It took me three stations, after I stepped into this metro, to react. There was a man lying on the floor, apparently sleeping. A tramp. In the middle of a wagon. At 10:30pm in Paris, France.

We live in a time of marvel. Just an hour before, I was showing off with my new iPhone to my friends. There are so many things you can do with this thing, they said. Look at how you can control it with your finger, they said. I wish I had one of my own, they said.

Just one hour after that, I stepped into a metro wagon in the Republique station. There was a man lying on the floor. And you know, this is kind of usual. Maybe that’s the worst part of it. People are used to seeing tramps lying on the floor, especially at night. It’s just normal.

For three stations, I kept saying to myself: You’ve got to do something. There is a man on the floor. We were about thirty in that wagon, and everybody seemed to ignore the man on the floor. Sure he looked filthy, and probably drunk, even if his face couldn’t be seen. But who else would lie on a wagon floor, apart from a drunk tramp? And the people in the wagon were thinking, out loud: Can’t this man go sleep somewhere else? This is the metro, for God’s sake.

After three stations, I stood up and went to the man. I woke him up, talked to him, helped him out of the wagon. The guy had been beaten up and stolen. He had a broken arm and three broken ribs. Sure he was a tramp, I could tell that he hadn’t had a shower in weeks. He couldn’t say three words in a row. Was he asleep, drunk or mentally disordered? That doesn’t make any difference. The guy was in desperate need for help.

You know what? I’m mad at all the people who entered the wagon before me. I’m mad at me, because it took me so long to react. I’m mad at all the people who stepped into the wagon after me and didn’t react.

We live in a time of marvel. Except that I would give all the mobile Internet revolution to see this man among his family, not in danger, in good health, with a job and someone to look after him. I would give the entire symfony project for this man’s broken arm.

Not that it’s news. Just a sting to remember.

I just received more than 400€ of donations from the symfony community for the birth of my daughter. My family and I are still amazed about the generosity of the gesture, and both my wife and daughter join me to express our big thanks.

With the help of the money gathered by the community, we’ll soon be able to get our daughter out of jail!

When a moment of your life sounds like a David Bowie song, things often go well.

I’m leaving Sensio for a start-up company for which I will become the IT chief executive. That’s a great opportunity and a thrilling adventure. For the symfony users who read this, be reassured: That doesn’t mean that I will be leaving the symfony project. I have invested a lot in it and I strongly believe that symfony has a bright future; I want to go on contributing during some of my free time. I would like to go on writing plugins, or documentation, or giving talks and conferences about it. Besides, Fabien and I are still in good terms, despite my quitting his company, and he offered me to continue having a special role in the project. Lastly, my new company is building a very large website entirely with symfony, and I will have many opportunities to donate some code and documentation to the community.

There is a second important change in my life: I’m going to have a baby. In less than a month, if everyhing goes well, I will sleep much less and become a happy zombie.

So you can expect a little slowdown in my contributions until at least Christmas. But keep reading, I still want to redo the web…