11 questions to rediscover Marc

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Marc is one of the 3 founders of Antistatique. You probably already know him. But discover him again with Laurent's pertinent questions.

If you had to eat just one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
It would be far too sad not to be able to continue exploring all the riches of gastronomy. It's so rich, so extraordinary. I live to eat, I don't eat to live. If I had to choose just one thing, it would be fasting.
Are you committed to the climate crisis, do you feel concerned, and if so, what is your commitment?
My commitment is still too timid. I've spent a lot of time researching, and I'm still spending a lot of time trying to understand how we got here. Today I'm more politically active. I feel absolutely concerned, we all do. We are even more so because we are among the countries most responsible for emissions. Having a child makes me all the more aware of my responsibility to be a better ancestor.
Do you still love your job after all these years?
My job has changed every 2-3 years since we started the Antistatique adventure. This change is one aspect of my job that I particularly enjoy.
My passion is sharing knowledge and the extra power that the web brings. The simplicity of its concept means you can teleport from one page to another.
Ultimately, my job is to enrich the web with more quality websites. Whether I'm designing, developing, imagining, leading a team or teaching. So yes, I still love my job and I still find the web fascinating. I even dedicated a talk to webmardi a few years ago (text and video versions).
How do you see it evolving in the future?
I think a lot of things are going to change. I hope that change will lead us to rationalise and really question technological progress. Evolution is not synonymous with progress. I also imagine that we will really be refocusing on the needs of users and less on those of technology. I imagine a total awareness of climate issues, with a web that is lighter and more focused on the essentials. I imagine artificial intelligence being regulated and costed in line with the reality of its impact. I also imagine greater accessibility, inclusiveness and a reduction in the digital divide.
But this development will not happen on its own. We have to work at it. I'm inspired by Zeynep Tüfekçi's words: "If we have such a precious common asset, we have to defend it, otherwise we'll lose it".
Developments in our field are already leading to fundamental changes in my profession. In the end, the tools don't evolve as quickly as you might think. And the important thing is to find the meaning and usefulness of our mission, otherwise everything will fall apart.
What are you going to do when we get to the digital crash, if we get there :)?
I think we can still avoid it. I don't know what I'll do, but sharing knowledge will continue to be key to our survival. If our modern society collapses, I'll keep my values of mutual aid and try to join a community. Getting closer to nature has never done me any harm and I enjoy low tech and peeling back the layers of abstraction.
If you were a fictional character, who would you be?
If I were a fictional character, I'd like to be Nuuskamuikkunen. He's the boy with the green hat and the harmonica in the Moomin books. I'm a long way from him, but he's such a free spirit that he inspires me. He's a very Finnish character who represents courage and wisdom. An embodiment of tenacity, resilience, lucidity and rationality that the Finns call "Sisu". Another word that has no translation in other languages, but which deserves to be better known.
What is your fondest childhood memory?
I'm extremely lucky to have had a wonderful childhood, with nothing but fond memories. I travelled a lot around the world, but at the same time I was well integrated into a village life that was full of sharing. What's more, my dad is a great film buff. He filmed our whole childhood with his Super8 camera. I can well imagine what today's generation (filmed by smartphones) will experience later on when they watch videos of their early years. Each of my memories is linked to his films, which make them even more real. Like, for example, my first day at school and, above all, my first escapes on my bike, as shown below on the motorway.
Marc petit, à vélo sur l'autoroute encore en construction
Car or bike?
The bike, without any hesitation. I enjoy using it every day. And to go further afield, the train of course!
Are you a sore loser?
I'm a very good loser. But gambling is serious. I can't stand people cheating or not taking the rules seriously.
What's your musical guilty pleasure?
Music is never a guilty pleasure, I can listen to electronic music (by Christian Löffler for example) for hours without getting bored. I also listen to a lot of blues-folk music (by Townes Van Zandt, for example), and that's perhaps my guilty pleasure - I feel like I'm escaping into immense, majestic landscapes.
Do you always use the same password everywhere?
I can't answer that question for obvious security reasons. But I've been using password managers since 2005 and so should all of you.
Do you think you're a good boss?
If I answered yes, that wouldn't be the case. I already don't like that term, I put it in with the word resources. For me, the role of management is above all to do everything possible to ensure that everyone in the organisation feels good and has everything they need to understand and carry out their tasks. That's a sentence with a lot of 'everything' in it.
In any case, I'm still a long way from being a boss and that's not a goal for me. On the other hand, I hope to become better.