer that only looks clever. I bring that discipline into software: understand the real problem first, then choose the smallest system that can solve it well.
The honest version
I followed curiosity into good tools, dead ends, and one chapter I would handle differently now. Every stop changed what I chose next.
Learning signal / 11 recorded beats
Choose a beat to inspect that stage of the journey.
Learning now
This is where I am now: learning to build complete web products with clearer systems, better judgment, and fewer unnecessary detours.
Selected work
A record of projects that moved beyond experiments—built to solve a concrete problem, shipped, and learned from.
Desktop utility / Steam inventory
A Windows desktop utility that calculates the value of a Steam Counter-Strike inventory from a SteamID or profile link, with currency-aware pricing and an Electron interface backed by Python automation.
Security research / Educational PoC
An educational proof-of-concept demonstrating how info-stealers harvest browser session cookies, tokens, and credentials on Windows systems, built to study browser storage vulnerabilities and security awareness.
Social engineering / Security research
An educational security tool illustrating how QR code phishing attacks intercept authentication tokens via WebSocket session hijacking, demonstrating social engineering attack vectors and mitigation techniques.
Observation / current context
“I learned more from chasing the wrong tools honestly than I ever would have learned from pretending the path was straight.”
Field notes