From Curitiba to Cappadocia: How Remote Work Rewired One Developer's Career

Frederico Luz Braga used to lie awake at night thinking about puzzles. Not work problems — actual puzzles, the kind that refused to let go until they were solved. That restlessness, he says, is the same thing that eventually pulled him into software development and kept him there.

Braga is a software developer based in Curitiba, Brazil, who had been with X-Team for almost two years when this interview was published in January 2020. In this story, he traces the thread from a puzzle-obsessed kid in Brazil to a remote developer working with colleagues across nearly a dozen countries — and explains what it actually takes to stay productive, motivated and grounded when no one is telling you when to show up.

A Career Built on Problem-Solving

The logic of programming, Braga says, clicked early because it mapped directly onto something he already loved.

"I always enjoyed playing with puzzles and figuring out the best solutions to them," he says. "Some puzzles could keep me awake for hours at night and I would be restless until I actually solved them. The challenge of solving problems is what most inspired me to get into programming. It's basically solving problems all day long!"

He started learning to program at home before eventually committing to an undergraduate course. Over time, the initial pull of puzzles gave way to a broader sense of purpose — the satisfaction of building something new and seeing it affect the people who use it.

Before X-Team, that work happened mostly within the walls of software companies in Curitiba. He worked full-time, jumping from project to project each year, with the bulk of his time going to mobile work — primarily Android — for clients across financial, educational, insurance and nutrition sectors. It was steady, grounded work. But the 9-to-6 schedule and the geographic limits of a local market had a ceiling.

People, Adventure and the Pull of X-Team

What drew Braga to X-Team wasn't a specific technology or a particular project. It was scale.

"I remember thinking at the time how exciting it could be to work with other developers from all over the world," he says. "It felt like a million new opportunities and challenges could come knocking on my door."

Remote work also offered something he had long wanted: real flexibility. Being able to plan his own day — and adjust it when life demanded — felt like a meaningful upgrade from the fixed rhythms of traditional employment. "Now, I can work when I feel most productive and motivated," he says, "which makes a big difference."

The practical side of switching required some adjustment. In Brazil, leaving full-time employment means stepping outside the country's worker safety net. Braga's solution was to open an OPC — a One Person Company — which forced him to learn the basics of his own finances, accounting and tax obligations. He doesn't frame this as a sacrifice. "The benefits far overcome the risks," he says.

Once inside X-Team, the scope of connection he'd imagined became real. Over two years he worked alongside colleagues from the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Lithuania, the United States, Australia, Poland, Russia, Colombia, Ecuador and elsewhere. He attended BrazilJS with other X-Teamers and visited a client's headquarters in person. On the travel side — enabled by the flexibility of remote work — he reached the United States, the Dominican Republic, Spain and Poland without needing to take days off, and found himself on a balloon flight over Cappadocia, Turkey.

He describes X-Team as excelling in two things: people and adventure. Remote work, he acknowledges, often fails to create real connection between colleagues. X-Team's culture, in his view, works against that tendency. "I feel like we're in a community that keeps people together and makes us feel like we're part of something bigger, even though we're not physically close to each other." On the professional side, the projects broadened his range beyond mobile — into front-end and back-end work, including React and Node.js.

Staying Productive Without a Boss Watching the Clock

Freedom at that scale requires its own structure. Braga developed three habits he credits with keeping him productive as a remote worker.

The first is planning ahead. Every night, before bed, he maps out what the next day requires and how long each task should take. "It required some discipline at first," he says, "because you're normally tempted to change those plans and procrastinate if you are not careful." The practice stuck.

The second is staying physically healthy. Exercise and avoiding heavy meals are non-negotiable for him. Exercise helps him feel energized; lighter eating prevents the afternoon slump that kills afternoon focus.

The third is changing his environment. Working from home every day, he found, becomes tedious fast — and tedium bleeds into productivity. Working from different locations during the week keeps things fresh and provides the kind of ambient human contact that makes solo work feel less isolating.

The mindset he'd offer anyone navigating the same transition is simple: "Always try and find ways to motivate yourself and keep moving forward, regardless of the challenges that you face." For Braga, that advice isn't abstract. It's the thread that runs from the puzzles that kept him up at night in Curitiba to the work — and the world — he's built since.

Ready to build work you're proud of? Apply for an open role at X-Team.