What does being a tech bro looks like ft. D’phenomenal

According to Urban Dictionary, a tech bro is a highly educated male who works in the technology sector. A tech bro is a guy who’s passionate about technology and is usually highly knowledgeable about it. They’re often in prestigious positions in companies or as freelancers, and they may see themselves as leaders or even visionaries, such as CEOs and COOs. Tech bros are passionate about their gadgets and are usually not afraid to invest in expensive gadgets because their love for gadgets is unmistakable. It’s fair to say that they’re generally quite affluent.

Apart from their love for tech, tech bros have a unique style that sets them apart from others. They pay a lot of attention to their appearance and personal grooming, but they also prioritize comfort. They often opt for shorts, T-shirts, Crocs, or other comfortable clothing. Some tech bros have a signature fashion statement, such as a particular hairstyle like dreadlocks.

Ibrahim Salami also known as D’phenomenal is one of those you can refer to as a tech bro. He’s the founder of Devtranet and the Operations and Partnerships Manager at GenZtechies.

Wondering what a tech bro looks like, we decided to ask him some questions and here is how it went:

Has your age ever been a restriction for you?

Well, people are fond of saying age is just a number but, to be honest it is a huge limitation especially if you are from this part of this world. My experience wasn’t about people doubting my abilities, which is the most common but before now I didn’t have the autonomy to make certain decisions. For example, when I took a gap year and turned down a national scholarship to focus on tech and pursue international scholarship opportunities my parents were so furious.

What does a day in your life look like?

Honestly, most people watching TikTok or YouTube videos on a day in my life as an engineer at Google or Meta are probably seeing a bit of what a typical “good day” at work looks like for the creator. I sleep very late and wake up early. In my free time, if I’m not playing table tennis I’m either binge-watching YouTube or texting some of my friends. My calendar is always filled up with lots of meetings. Sometimes it’s as empty as the Sahara desert and I hate no-shows. I try to reschedule any meeting I can’t attend at least two hours ahead and I mostly end the day texting my friends or catching up with the latest Kdrama (I love their humor).

What gets you out of bed in the morning? and what keeps you up at night?

Alarms certainly don’t work for me, I just tend to get up whenever my body feels ready to go. I am a night person with a very short attention span so when I keep getting reminders to get some things done during the day I try to get them done at night. I’m mundane by day, and as active as a vampire by night. Obviously, I sleep less than 8 hours on average; sometimes I spend the whole day getting things done and eventually go to bed the next morning.

What’s your view about formal education? (did you drop out of uni like most tech bros or you’re also not considering going to uni)

Coding is a superpower, no doubt. Just as I love to code, other people have varying interests as well. I think education is broken globally, but worse in Africa: education should accelerate us but right now it is limiting us. Students are motivated by numbers, not passion. We always learn to pass tests and are generally taught to be competitive which is actually very bad because we all have varying interests and strengths. If you’re not studying to become a doctor, engineer, or lawyer society doesn’t think you are important.

My co-founder at Devtranet got into MIT, Columbia, and other Ivy League schools at 18, by then he got offers from Google and Dell, so he already makes more than the average MIT graduate with and he felt like the rigorous curriculum will not give him the chance to continue working hence he rejected the offer and decided to study computer science at the University of Melbourne, which is less rigorous and gives him time for work. I mean it doesn’t make sense to spend 4 years learning computer science without learning the skills you need to work as a software engineer. I recently saw a Tweet asking “What is the most expensive thing you spent money on as a developer?” literally all answers were “my college degree.”

I love what Elon Musk is doing with Ad Astra and I hope it’ll become the new standard for schooling, to solve this problem we need more initiatives like GenZtechies and Hack Club which is backed by Tom Preston-Werner (founder of GitHub), Vitalik Butterin (founder of Ethereum), and Elon Musk.

I’ve seen tech bros being accused of being yahoo guys, probably because they use Macbooks and they have the money….have you experienced such a thing before? (either from family friends or Nigerian police)

Well, my experience is pretty different. People always ask me for money or job opportunities. On the street, I probably look like a normal guy because I never take out my laptop or anything I use for work. And I value privacy a lot so it is really a different experience for me.

How do you manage people at work?

I rely on productivity tools like Loom to eliminate random meetings or long unproductive calls because I hate them. Leading a fully remote is very hard because it’s hard to maintain or build a culture or get things done faster. Instead, I incorporate the model of everyone being the CEO of themselves, productivity is measured by weekly milestones reached not the number of hours worked or pull requests made.

What do you do for fun?

Writing, table tennis, binge-watching YouTube videos, or texting my friends. I love to hang out with people at least once every month.

What’s your fashion style?

I don’t really have one, to be honest, but I just feel more comfortable jumping into anything that makes me look tall, elegant, and of course GenZ.

Have you ever been heartbroken?

Since I was born and now that I am getting old, mostly due to things not going as planned but I always find a way to keep pushing it, which is pretty normal for everyone.

What’s your favorite thing about being a tech bro?

I’d say the community, everyone is super helpful and supportive if you are willing to share whatever you may be going through. Look at how some weeks ago tech Twitter raised millions for someone who almost lost their vision due to always being on screen. People in tech are always giving out software subscriptions, laptops, or anything to help newbies. Every weekend is a conference or a hackaton, where we connect, build, and discover opportunities.

This is what being a tech bro looks like for D’phenomenal. It’s probably a different experience for another tech bro but then, they still share similar traits.