July 1, 2026
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3 min
My name is Dave Kruithof, and in my day-to-day life I work as a back-end developer.
It might sound a bit silly, but Strava has definitely become one of those services that has me hooked. Tracking your own performance, diving into the stats, and following fellow athletes and their activities is a genuine guilty pleasure.
I've been working in the agency world for over five years now. What I love most about agency life is that no two days or projects are ever the same. There is, however, one common thread throughout my work: tackling problems or turning visions into something manageable and then bringing them to life. The variety constantly challenges you to solve problems creatively throughout a project. To me, that's the essence of the industry we work in and what makes me so passionate about all things digital.
Nothing frustrates me more than seeing a beautifully designed digital product ruined by an overwhelming number of pop-ups or dialog windows that get in the way of the initial user experience. A cookie banner is still acceptable, but that's about where I draw the line.
I grew up in Spijkenisse, but I've been living in Rotterdam for the past three years. I'm not sure I'd officially qualify as a true Rotterdammert yet, but that's certainly how I feel.
My interest in technology started in secondary school during computer science classes. One of the tools we used was Dreamweaver. With it, you could build a website through a visual interface, and at the time it felt like magic. Looking back, it probably had a huge influence on the direction of my studies. From there, I chose to study Application and Media Development, followed by Creative Media and Game Technologies, which ultimately brought me to a point where I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
As a back-end developer, I bring a broad range of technical knowledge that fits perfectly with TodayTomorrow's tech stack. I enjoy taking complex challenges or processes, breaking them down into manageable pieces, and optimizing them until they hardly seem complex anymore.
The feeling you get when a clever piece of code solves a difficult problem is hard to describe. Solving, simplifying, or simply exploring whether something is possible are things that come up time and time again in a programmer's work, and they continue to create those rewarding moments.
One thing I'd still love to do is complete an Ironman. It all started when a group of friends challenged each other to run 10 kilometers. I enjoyed it so much that I kept training and eventually worked my way towards running a full marathon. I've since taken up cycling as well, so all that's left is swimming. Once I've got that covered, I'll be ready to start training for an Ironman in the near future.
Besides my passion for coding, I have another great love: LEGO. Ever since I was a kid, every birthday meant another LEGO set. As you grow older, LEGO tends to disappear into the background for a while—at least until I discovered that these days they actually sell more LEGO to adults than to children. Give me some music and a brand-new LEGO set, and I can happily spend an entire evening building.