Felix Schlegel:
A Server-Side Eulogy
A loving tribute to the man who looked at a server and asked: “But can it run Swift?”
Scroll, if you dareWho was Felix? Who is Felix?
Gather round. Today we honor a man of rare distinction: a double Apple WWDC Scholar (2018 and 2019), which is to say he raised his hand in class twice and got a sticker both times. Tim Cook is rumored to have once nodded in his general direction.
He studied Computer Science at TUM and did CS research at Cambridge - the full high-brow European academia speedrun - and then applied every ounce of that intellect to building, and we cannot stress this enough, an SMS bot.
In 2023 he interned at Apple in London on Swift on Server, a technology so widely deployed that to this day no one has personally met a server running it. And then he co-founded Interaction.co, which spent $600,000 on the domain poke.com… to send text messages.
Meanwhile, in Heidelberg, an Apple intern named Max was quietly building things that, you know, worked. More on him later. He’s fine. He’s great, actually. He fixes the backend.
Fake Achievements, Real Trophies
A non-exhaustive list of feats no one asked for but everyone will hear about.
- 3
Successfully convinced exactly 3 people to compile Swift on Linux. Two have since recovered.
- 1
Received a personalized head nod from Tim Cook in 2018. Has not stopped mentioning it.
- $600K
Paid for a domain to, functionally, run a cron job that says hi.
- 2×
Double WWDC Scholar - twice the teacher's-pet energy, half the explanation needed.
- PhD-ish
Did CS research at Cambridge, then applied it to the noble art of sending texts.
- 0
Real-world servers found in production running Swift on Server. The search continues.
- 404
Times anyone asked 'but can it run Swift?' before Felix asked it for them.
- 100%
Of the backend Max ends up fixing on a quiet Sunday. Coincidence? Felix says yes.
What People Are Saying
Unsolicited, unverified, and emotionally complicated.
Wait, on the server? Like... the actual server? In production? I've read the proposal four times and I still have questions. He seemed very confident though.
A Confused Apple Engineering Manager
Oh, Felix? Yeah. He's 'busy' on 'the platform side.' I'm sure the SMS will compile any minute now. No, I'm not bitter. Why would I be bitter.
Marvin
Brilliant student. Top marks. I assumed he'd go on to solve distributed consensus or something. He texts me now. Just texts. From a $600,000 domain.
Dr. A. Reasonable
We do encourage our researchers to apply their work to industry. We did not, strictly speaking, mean 'the texting industry.' But here we are.
The Cambridge Department
I was forced to compile Swift for eleven minutes. I have seen things. I would simply like to go back to serving static files in peace.
A Linux Server
I nod at a lot of people. Statistically, one of them was Felix. He has built an entire personality around it. Good lad. Buy the phone.
Tim Cook (allegedly)
A Career Timeline
From scholar to co-founder, one Swift compile at a time.
WWDC Scholar
First documented high-five attempt. A Swift Playground app changes the world (his world).
WWDC Scholar, Again
Back-to-back. Teacher's pet status: confirmed, notarized, framed.
Max interns at Apple, HeidelbergTeam Max
Max builds real, working things. Says little. Commits much. The backend remains stable.
Apple intern - Swift on Server, London
Felix relocates to London to run Swift on a server. The server files a complaint.
CS at TUM, research at Cambridge
Peak European intellect, fully loaded, aimed squarely at the problem of sending text messages.
Co-founds Interaction.co
Spends $600k on poke.com to send texts. Bold. Visionary. Slightly unhinged. We respect it.
Co-founder, but Max still has to fix the backendTeam Max
The arc is complete. Felix has the title. Max has the on-call pager. Balance is restored.
“He came. He saw. He asked if it ran Swift. It did not need to. He ran it anyway.”
We love you, Felix. Never change. (Please change the backend, though. That part is fine to change. - Max)