A long overdue update

It has been a very long time since I last wrote anything here.

That was never really the plan. I have always liked having somewhere of my own to write things down, whether that was a small technical note, a project update, or just a post about whatever was happening in life at the time. Then life became quite full, work changed shape a few times, and the longer I left it, the harder it became to write the next post without feeling like I first had to explain all the missing years.

So this is that post.

After my time at Verisure, I started my own company, Cyber Lane AB. It was a strange and exciting thing to put my own name on the door, even if the day-to-day reality was still mostly me showing up with a laptop, trying to understand problems properly, and writing software that made sense for the people who had to live with it afterwards.

Most of that chapter was spent working as a consultant for Øresundsbron. I originally joined to help with a specific project, but over time the work became broader. There were modern web applications, older systems that still mattered, integrations, payment flows, and the sort of quiet technical knowledge that only really builds up when you stay with something for a long time. Eventually I moved into more of a technical lead role, helping connect decisions across systems and teams.

I learned a lot from that period. Some of it was technical, of course, but the bigger lessons were about trust, patience, and context. It is very easy to look at a system from the outside and think you know what should be changed. It is much harder, and much more useful, to understand why things ended up the way they did, what people are worried about, and how to improve things without making life harder for everyone around you.

Running Cyber Lane AB also changed how I thought about work. There is a different kind of responsibility in being the company, even when it is a small one. You become more aware of what you are promising, how you communicate, and how much of professional life is really about being dependable when things are unclear.

Then, after many years in Sweden, I moved again.

This time to Japan.

Moving country once is a big thing. Moving country again, after you have already built routines, friendships, work habits, and a sense of normal life somewhere else, is different. Sweden had become familiar to me in a way that England no longer was. Leaving it was not just a career step or a change of address. It was closing a chapter that had become much larger than I expected when I first arrived there.

Japan is now the new chapter, and I am working at Cogent Labs as a Senior Product Engineer. I am still settling into what that means, both professionally and personally. There is the work itself, which has been interesting and challenging, but also the daily experience of learning how to exist in a place where even ordinary things require more attention than they used to.

That part is humbling in a way I probably needed. There is a certain comfort in being experienced at work, in knowing how to approach problems, in having years of patterns to draw from. Then you step outside and simple errands can turn into a small puzzle because your language ability, habits, and assumptions are all still catching up.

It is tiring sometimes, but it is also good. I have always liked learning, and Japan gives me no shortage of chances to do that.

I do not want to turn this into a grand announcement about reinventing myself. Mostly, I am still me. I still like building things, pulling apart awkward systems, making tools, drinking too much coffee, and occasionally disappearing into some project that probably did not need to become as elaborate as it did.

But a lot has changed.

Cyber Lane AB was an important chapter. Øresundsbron was an important chapter. Sweden was an important chapter. Now I am in Japan, working at Cogent Labs, trying to build a life here and see what shape things take next.

I would like to write here again, without making a huge promise about exactly how often or what it needs to be. The silence made every possible post feel too important, which is a silly trap for a personal website. So perhaps the best way back is simply to post this, let it be imperfect, and make the next one easier.

So, hello again.