I build front-ends, mostly in TypeScript and React. I'm Elmouatassim — motalei. I work from Lyon, and I've been at this about eight years.

Before that, Oran. Computer science, [one detail about leaving].

Two halves

Part engineer

  • TypeScript
  • React & Next.js
  • Node
  • design systems
  • accessibility

Part apprentice

  • piano
  • karate
  • Arabic poetry
  • chess
  • languages

Practices

Piano

Chopin. [which nocturne].

[how long]. Rubato: the left hand keeps strict time, the right hand is allowed to lie about it. I write the same way.

Karate

[style], black belt since [year]; shodan means first step. Kata repeated past boredom until the form disappears.

[something a sensei actually said]. The third revision of a component is the thousandth repetition of a kata.

Arabic poetry

[which poet, how I came to it]. The classical line is two halves answering each other; a good bayt stands alone.

[one line I return to]. Same instinct as deleting code.

Four languages

Arabic, French, English, some Spanish. [one word that doesn't survive translation]. Shows up in the work as naming.

Teaching

Association El-kheldounia since 2016. Workshops for CS students, Scratch for under-sixteens. [one kid, one thing that clicked — age, and what they built]. Ten years now.

Chess

[favourite opening]. [a book that stuck].

Now

August 2026 — building a virtual museum in WebGL. Relearning the Nocturnes. Reading more than I'm writing.

CV

Download CVPDF — 189 KB

Contact