# podviaznikov.com This file contains the complete documentation for this site. Last updated: 2026-09-05T23:38:59.303Z --- ## /board/active-t-shirt # Active T-Shirt 8c91d006-a924-4d0c-a293-aa1a9eddd7a4.webp 5e527af7-0247-470a-987a-902009cb555d.webp [https://organicbasics.com/products/mens-silvertech-active-tee?variant=33075997769837](https://organicbasics.com/products/mens-silvertech-active-tee?variant=33075997769837) --- ## /board/adidas-jacket # Adidas Jacket 8b867d8a-1a5e-4887-91b7-0b899af83f77.jpg fca73839-2f44-4677-8243-f7d9661590e5.jpg 08bd56d5-13a7-4452-af7b-7f51ec6da47e.jpg From [https://www.queens.global/152716/adidas-originals-adventure-fleece-reversible-polar-half-zip-jacket/](https://www.queens.global/152716/adidas-originals-adventure-fleece-reversible-polar-half-zip-jacket/) --- ## /board/allen-shorts # Allen Shorts cc99c201-b600-44b3-bf63-0a50ff64815a.jpg 0f007897-d0d0-4555-b2cd-9606ca63a256.jpg [https://www.garmentory.com/sale/30573-common-market/mens-shorts/1713977-common-market-allen-shorts?ref=sidebar](https://www.garmentory.com/sale/30573-common-market/mens-shorts/1713977-common-market-allen-shorts?ref=sidebar) --- ## /board/axiom-1-4-snap-fleece # Axiom 1/4 Snap Fleece aca76aad-b1e3-4b5a-bef9-eb9383b7b76f.webp 2146ffe6-2268-4049-b93e-054dc3a3b8f3.webp bc8b8c7a-a3e0-4268-8598-736227db46a9.webp 48f2dfcb-ae11-4da0-ae74-45a9dc5f9d42.webp [https://finisterre.com/collections/mens-new-arrivals/products/mens-recycled-polyester-axiom-quarter-snap-fleece-olive-navy-burnt-orange](https://finisterre.com/collections/mens-new-arrivals/products/mens-recycled-polyester-axiom-quarter-snap-fleece-olive-navy-burnt-orange) --- ## /board/axiom-full-zip-fleece # Axiom Full Zip Fleece fcdec6bc-2418-49a1-bd94-4da99464cc12.webp 733814fe-c4da-4a3c-bcb1-4d6d94fd0df9.webp 3989ad5d-abbf-4ca1-8bc7-b2b1ad67b59d.webp 90812b74-f79c-4796-85cd-e9ec18e8eed8.webp [https://finisterre.com/products/mens-recycled-axiom-full-zip-navy-biscay?variant=39978547970125](https://finisterre.com/products/mens-recycled-axiom-full-zip-navy-biscay?variant=39978547970125) --- ## /board/backpacks-from-buenos-aires # Backpacks from Buenos Aires e2840d7b-0357-4def-ab57-69d6b5889bdc.jpg 960e425d-6e6b-4eb1-8c66-38f47e8e3576.jpg [https://www.instagram.com/fachaww/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/fachaww/?hl=en) --- ## /board/bassike-shorts # Bassike Shorts fec40018-f052-4fbb-84b3-106c2c097891.webp 00c10972-55c2-432d-ad79-d7b7c9351871.webp dabb7233-9968-4016-a020-7abc7e2bc706.webp From Bassike [https://www.bassike.com/collections/men/products/beach-cotton-short-ss21mfb32-zest](https://www.bassike.com/collections/men/products/beach-cotton-short-ss21mfb32-zest) --- ## /board/bdg-dad-fit-jean # BDG Dad Fit Jean 66cdf1a2-5c33-49a6-9734-31478fb73f8d.webp e2be0c94-a333-4d8b-b405-18805b224131.webp a2f4f75b-3818-474f-bcca-578b3b0745b8.webp [https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/bdg-dad-fit-jean?category=mens-jeans&color=106&type=REGULAR&quantity=1](https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/bdg-dad-fit-jean?category=mens-jeans&color=106&type=REGULAR&quantity=1) --- ## /board/beautiful-fabric # Beautiful Fabric 5df72729-8b02-46c5-883b-2faee044580e.jpeg 992a4220-5215-4797-8d83-671964f7fda6.jpeg From [**lanificiobecagli**](https://www.instagram.com/lanificiobecagli/?hl=en) --- ## /board/beige-cotton-shirt # Beige Cotton Shirt b0c726f8-d008-4ef2-a78d-63076cd58357.jpg 587d48a8-248b-4a96-a9f9-030c30d75b85.jpg 4993cb30-b534-47a5-9593-168bc40f55a0.jpg 0ab8880f-5930-4894-a068-33a7e0c77245.png **Beige Cotton Shirt** [https://www.youmustcreate.com/product/mens-shirts/curtis-needlecord-organic-cotton-shirt-beige/](https://www.youmustcreate.com/product/mens-shirts/curtis-needlecord-organic-cotton-shirt-beige/) --- ## /board/beige-ego-pants # Beige Ego Pants 25712396-7ee8-4a38-acf1-098a0f938324.jpg [https://supportbypoustovit.com/en/product/pants-ego-beige/](https://supportbypoustovit.com/en/product/pants-ego-beige/) --- ## /board/blue-pants # Blue Pants af3fd237-2950-4265-93b3-df1a4415195a.jpg [https://indigoandcotton.com/gramicci-nn-pant-double-navy/](https://indigoandcotton.com/gramicci-nn-pant-double-navy/) --- ## /board/blue-shorts # Blue shorts e53493ee-5016-4056-be1b-3ad0cfa3d989.webp cab5c848-e9d9-416a-a173-b43465903aff.webp [https://kith.com/collections/rhude/products/rhss23sh29835102-blu](https://kith.com/collections/rhude/products/rhss23sh29835102-blu) --- ## /board/blue-t-shirt # Blue T-Shirt 96116dc9-5e97-447c-b66b-7bdd156f35c9.webp 67e22dff-c504-4a42-8bd3-33ea96fdfe68.webp 038d8d4d-5068-4fdd-be97-722d34dc9071.webp [https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/en-gb/shop/uo-blue-motherboard-t-shirt?color=040&recommendation=pdp-rightRail-sfrectray-rectraysimilar&type=REGULAR&quantity=1](https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/en-gb/shop/uo-blue-motherboard-t-shirt?color=040&recommendation=pdp-rightRail-sfrectray-rectraysimilar&type=REGULAR&quantity=1) --- ## /board/boxers # Boxers a51b9e9f-ea69-43e4-a6b7-2bb189fdfac2.jpg [https://personalparade.com/collections/all/products/husdands-boxers-pack-of-2?variant=40754351079468](https://personalparade.com/collections/all/products/husdands-boxers-pack-of-2?variant=40754351079468) --- ## /board/brown-jacket # Brown Jacket 1ef42166-6dae-4d69-8ecf-9dfb13be331e.webp **Brown Jacket** [**https://www.wearseasons.com/product/nanu-corduroy-hide-jacket-brown**](https://www.wearseasons.com/product/nanu-corduroy-hide-jacket-brown) --- ## /board/camel-sweater # Camel Sweater f1acb508-79d2-463f-a5ca-16cb821f5a18.webp ce1bfd47-f772-49d1-b84a-a75aea78abaf.webp 85cd3344-fe5c-4761-87ce-51b6c69727f7.webp [https://organicbasics.com/products/mens-recycled-wool-knit-sweater?variant=33173453406317](https://organicbasics.com/products/mens-recycled-wool-knit-sweater?variant=33173453406317) --- ## /board/camo-pants # Camo Pants 39f11617-4457-4f41-9eeb-6dc6e86b3c4d.webp cbeb3b52-687b-4276-b1a2-54e63bb85209.webp 7d24b91b-d35e-4703-8b55-dd792f2c4d5d.webp [https://camofactory.com/collections/camo-trousers/products/tyson-camo-trousers-twill-navy-last-size-m](https://camofactory.com/collections/camo-trousers/products/tyson-camo-trousers-twill-navy-last-size-m) --- ## /board/canvas-overshirt # Canvas Overshirt 61008251-9b6f-44cb-a698-ed73559dc3a1.webp [https://formandthread.com/products/canvas-atelier-overshirt?color=Dijon](https://formandthread.com/products/canvas-atelier-overshirt?color=Dijon) --- ## /board/cardigan # Cardigan ca833336-51c6-4b6d-8a67-3df5309c985e.jpg [https://www.handvaerk.com/shop/men/mens-knits/ribbed-alpaca-cardigan/#](https://www.handvaerk.com/shop/men/mens-knits/ribbed-alpaca-cardigan/#) --- ## /board/cardigan-still-by-hands # Cardigan Still By Hands 68683933-d225-4226-a5c8-0ef9a4138d7b.webp 08d4c4d2-e168-4d3a-ac95-90725a3f6181.webp [https://styledepartment-store.com/collections/sale-men?variant=40418754330809](https://styledepartment-store.com/collections/sale-men?variant=40418754330809) --- ## /board/classic-coat # Classic Coat 81c1a9f8-add8-413a-926d-38735c5406d0.jpg 10088658-dbaa-4a2b-bbfd-5444624b04c7.jpg Still by Hand. [http://stillbyhand.jp/lookbook/2021-fw/](http://stillbyhand.jp/lookbook/2021-fw/) --- ## /board/color-combo # Color Combo 169dd0d8-53e0-4ce5-ab4b-cb0d57843e99.jpg From [https://www.instagram.com/p/CGkkQ8kAmzr/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CGkkQ8kAmzr/). --- ## /board/colors-are-fire # Colors are fire eadea61b-5954-41ae-b490-bd5ecc6973d0.jpeg Pants and shirt(especially shirt!) look so cool. --- ## /board/cool-colors # Cool colors 9856b017-ea03-4444-b27f-49223be8153c.webp c00d8db9-b30e-494e-8761-4d691464d091.webp [https://styledepartment-store.com/collections/sale-men/products/reception-hooded-sweat-cheesy](https://styledepartment-store.com/collections/sale-men/products/reception-hooded-sweat-cheesy) --- ## /board/cool-print # Cool Print d727b1f0-4e40-4daa-aaf1-a8f0911b5a0b.jpg [https://monreef.com/products/i-d-embrace-you-too-honey](https://monreef.com/products/i-d-embrace-you-too-honey) --- ## /board/cord-liner-jacket # Cord Liner Jacket 872c2237-08a7-42ed-8e60-84bc5d3f2115.webp 164d027f-6852-4eca-bc7b-3a02d013c260.webp 3ab4f3ae-a560-4dfa-909f-60b8893c889c.webp 3d2ab5d3-fad0-4ff4-b7b2-0ce078f2616a.webp [https://formandthread.com/products/cord-liner-jacket?color=Dijon#image-4](https://formandthread.com/products/cord-liner-jacket?color=Dijon#image-4) --- ## /board/corruption-hoodie # Corruption Hoodie bc6bb149-331e-4fd0-b295-36c779cf3c2b.webp Beautiful hoodie from Ukraine: [https://www.kseniaschnaider.com/products/corruption-hoodie](https://www.kseniaschnaider.com/products/corruption-hoodie). --- ## /board/cropped-blue-jeans # Cropped Blue Jeans 4d42b120-f126-4597-beb7-12843771d1ab.jpg 420b3f05-03c5-4db0-a90e-16d2bff0160f.webp [https://www.arket.com/en_eur/men/jeans/product.regular-cropped-jeans-blue.1001642004.html](https://www.arket.com/en_eur/men/jeans/product.regular-cropped-jeans-blue.1001642004.html) --- ## /board/cropped-wool-pants # Cropped Wool Pants e78bf407-1fd4-44ab-8f9f-178a43a694fc.jpg 7a7d2874-7710-4796-917a-e520631e2b12.webp 5d987c8c-ab7a-478d-b7d0-a162677c90bb.webp [https://www.arket.com/en_eur/men/trousers/product.cropped-tapered-wool-trousers-grey.1005754004.html](https://www.arket.com/en_eur/men/trousers/product.cropped-tapered-wool-trousers-grey.1005754004.html) --- ## /board/custom-frames # Custom frames 185ccb09-0005-4107-8ba8-03ffc73c671c.jpg 7ac4d9af-2499-475f-8e02-e7c9b2ab12f5.jpg 078eb1d5-12fc-4300-8587-f0c61d076d92.jpg From [https://www.maisonbonnet.com/en/custom-made-glasses/pookie](https://www.maisonbonnet.com/en/custom-made-glasses/pookie) --- ## /board/dyed-blue-cardigan # Dyed Blue Cardigan 33c8f9b4-3e67-4045-9dec-84951706731b.webp 3d6e950c-26ab-4b08-8d18-559983e740a6.webp b4972c0b-f9c1-4ed5-bcc9-0d08fc8fcbaf.webp [https://www.endclothing.com/row/velva-sheen-8oz-pigment-dyed-freedom-cardigan-161843p-ny.html](https://www.endclothing.com/row/velva-sheen-8oz-pigment-dyed-freedom-cardigan-161843p-ny.html) [https://www.instagram.com/velvasheen/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/velvasheen/?hl=en) --- ## /board/embroidered-white-t # Embroidered white T [https://lalkarka.com/shop?product_id=291](https://lalkarka.com/shop?product_id=291) --- ## /board/fire-look # Fire Look e01a27f0-102c-496b-999e-7481d3913988.jpeg So good. --- ## /board/fleece-hoodie # Fleece Hoodie b2a2d898-66e7-4647-b084-ab79cefc2ede.webp 5600da1b-bf82-4f2b-9b98-9d0918331a90.webp From [https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/standard-cloth-hyperbaric-cozy-fleece-zip-hoodie-sweatshirt?category=mens-clothing&color=020&type=REGULAR&quantity=1](https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/standard-cloth-hyperbaric-cozy-fleece-zip-hoodie-sweatshirt?category=mens-clothing&color=020&type=REGULAR&quantity=1) --- ## /board/forrest-green-sweatshirt # Forrest Green Sweatshirt 5158bda4-9d6b-4711-b21f-a2ccbf001097.webp 923e987e-4b11-4cdf-861d-74ad8bef3b60.webp 61227409-cb3e-46da-b22d-de1f0f2dee6a.webp 181123ae-c550-47da-9080-145069cde8d2.webp [https://www.assemblynewyork.com/products/forest-green-embrace-mystery-sweatshirt?goal=0_647a60f391-decfdf3736-318338369&mc_cid=decfdf3736&mc_eid=bb4b2fd4c4](https://www.assemblynewyork.com/products/forest-green-embrace-mystery-sweatshirt?goal=0_647a60f391-decfdf3736-318338369&mc_cid=decfdf3736&mc_eid=bb4b2fd4c4) --- ## /board/frankie-fashion-hoodie # Frankie Fashion Hoodie 8b426c47-1bbd-4005-bece-dac69c09b2e9.webp eca29e11-cab7-4eb3-bc21-02a6ad785df2.webp From [https://eu.thefrankieshop.com/products/gene-hoodie-hazelnut](https://eu.thefrankieshop.com/products/gene-hoodie-hazelnut) --- ## /board/fuchsia-boxer-shorts # Fuchsia Boxer Shorts db06a337-a58a-42cc-a45c-54c637008dd3.jpg 1442414b-abf4-40a7-9f22-cbfdad8a1d53.png [https://extramedium.ooo/fuchsia/](https://extramedium.ooo/fuchsia/) --- ## /board/funnel-sweatshirt # Funnel Sweatshirt a4f4a155-2e1e-4424-a1cb-029fcbf8db3f.webp 5b3096d8-6dc2-40a3-9bf6-bebbfd9a36f6.webp From [https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/without-walls-campsite-funnel-neck-sweatshirt?color=011&recommendation=pdp-primary-sfrectray-webconsentcobrowse&type=REGULAR&quantity=1](https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/without-walls-campsite-funnel-neck-sweatshirt?color=011&recommendation=pdp-primary-sfrectray-webconsentcobrowse&type=REGULAR&quantity=1) --- ## /board/green-hoodie # Green Hoodie 2c1ff87a-387c-45b2-9c6e-f621b3ad79c0.webp d32dfa34-41af-4aa8-aec5-74edc5f7d7a2.webp d6c2abdd-8110-4af3-a12b-6641bfbc9e1c.webp [https://www.assemblynewyork.com/collections/t-shirts-sweatshirt/products/forest-green-cotton-new-york-logo-hoodie](https://www.assemblynewyork.com/collections/t-shirts-sweatshirt/products/forest-green-cotton-new-york-logo-hoodie) --- ## /board/grey-suite # Gray Suite 9df9c494-c788-4f67-81b3-a3e593fe25eb1.jpeg 69c88671-3fdb-44d1-9a77-7861147045b01.jpeg c8278bd4-8a08-468a-8fbb-5fb642710c31.jpeg Wes Anderson --- ## /board/grey-track-shoes # Grey Track Shoes 83133856-caab-4844-9920-1059005396d0.jpg 94eb2997-4bcb-4b3f-b7e2-722e3ad5d103.jpg [https://huckberry.com/store/gola/category/p/52380-track-suede-317](https://huckberry.com/store/gola/category/p/52380-track-suede-317) --- ## /board/gylly-shirt # Gylly Shirt 3312d4b7-78a9-4629-a0d3-6ba84fcdfe2c.webp b9394671-38fb-4a75-9276-719ee0648b53.webp [https://finisterre.com/en-cz/collections/mens-shirts-polos/products/mens-organic-cotton-gylly-shirt-ecru](https://finisterre.com/en-cz/collections/mens-shirts-polos/products/mens-organic-cotton-gylly-shirt-ecru) --- ## /board/haircut # Haircut [#style](/tags/style) --- ## /board/hoops-t-shirt # Hoops T-Shirt IMG_0387.webp Link https://www.newbalance.com/pd/hoops-graphic-t-shirt/MT33588.html?dwvar_MT33588_style=MT33588SST --- ## /board/ivory-shirt # Ivory Shirt 0bb79814-ff3e-442c-84c7-dc826faa7928.webp 1e8aa233-6dbe-45ba-9731-428d15a34bf5.webp [https://addeertz.com/collections/shirts/products/yucca-shirt-ivory](https://addeertz.com/collections/shirts/products/yucca-shirt-ivory) --- ## /board/jeans-ck # Jeans CK 67096458-9df9-4cdd-848a-3bedc80d6996.webp ca04d9cb-8127-42ae-bafb-d6842cf75cd0.webp 721c7b7d-cb6a-4c96-abd0-d3302818d0b0.webp [https://www.calvinklein.us/en/men/apparel/denim/slim-straight-fit-pacifico-jeans/25507860-401.html?journey=Folder_0000062](https://www.calvinklein.us/en/men/apparel/denim/slim-straight-fit-pacifico-jeans/25507860-401.html?journey=Folder_0000062) --- ## /board/light-green-t-shirt # Light Green T-Shirt 10220b87-89dc-4522-8b6b-67085c825d9a.webp a08b377a-e954-4c3b-9697-9ea377833b0f.webp [https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/iets-frans-embroidered-shrunken-boyfriend-tee?category=SHOPBYBRAND&color=030&type=REGULAR&quantity=1](https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shop/iets-frans-embroidered-shrunken-boyfriend-tee?category=SHOPBYBRAND&color=030&type=REGULAR&quantity=1) --- ## /board/light-jeans # Light Jeans 19acb760-6470-4e44-adbc-58f5dff32cac.jpg Beauty [https://www.amiparis.com/us/shopping/cropped-jeans-13208273?StoreId=9846](https://www.amiparis.com/us/shopping/cropped-jeans-13208273?StoreId=9846) --- ## /board/manastash-yellow-t-shirt # Manastash yellow t-shirt a9cc7d84-8fb1-48f0-a8b6-2801eae65d42.jpg d2316f6d-d8ff-465f-80a5-7aa03c88ed2e.jpg 338d6b34-2cb9-4dd3-b52e-e1860ccf2e2e.jpg [https://www.garmentory.com/sale/manastash/mens-t-shirts-short-sleeve/1779388-scheme-logo-t-shirt-lemon](https://www.garmentory.com/sale/manastash/mens-t-shirts-short-sleeve/1779388-scheme-logo-t-shirt-lemon) --- ## /board/mango-blazer # Mango Blazer d5a057e4-870d-42ea-a92b-99aad2e663d1.webp 2dde2542-beea-422a-bf2d-49d9f217618d.jpg [https://shop.mango.com/us/men/blazers-casual/slim-fit-cotton-blazer_87080510.html](https://shop.mango.com/us/men/blazers-casual/slim-fit-cotton-blazer_87080510.html) --- ## /board/mango-sweatshirt # Mango sweatshirt 802ff605-a563-4b42-8f09-4d635d6e2694.jpg 14e64854-7dd4-4f33-a8ab-32f5068943a1.jpg [https://www.garmentory.com/sale/manastash/mens-sweats/1794166-cascade-sweatshirts-tgp-mango](https://www.garmentory.com/sale/manastash/mens-sweats/1794166-cascade-sweatshirts-tgp-mango) --- ## /board/navy-t-shirt # Navy T-Shirt 5be9e049-3a37-4e25-b8e7-b0429b489e95.webp cf4d7cd3-4816-421c-9d3b-08e79a7bb6ba.webp 7b7c2574-6aae-4699-894d-0454f6cff9e5.webp [https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/en-gb/shop/uo-navy-couldnt-care-less-t-shirt?color=040&recommendation=pdp-primary-sfrectray-cobuymintarget2isupdate1&type=REGULAR&quantity=1](https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/en-gb/shop/uo-navy-couldnt-care-less-t-shirt?color=040&recommendation=pdp-primary-sfrectray-cobuymintarget2isupdate1&type=REGULAR&quantity=1) --- ## /board/nomo-off-white-sneaker # Nomo Off-White Sneaker 3584cedd-d920-49ae-999b-b94cd2c580df.jpg a3937947-3b9a-4878-b07f-94d213ed1831.jpg d57d3d1e-ded8-4c87-a69a-66c20a03421c.jpg 1a6a0e05-d90e-4e6b-bb1a-5a73e43ec460.jpg 8b1b3eef-5e16-4aa8-9688-4dae469f0807.jpg My favorite shoes brands in 2021-2022 [https://brandblack.com](https://brandblack.com) --- ## /board/off-white-t-shirt # Off-white T-Shirt 1c3a83c0-caf9-4dd8-b274-6c17b027a9cc.jpg [https://www.instagram.com/p/CcQRXZHLy8t/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/p/CcQRXZHLy8t/?hl=en) --- ## /board/oncept-sneakers # Oncept sneakers 3fa64a65-9a53-465a-b5f6-f3a300035277.webp 02564737-ef6f-4a03-9621-169eb61b33fe.webp ee9e2fa2-e2d2-4a3c-9631-314014d92b72.webp [https://oncept.nyc/products/tokyo-mens](https://oncept.nyc/products/tokyo-mens) --- ## /board/onion-t-shirt # Onion T-Shirt 69a77455-079d-451d-bfc3-27cb297fccaf.jpg [https://germanapparel.co/product/futbolka-tsybulynka/](https://germanapparel.co/product/futbolka-tsybulynka/) --- ## /board/pants-and-cardigan-color-combo # Pants and Cardigan Color Combo 949027e7-d41e-4e7d-9a70-0dc0bc1a06e4.jpg 8071622b-c513-447a-a7bc-e2b429ed6712.jpg Still by Hand. 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Restaurant. Food photo. --- ## /haiku/instagram # Instagram Yoga, meditation. Selfie. Instagram. --- ## /haiku/memory # Memory Parties with cocaine. Sex with alcohol. No one wants to remember. --- ## /haiku/phone # Phone Phone. News. Anxious and foolish. --- ## /haiku/question # Question Going to the home country. Not telling anyone. Guilty or an adult? --- ## /haiku/skype # Skype Skype. Mom and dad. Complaints. --- ## /haiku/society # Society Traditional boring villages. Drunken liberal cities. No one is happy. --- ## /haiku/swear # Swear Dressy beautiful people. Swear, swear, swear. Damaged broken hearts. --- ## /haiku/tesla # Tesla Tesla. Bitcoin. Loneliness. --- ## /haiku/tinder # Tinder Lonely. Tinder. Swipe. --- ## /haiku/youtube # Youtube Alone. Thoughts. Youtube. --- ## /poems/a-little-prayer # A Little Prayer In the senseless world of bigotry and desire we follow leaders we do not admire. We follow people we didn’t elect they abuse our brothers that we cannot protect. We do not pray since there is no one to pray to we do not obey since there are no rules too. But please, do say a little prayer make a small did shed a little tear you’ll be happier a bit. Please do avoid distractions and all angry news do not you live in abstractions and your anxiety will be reduced. Do not try to impress others you’ll only lose yourself and if you do not do that dear there would be no one left. Please always seek the Truth be the best person you can and after each mistake stand up and be a Man. Do not follow trends they will come and go try to make new friends with them, you’ll grow. When using your mind don’t forget about heart try being kind and not hit people hard. Pray, pray, pray dear pray for yourself it all depends on your dear ability to discover sense. --- ## /poems/easy-or-hard # Easy or Hard It’s easy To be busy. It’s hard To be relaxed. It’s easy To be strong. It’s hard To be vulnerable. It’s easy To look right. It’s hard To admit that you were wrong. It’s easy To pretend. It’s hard To be genuine. It’s easy To not care. It’s hard To be into something. It’s easy To stay home. It’s hard To show up. It’s easy To be silent. It’s hard To speak up. It’s easy To talk. It’s hard To listen. It’s easy To be distracted. It’s hard To pay attention. --- ## /poems/farewell # Farewell Hey, why did you do it that way? Why did you have need to betray? You wanted out, and you wanted to be free Why not just ask, why needed you to flee? Why did you blame me for all the things? Why did you cut your own wings? Why didn’t you just stand by me? Why did you kill a kid in me? ——— You wanted drugs, and sex, and love, You wanted all those things above And what about trust my dear? It is indeed is super rare. You hide your wishes by the lie And no, no, no - you can’t deny You didn’t give a single try You made me cry, you made me cry. How can you be so ruthless, dear? How did forget you all that fear? That was denying you to live I stood by you, I was your peer. I trust you made correct decision, You liberated self, I wish you well I will not be sad, and I will not dwell The life will not stop for me as well. Enjoy, my dear, your new freedom. Enjoy it, cause I paid the price. Avoid the sadness and the boredom. I’ve paid for it exactly twice. Of course, of course, you are not a devil, But you did hit me in the middle of the heart, Of course, that wasn’t purely evil But you did tear myself apart. There is not much left to say, All I can do is pray, pray, pray. Pray for my heart, my strength, my life, Of course, because I’ve lost a wife. --- ## /poems/hold-me-on # Hold Me On Look inside for all the answers Look inside for all the questions At the end of the day they are the same And they are all inside you No one will answer for you No one will point out the questions That make you tick It’s all simple, this is the ultimate trick Woke up and start your day Look inside and please do pray Wash your face and meditate That is how energy will radiate Listen to music that makes you not numb Dance a few dances that make your alive Read only books that don’t make you dumb Listen to people who know how to love Allow yourself to feel the anger Allow yourself to feel the love Allow yourself to be sad But don’t go with that feeling to bed Allow your tears to drop in buckets Allow you smiles to fly like rockets Allow your sadness to absorb you Allow your love to do that too Don’t block. Don’t block. Don’t block. Allow yourself to feel anything. Allow yourself to think anything. Allow yourself to be anything. You are a hero. You’ll always be. You are a child. You’ll always be. --- ## /poems/love-letter # Love Letter You are the best there is. You inspire me. You show me what is possible. You give me hope. I appreciate your diversity. I like your complexity. You lift me up. But you also make me melodramatic. You recharge me. But you also make me sensitive. How come I always breath better with you? But also cry a lot when here? My lungs and chest are bigger, But I also feel smaller at the same time. I feel myself an individual But also as a part of something bigger. You are so diverse. You are so complex, yet simple. You show me all the different sides of what it means to be human. You are not perfect. There are so many cracks and so many problems. But that is exactly what attracts me to you. You are humane. You are not trying to be something you are not. Self-awareness is what makes you great. You are so many different pieces and parts, But you also whole. Everyone can find something in you for themselves. You can attract and heal everyone. I feel creative, I feel overwhelmed. I feel tired and energized. I feel small and big. Happy and sad. You are always there for me, I love you, New York. --- ## /poems/reminder # Reminder Neither a rich person, nor a poor. Neither an artist, nor an engineer. Neither a mother of a child, nor a single man. Neither a senior adult, nor a teenager. Neither a party girl, nor a bookworm. Neither a people person, nor a hermetic introvert. Neither a successful business owner, nor a homeless hippie. Neither a professor, nor a thug. Neither a Casanova, nor a virgin. Neither a monk, nor a city lover. Neither a globe trotter, nor a villager. Neither a President, nor a cleaner. No one really knows. --- ## /poems/the-city # The City In the City of Anger I’ll build a City of Love, I’ll never surrender And I’ll build my enclave. Among all that despair, Among hatred and fear I’ll do all repairs, And I’ll plant a new tree. I’ll nourish respect, I’ll escape all anxiety And with my core intact I’ll build new reality. I’ll grow people of peace From the seeds of love, And I’ll ban all injustice From this godly ashram. And that City of Anger is, of course, being me, And that City of Love is the one I want to be. --- ## /poems/to-my-true-friend # To My True Friend You are here You are always here for me No matter what my mood is No matter how I look today I am sad and you are here I am happy and you are here You never judged me You never betrayed I made mistakes. You were patient You never threw a tantrum You never left me You were always open You just waited for me to come You accepted me in my beauty and my weirdness You accepted me in my smartness and my goofiness You accepted me in my best and my worst Through days and nights. How beautiful and sad our relationships are. You made me weird in some ways But I love these quirks in me They always were there But I’m safe having them You saved me multiple times in my life. I owe you so much. You protected me. You are my foundation. You gave me the base on which to start exploration. I feel safe because of you. I’m ready for more. Thank you, my friend. I value you. It will always be like that. --- ## /poems/trust # Trust Why don’t you trust me? Why is your default assumption betrayal? If someone betrayed you doesn’t mean you should stop trusting the world or people. Distrust blocks power and possibility of connection and closeness. It’s a border that should be crossed. It builds the wall which should be broken later. It requires energy that we could spend elsewhere. Why do we start from there? Why can’t you pick another default? When I see that you don’t trust me, I start questioning my trust in you. I become suspicious. I start questioning your decision-making and your values. If betraying someone is so easy in your mind, I really start to worry that you can do it. And it drives us further away. Stop doing it. Why are you so angry? I thought that pain will make you kind and expose to love. Why do you bite? What did I do to you? I don’t want to play this catchup game gain. I don’t want to prove my intentions. It is boring. And words don’t mean a lot in those conversations. Actions are much more important. Please change your defaults. I beg you. All this anger. I’m getting scared. I know the reasons for it, of course. I know those are just emotions. And that they are temporary. But they still have an impact on me. I heard you wanted me to suffer just because you felt in danger. This worries me. You instinct reaction was to hurt me, But the source of your pain had nothing to do with me. It was all inside you and your past. I’m afraid. I can see this fire off in the future when I’m not ready. I see how you could act immediately under the emotions. How you would hit me in my weakest spot. This escalates quickly. Trust breeds trust. Distrust breeds distrust. It’s hard to build anything valuable on such foundation. I’ve been there. I don’t want to be afraid to speak up my mind. I don’t want to censor myself to prevent your emotions and actions that follow from that. I want safety. I want to know that it is safe for me to speak. That my words will not cause you to act and make me suffer. I want to talk to you the same way I talk to myself. That is my ultimate goal. That is what I’m looking for. This is the ultimate intimacy. --- ## /poems/truth # Truth Foolish me. I thought I knew a thing. Of course that arrogance comes with age and ego. Foolish me. I thought I knew what life is. Of course, I didn’t. How could I? Living in a head Would not provide an answer. The same is right for living in a world. The Truth is always in the balance. It’s not here, and it’s not there. It hides every time you try to grasp it. It’s like a quark, It’s opposite of what you just learned. It jumps around the corner, It hides from you, And you always try to seek it. It’s a phantom, It’s a ghost that can’t bee seen. The moment you grab it it evaporates. And you need to start from scratch. The Truth can’t be described, It can’t be said in words. It’s bigger than that. It’s like a God, or better, like water That you want to take with your bare hands. You feel it, you are on the grasp of it, And then it’s gone. It might become ice or become a cloud. It will be the source of life for flower or a tree, for fox or for a bee. But you would never be able to grasp the whole complexity of this. How can water do this? It will always be a speechless miracle. Water can be calm or powerful, The same is true for the Truth. It holds every thing. It holds polarities. It contains Universe. Sadness and happiness. Joy and sorrow. The Truth even contains falseness and lie. Catching the Truth is like catching a bird by the tail. --- ## /poems/where-are-you # Where Are You? Where are you Neil? Where are you Václav? If you couldn’t enlighten everyone then Who would do it now? Who is even concerned nowadays with humanity? Professors, presidents, directors. They have no vision and no wisdom. They do not seek knowledge And do not love people. They do not enjoy life And don’t believe everyone should either. Who would guide us? We have your books and we have memories. But we are weak and often distracted. What is the source for our strength? How do we start reading again? Instead of repressing our anxieties and fears with alcohol and media? How did you find the strength? What brought your love? How do we find unity? How do we find motivation? We are good only for consumption these days. It sucks everything out of us. It dumbs us and we are too weak and lazy to resist. Please, send us your strength. How did you go against ignorance and systems? Where did you get that energy? Who fed your dreams? We don’t have any of them anymore. Weak, dreamless, anxious, isolated creatures. We only have vague memories of the great heroes. We are in pain. Maybe this will unite us? Maybe our pain will create collective love? And love would give us energy. And with energy we will seek wisdom. --- ## /poems/women # Women Woman, Why did you do that? I’ve been by your side all my life. I saw your tears. I wanted to protect you from men. How stupid was I. I despised men and adored you. First as a mother. As a friend, As a partner, As a lover. But every time you betrayed me, woman. You didn’t need my protection. You didn’t care about me or value me. You betrayed me and hurt me every single time. And when you came back it was all too late. Part of me was dead. As a mother you abandoned me. I needed your protection in those rare moments. But you didn’t care. As a friend and lover you always went somewhere else. You thought that I’m unbreakable and that you’ll always be able to return. Woman, why can’t you see? I have feelings. As any other man. It’s you who made me tough and emotionally inaccessible. I became tough not because of men, but because of you. You forced me to close my heart more and more with each year. You blamed masculine nature for inaccessibility. But wasn’t you the one with whom I grew up? The one I went to school with and spend my adolescence and first adult years. You were the mother. You were the friend. Your were the partner. You were the lover. There are no one to blame for that. Not a mystical nature of men. I didn’t grow up on a tree. I was abandoned and forced to close my heart. You numbed me. And only understanding of life itself can help to revitalize me. Woman, I know what life is. I’ll revive my heart and show you real love. Love that comes from knowing what is pain. The love that is non-judgmental and unconditional. Woman, you’ll see. Past is the fuel for the love. The one who was really hurt can’t hurt no one. Woman, you are like Mother Nature. Loving and deep and encompassing. But you are destructive force too. You are a hurricane, you are plague, you are tsunami. You give life but you can take it too. This is my pledge. I finally see the duality of life. I see the need for both sexes. I see the duality of each sex. And I see all of what there is inside myself. --- ## /readings/12-rules-for-life # 12 Rules for Life Jordan B. Peterson has a bad reputation these days. I'm not sure I like him as a person, but I found it interesting to listen to his lectures or read this book. Book is too long however, can be two times shorter. --- ## /readings/a-guide-to-the-good-life # A Guide to the Good Life Great book. Recommended by a friend. Enjoyed it very much. It was my intro into stoicism. --- ## /readings/a-kidnapped-west # A Kidnapped West Collection of essays. Made an impression on me when I first read it in 2023. Need to reread. --- ## /readings/a-little-history-of-philosophy # A Little History of Philosophy Great book as intro into philosophy. I think these types of books work for me very well. --- ## /readings/all-about-love # All About Love I've read 60% of the book in June 2019, and the rest in Feb 2020. I think the book is interesting. But I don't think I learned anything groundbreaking. I found Erich Fromm book on love to be way better. This one had several problems: it was messy and entangled multiple topics: feminism, love, American society, death, religion etc. I felt that author described too much of her personal experiences and I felt that she wasn't over a lot of them So those two problems made this book not that good. It didn't feel fully objective, because a lot of points were connected to personal stories with not fully processed emotions. Connection between feminism/machismo and love was not clear. I was just reading a bunch of random ideas combined together. I found a lot of stereotypes described to be far from true in my personal life experience. Also, I'm writing this review in 2020. I think it's a first time I'm afraid to be truly open about parts I didn't like, even if there were a lot of parts I liked in the book. --- ## /readings/a-man-without-a-country # A Man Without a Country My first book from Vonnegut. I might read more of his novels now. I like the style. --- ## /readings/a-moveable-feast # A Moveable Feast I’ve read many books from Hemingway in my late teens and early twenties. --- ## /readings/anarchy-in-the-ukr # Anarchy in the Ukr My first book from Zhadan. I like his poetry and songs, but I didn't like novel at all. Maybe I didn't understand it, but for me a lot of scenes from this book were too painful to read but it seemed like Zhadan romanticized his experiences and stories. Things that I wanted to forget from my past - those are the things that he cherished. As I said, maybe I misunderstood him, but book didn't meet my expectations. --- ## /readings/answered-prayers # Answered Prayers I used to love Capote a lot. I've read a lot of him in my early twenties. It's nice to find something from him that I haven't read. --- ## /readings/apropos-of-nothing # Apropos of Nothing Autobiography from my one of my favorite director. Very honest. Also stating this publicly in America in 2021 is a challenge in itself. --- ## /readings/a-world-of-three-zeros # A World of Three Zeros Somehow I just learned about Muhammad Yunus. He is a true inspiration now. I can't believe he was focusing on poverty, unemployment and environment for so many years before it became mainstream. And it seems like he developed new models for enterprises before anyone else. --- ## /readings/bertrand-russells-best # Bertrand Russell's Best I’ve only discovered Bertrand Russell in 2016. He immediately became an inspiration. --- ## /readings/black-skin-white-masks # Black Skin, White Masks Great book, one of the most profound I’ve read in the last few years. Cannot write detailed analysis because of the times we live in. But I loved it a lot. Personal stories were the best for me. Had a lot of reflections. --- ## /readings/boleyn-boy-my-autobiography # Boleyn Boy: My Autobiography Simple read. Great book for every West Ham fan. Read an account of all that happened to West Ham for the past 18 years. Book has a very nostalgic feel to it. --- ## /readings/brave-new-world # Brave New World Great dystopia written in early XX century. Surprisingly the world in the last 30 years become very close to the one described by Huxley. The best book that explains Brave New World is Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. --- ## /readings/building-a-bridge-to-the-18th-century # Building a Bridge to the 18th Century Manifest of humanity for humanity from Neil Postman. He shares his few big with ideas us. The first one is the idea of introspection and reflection; that is the idea of being mindful when evaluating life, decisions, tools, words, behaviors of ours and others. The second idea is the idea of finding the new narrative; that is a meta-purpose to our lives and the existence of humankind. He hints that idea of continuity of human race, which can be achieved through understanding of oneness between not only human beings but between humans and Nature, may be the answer. Idea of continuity should transcend one's life (everyone should become "smaller") and time (we should be fill continuity with the greats of the past and future). The third big idea is the idea of importance of history. Postman demonstrates by example how history might have not only origins for our problems but also ideas how to solve them. History is a tool that scales down time, that is making us smaller, and allows us to see bigger picture and have bigger ideas. The fourth big idea and hope from Postman is to show us that we can change things. He shows that ideas were created and implemented by real people. He suggests that we shouldn't blindly follow the flow of history, because there is no such flow. We should alter it (at the capacities available to humans) based on the values and idea we believe in. The final idea is the idea of choosing correct tools and frameworks. He suggests Scientific method to us. In his book he tries to provide us with good tools that help us evaluate everything else. Neil Postman's book is a work of ultimate importance in the post-modern world. The absence of the Narrative, forgetfulness of smaller good ideas and lots of ideals causing some lack of belief in the bright future. Postman, as a true philosopher, tries to use his intellect, following the tradition of Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Hume, Jefferson, and others, to give us practical examples how we can change things for the better. — Think, for example, of how words "community" and "conversation" are now employed by those who use the Internet. I have the impression that "community" is now used to mean, simply, people with similar interests, a considerable change from an older meaning: A community is made up if people which may not have similar interests but who must negotiate and resolve their differences for the sake of social harmony... As to "conversation", two (or more) people typing messages to each other are engaged in activity quite different from what is usually called a conversation. [#conversation](/tags/conversation) [#community](/tags/community) [#language](/tags/language) [#words](/tags/words) [#meaning](/tags/meaning) — Every culture lives within its dream. @Lewis Mumford [#culture](/tags/culture) [#dream](/tags/dream) — What does Lord require of thee but do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with The God. @prophet Micah [#god](/tags/god) — The opposite of a correct statement is an incorrect statement, but the opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth. [#truth](/tags/truth) [#knowledge](/tags/knowledge) [#wisdom](/tags/wisdom) --- ## /readings/calm # Calm Love idea behind books like this. Important topic, simple language. --- ## /readings/chaos-monkeys # Chaos Monkeys Good read if you want to have some insights about life of startup founder, product manager/engineer in the Silicon Valley. Book has a lot of pretty intimate details and a lot of humor (but not the type I like). The book itself is too long. Easily can be done in 10 blog posts or shorter stories. --- ## /readings/chinas-disruptors # China's Disruptors Great book on the technological developments in China. Learned a lot about Chinese tech companies, the way they started and the way they do business. --- ## /readings/competing-against-luck # Competing Against Luck It was ok. Maybe 2-3 interesting stories, and good examples how to think about Jobs To Be Done. But I think the book can be way shorter. Also, few month later I remember nothing from it. So seems to be not actionable and not relevant for me personally. --- ## /readings/conscientious-objections # Conscientious Objections Collection of essays on different topics from education, childhood, politics, technology, television etc. Postman, as always, provides insights into our culture (mostly American) and suggests some practical ideas how to prevent negative ongoing trends. As always he uses wisdom of sages, thinkers, writers, and philosophers from the past to help us understand current social issues. His essays and observations draw a picture of quite sad future. A lot of this predications are already fulfilled, so Postman is unfortunately was very accurate in them which he poses as warnings for us. However, what I liked about this book is that he tries to stay optimistic. He reminds us that civilized society is very vulnerable and we should pay attention to dangers. And he tries to provide us with a mindset how to do just that. --- ## /readings/educated # Educated Extraordinary book recommended by a friend. It’s a first book that I was able to actually finish since the big war in Ukraine started in February 2022. The book started very difficult for me. There were many scary little stories of physical accidents. I expected things to go more and more terrible (physically) for the author during her childhood. In my personal life I’m more scared of physical damage caused by other people. Somehow, I feel like I can withstand psychological. It’s tough, but it always feels that as long as I’m physically healthy I can work on psychological and mental state. So reading the book I was worried that more and more physical abuse would follow. This worrying made reading of this book a bit stressful. But to be honest, I don’t want to reflect on the topic of family or psychological challenges here. Just read a book, and my own reflections I will document sometime later. What surprised me in this book was how simultaneously similar and foreign Tara’s background was to my own. She grew up in the rural religious America. Which was million miles away from the America of New York City or Los Angeles. The same was true for me growing up in rural Ukraine. London, NYC - those places were so far and unattainable to me as a child. But what surprised me was the definition of poorness. As per her description she grow up poor and without much money - which is true when she compared herself to her peers. But when I was reading this descriptions I still cannot believe how much money she and her family had. They had many cars and could afford many things. Even Tara herself started working part time when she was 16 and she has hundreds of dollars for herself. She went to college with 1200 dollars when she was 17(or some similar age) - for her it was very little amount of money. But for me having 1200 when I was 17 was impossible dream. I had no tools to earn so much money back then. I think those differences were the things that I was thinking in the background. How many things are not absolute but relative. Like, tara compared herself to her peers and she was poor and unlucky. And I was reading her account and keep thinking - materially she was pretty well off. --- ## /readings/four-futures # Four Futures Surprisingly good book. Clever idea to outline several possible future scenarios. Mad Max one was the one I didn't like for sure. This book made me watch the movie. --- ## /readings/goodbye-eastern-europe # Goodbye, Eastern Europe Good book on the history of Eastern Europe. Enjoyed it, but some things that I didn't like: * too much focus on magic. It felt like Eastern Europe was the land from Magical Realism novels or the place from Kusturica films. The place where people believed in the power of saints, magic and weird things and not in science, logic, commerce and any other attributes of modern world. I like the stories author add in. I didn't like many stories that were left: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostarbeiter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostarbeiter), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executed_Renaissance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executed_Renaissance) and so on. * Some of "struggles" felt too dramatic in the book, especially comparing to the issues in the neighboring countries just decade before or after. * Also didn't enjoy how author randomly chose spelling for Ukrainian cities: Lviv, Kharkiv had proper Ukrainian spelling, Kyiv and Odesa had a russian one and Ternopil had Polish one. Details matter. Especially in the book about history. In general the book is good. It can be better. But what I realized that it's almost impossible to had amazing book on history. --- ## /readings/how-charts-lie # How Charts Lie Good, simple book. Not very technical. High level overview type of book. --- ## /readings/inadvertent # Inadvertent Way better book than I expected. Lots of references to other writers: Kundera, Proust etc. References to authors personal emotional struggles: fear of death, insecurities in career, desire to be seen etc. Seemed very honest and open and I love that. --- ## /readings/leading # Leading Good book. Has few funny stories. Especially was impressed by West Ham relegation one, when Man Utd came back to London after FA Cup defeat (and insults from West Ham fans), won 1:0 and West Ham was relegated at the end of the season. But other than that it was very typical business book written by ghost writer. I would prefer this to be more personal and have less typical leaderships advice. --- ## /readings/marcovaldo # Marcovaldo Nice book of short stories. I've lost this book in Buenos Aires. --- ## /readings/men-without-women # Men Without Women Collection of short stories. They all kind of similar but I liked them and writing style. I am not sure I can relate to the characters much. I think main characters have two things about them: loneliness and sex. I have read it with interest, because I don’t think I have ever met people like that in my own life. --- ## /readings/million-dollar-weekend # Million Dollar Weekend I think the book is ok. I just didn't match with author style/personality, so it was more a "no" for me. But I think content is pretty good. --- ## /readings/never-enough # Never Enough Great book in a sense that it's interesting to read. Reflections are not profound, but I guess they shouldn't be. Andrew is still just 37 and is figuring out his life. But the way he wrote the book was extremely engaging- I finished it in 4 days. I knew part of his story almost from the start, but I definitely didn't realize that only in 9 years he went from agency owner to billionaire while meeting people like Charlier Munger, Warren Buffer, Bill Ackman and Derek Sivers. --- ## /readings/nothing-personal # Nothing Personal Very short. I like it when I've read it. But forgot everything by the time I started writing this review 3 months later. --- ## /readings/poor-charlies-almanack # Poor Charlie’s Almanack Around 2018 I got this book from the library in San Francisco. It is a very popular and famous book in that part of the world. You actually need to wait some weeks in order to get this book from the library. This was 6 years ago, but I didn't read it at the time. Physical design of the book was weird. It was huge with some cartoons. This time I got book and finally was able to read it on my kindle. Book is great. The bad part - editing is not good. For some reason editor inserted himself into the book and wrote bunch of non important words that distract from the thoughts of Munger. It should have been a book of just talks from Charlie. Nothing else. Especially I didn't enjoy reading editor's commentary before each talk selling it to me and promising to make me a better person. Those talks are great. They are written in an old school American way I like. It reminder me of Neil Postman style - educated, respected with many references to the knowledge from the past. > > I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among the “eminent dead,” but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better for you in life and work better in education. It’s way better than just giving the basic concepts. > Love this idea. Similar to what Neil Postman wanted to convey in most of his books. > > Charlie detests placer mining, the process of sifting through piles of sand for specks of gold. Instead, he applies his “big ideas from the big disciplines” to find the large, unrecognized nuggets of gold that sometimes lie in plain sight on the ground. > I like this. Curiosity towards different disciplines always makes sense to me. > > How many insights do you need? Well, I’d argue that you don’t need many in a lifetime. If you look at Berkshire Hathaway and all of its accumulated billions, the top 10 insights account for most of it. > This one reminds me of simple idea I have. People have 2-3 "profound" ideas/insights per life (those ideas that are independently discovered by few people) and around 10 important but regular insights (those are the ones that are independently discovered by many other people). > > When Warren lectures at business schools, he says, “I could improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches, representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime. And once you’d punched through the card, you couldn’t make any more investments at all.” He says, “Under those rules, you’d really think carefully about what you did, and you’d be forced to load up on what you’d really thought about. So you’d do so much better.” > This is a great point about making only few good bets in your life. And measuring them carefully. Very interesting because nowadays we talk a lot about "numbers game", diversification and making tons of small bets. > > I think the reason why we got into such idiocy in investment management is best illustrated by a story that I tell about the guy who sold fishing tackle. I asked him, “My god, they’re purple and green. Do fish really take these lures?” And he said, “Mister, I don’t sell to fish.” > Love this story. It's idiotic ofc but shows how many things we buy because they are shiny. > > Life and its various passages can be hard, brutally hard. The three things I have found helpful in coping with its challenges are: 1. Have low expectations. 2. Have a sense of humor. 3. Surround yourself with the love of friends and family. > Above all, live with change and adapt to it. If the world didn’t change, I’d still have a 12 handicap. > I definitely believe in low expectations and humor and the idea of constant change. > > Psychology, to me, as currently organized, is like electromagnetism after [Michael] Faraday but before Maxwell—a lot has been discovered, but no one mind has put it all together in proper form. And it should be done because it wouldn’t be that hard to do—and it’s enormously important. > Just open a psychology text, turn to the index, and look up envy. Well, envy made it into one or two or three of the Ten Commandments. Moses knew all about envy. The old Jews, when they were herding sheep, knew all about envy. It’s just that psychology professors don’t know about envy. Books that thick are teaching a psychology course without envy? And with no simple psychological denial? And no incentive-caused bias? > Excellent point on what is missing from the modern psychology. > > It can’t be emphasized too much that issues of morality are deeply entwined with worldly wisdom considerations involving psychology. For example, take the issue of stealing. A very significant fraction of the people in the world will steal if a) it’s very easy to do and b) there’s practically no chance of being caught. And once they start stealing, the consistency principle—which is a big part of human psychology—will soon combine with operant conditioning to make stealing habitual. So if you run a business where it’s easy to steal because of your methods, you’re working a great moral injury on the people who work for you. Again, that’s obvious. It’s very, very important to create human systems that are hard to cheat. Otherwise, you’re ruining your civilization, because these big incentives will create incentive-caused bias and people will rationalize that bad behavior is okay. Then, if somebody else does it, now you’ve got at least two psychological principles: incentive-caused bias plus social proof. Not only that but you get Serpico effects: If enough people are profiting in a general social climate of doing wrong, then they’ll turn on you and become dangerous enemies if you try and blow the whistle. It’s very dangerous to ignore these principles and let slop creep in. Powerful psychological forces are at work for evil. > Love this mix between explaining stealing from the business, morality and psychology. --- ## /readings/propaganda # Propaganda Year ago I watched amazing documentary by Adam Curtis called [The Century of Self](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self). Nephew of Sigmund Freud - Edward Bernays - was a villain in that documentary. I've got chills when I saw him talking about propaganda and marketing. This year I decided to read Bernays' book and I must say that I was very surprised. After reading his own words - he doesn't seem to be this evil person who "made women smoke." He seemed smart, ahead of his time, had concerns about misuse of propaganda/PR/marketing. But he said that there is no guarantee against misuse. And it makes sense to me as technologist. It is exactly the same with technology - can be used for good or for bad. --- ## /readings/stubborn-attachments # Stubborn Attachments Learned about common sense morality and pluralism. Utilitarianism and consequentialism were also new things. Author has vision of the world he wants to live in, but it is not a strong or beautiful. I like Postman writings way more. But Cowen’s ideas are fine: sustainable growth, care more about future and rely on common sense. --- ## /readings/the-art-of-loving # The Art of Loving Fromm explains different types of love in easy to understand language. I loved this book when I've read it. So small but very dense. --- ## /readings/the-black-swan # The Black Swan Nassim Taleb seems like a very smart person but: * book was extremely long, especially to present one main idea * the style is quite arrogant, which I didn't enjoy at all I liked that he quoted a lot of people in his book, but because of 2 reasons stated above I'm not looking forward to read his other books. It was a very painful experience and took me half a year to finish it. --- ## /readings/the-book-of-laughter-and-forgetting # The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Good book. It feels like if you've read one book from Kundera, you've read all of them. Same techniques, same topics. Mix of philosophy, history of Eastern Europe, reflections about West and sex. --- ## /readings/the-castle # The Castle Storyline was interesting. Sad that the work was never finished. --- ## /readings/the-cold-start-problem # The Cold Start Problem Not the best book. Can be way better. Too much focus on tech bro culture. All I want is short, dry analyses and playbook for building networked products. I don't care about parties things, "inspirational" talks from Travis, meetings in Hayes Valley. --- ## /readings/the-course-of-love # The Course of Love Novel about modern relationships, with all the real challenges and every day issues. I loved the style of the book. It had this one unique trick. After some situation there would be explanation from the author - basically the lesson learned from that particular situation. I loved it, because a lot of fiction works sometimes difficult for me to absorb and extract the lessons. However, beside this clever idea of author’s remarks I don’t think novel worked for me. I wasn’t able to relate to the main male character. --- ## /readings/the-disappearance-of-childhood # The Disappearance of Childhood Great book on history of childhood in general and how the notion of children changes with the environment. --- ## /readings/the-drama-of-the-gifted-child # The Drama of the Gifted Child Recommended by my therapist. Needed to read it and I feel that it was good, but as very common with some types of books one year later I can't tell anything about this one. --- ## /readings/the-dream-machine # The Dream Machine Incredible book. Basically tells the whole history of computing starting from pre-WWII years, through John von Neumann and Alan Turning years, invention of LISP, Arpanet, Xerox PARC, TCP/IP, Unix and interactive computing and finally internet. It just connects all the great people together: Norbert Wiener, von Neumann, Noam Chomsky, JFK, Alan Kay, Vint Cerf, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Steve Jobs, Al Gore. And all connected via work of J. C. R. Licklider. --- ## /readings/the-elephant-in-the-brain # The Elephant in the Brain Book covers very popular topic nowadays. It's an easy enjoyable read. However again, one year later I don't remember anything from it. --- ## /readings/the-emotionally-intelligent-office # The Emotionally Intelligent Office Another great book from The School of Life. As always there was a lot of repetition from other books, but I think that is the point. Reading books from The SoL has soothing effect on me. Calms me down, gives perspective, reduces anxiety. --- ## /readings/the-end-of-education # The End of Education Back to reading Postman after some pause. I always found a lot of optimism in his ideas and his style of communication. He is modern thinker with a lot of ideas and he is not afraid to start discussing them. --- ## /readings/the-farewell-party # The Farewell Party My second novel from Milan Kundera. Plot is engaging. Also was interesting to read an old book that discussed abortion. Abortion is an important topic today in the US. Book reminded me that in the Eastern Europe abortion problem was and still is very different. --- ## /readings/the-great-mental-models # The Great Mental Models Simple book written in simple language. It contained a lot of good stories from the lives of real people in history. The only downside that the book was too small and had too few mental models. --- ## /readings/the-invention-of-nature # The Invention of Nature Good book. Learned a lot about history. The most surprising fact - all the famous people who Alexander von Humboldt met in hist life (and made impact on). --- ## /readings/the-little-book-of-hygge # The Little Book of Hygge Not much to say about this one. Too simple. --- ## /readings/the-little-prince # The Little Prince One of the most beautiful and simple books about life, love, death; about being a child and being an adult; about friendship, people and happiness. When I was in 10th grade at school, I remember the teacher of literature was very enthusiastic about this book. She was telling us about it all the time. I didn't find it interesting back then. I didn't understand the story about little prince, talking foxes, flowers and snakes. Form didn't appeal to me and I probably had nothing to learn from it at that time. This time was different. I would recommend this book to everyone. It's a pure beauty. Just in few pages it shows what is important in life and what is not. --- ## /readings/the-magic-mountain # The Magic Mountain First book from Thomas Mann for me. I discovered for myself new type of novel reading this book. The novel is fictional and tells us a story. But what is more interesting is that Thomas Mann exists in the book himself. He comments on events and characters, he expresses his own subjective judgements in parallel to objectively narrating the story. Author spends a lot of time on side topics: like philosophy, chemistry etc. The bigger topic that crosses the whole book is Mann's philosophical reflections on the topics of time and space. Magic Mountain reminded me of The Dead Souls by Gogol. It is a story with a characters that were mostly unlikable by me, especially at the beginning. Those characters seem to be not the role models, they had problems and some not impressive features. However, book had a lot of different characters, and maybe it was the Mann's point to show us, that no one is ideal in reality. --- ## /readings/the-medium-is-the-massage # The Medium is the Massage Tiny book which is basically collection of quotes and small passages about mediums. Some insights are quite good, but majority are very difficult to decompress and unbundle. --- ## /readings/the-memory-chalet # The Memory Chalet Absolutely love this book. It’s been many years since I’ve read another book from Tony Judt and now I’m confused - why did I take such a long break. The only thing I didn’t like is his idealization of train system in Europe. Idea of trains is amazing, I love it a lot. However in both 2021 and 2022 I tried to travel around Europe by trains and it is not that simple. Connections are easy only between some big hubs. Some countries not connected at all. In some countries trains are extremely expensive - they take more time and more money than flights. Try traveling from Madrid to Lisbon. Or from Kraków to Paris. Or from Spain to Eastern Europe. Or try getting to Slovenia from Poland. Milan to Paris sounds simple - not really, it will cost you fortune even with one stop in Switzerland. Outside this topic of trains if was very interesting to read his ideas on communism, Eastern Europe, French philosophy, New York, identity politics, UK and US, comparison of various education system and different generations. His thinking and writing is so short and sharp. I really like it and reading this book gave me a lot of energy. Ver similar to the period when I was reading Neil Postman books. PS I was blown away that he learned Czech and have met Eastern European icons of the 80-90s like Václav Havel and love that he talked about Czesław Miłosz and Milan Kundera. --- ## /readings/the-mom-test # The Mom Test The best book that I've read about stages of building product that you want someone to use. Very short book and to the point. Shows real examples of the conversations you need to have and real examples of red flags and common issues one might face. [The Mom Test How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you - Notebook.html](readings/051faf4b-e60e-44b2-9f6c-1053dbd57b9a.html) --- ## /readings/the-pocket-dalai-lama # The Pocket Dalai Lama Simple pocket book. Easy read. --- ## /readings/the-power-of-habit # The Power Of Habit Book describes habits of individuals, organizations and societies. It was interesting to read, but at the end I didn't get many insights that would remain with me for a long time. The book easily could have been shorter. --- ## /readings/the-prophet # The Prophet Beautiful book. The one to read multiple times during the life. --- ## /readings/the-russo-ukrainian-war # The Russo-Ukrainian War Good book on the history of the war started by russia. Some things that I didn't like. It's written in the modern Western logical way: describing facts and chronology of the events. It creates perception that there are rational actors taking logical and calculated steps. I do not believe that is the case with russian state. I don't really want a book that says that US did this and russia did that and then Germany did that and putin did that. It makes sense during normal times. But it doesn't work with russia. Because russia already uses the same tool to show that its war is legitimate. It was the tool that russian media and establishment used for several decades - says that all they did was the reaction to the "bad actions of the West". I honestly believe that factual and chronological way to talk about history is good, but shouldn't be used talking about russia. We should use other elements: ridicule, harassment, embarrassment and humiliation. Film The Death of Stalin is a good model how to talk about russian state and the culture - making fun of them. --- ## /readings/the-school-of-life-dictionary # The School of Life Dictionary I want to see more of books like this. Modern definition for words that are important in our everyday lives. --- ## /readings/the-stranger # The Stranger Very unusual book on unusual topic. I guess reminds other works from Camus. --- ## /readings/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being # The Unbearable Lightness of Being First time I've read Kundera. Very engaging read. Storyline was interesting. I enjoyed historical context too. Questions raised in the book were hard. I also liked Kundera's philosophical meditations, that reminded me of Thomas Mann style. Timing was ironic. I've read this book, watched the film and in few months I went through a breakup and divorce (connection between people in real life and some characters in the book was *funny*). --- ## /readings/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-lee-kuan-yew # The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew I love this book. It's just a collection of quotes from Lee Kuan Yew on different topics from 1950s till his death. It's interesting to trace how his views changed during the lifetime. Seems like he has not a good reputation in the West. But in developing countries like Ukraine he is modern role model, because of all the things Singapore achieved in very short span of time. --- ## /readings/to-the-castle-and-back # To the Castle and Back Havel is a role model. He shows us what a public figure, a politician and a citizen can be. He is definitely not afraid to think deeper and to express himself. He is not afraid to formulate unpopular opinions. He tries to understand pluses and minuses of each system. E.x. he is for continuous political integration, but he thinks globalization is a problem. He recognized the pitfalls of both Soviet regime and consumerism society that both causes normalization and standardization of people. It was interesting for me to read his book for several reasons: to learn his story to learn about his thoughts to take a look at his diary The diary of the President was an interesting read on itself. It contained his agenda for a lot of days and it showed him as a real simple very likable human, which is quite opposite of the politicians of the day. Havel wanted to be a role model. He wanted to remind his fellow citizens of better and bigger ideals, he wanted to inspire them to improve. Politicians of today mostly move in opposite direction. They just represent the worst parts of our society and our people. If society is corrupt, politicians are corrupt. If society is uneducated, politicians are profane. — … the injunctions not to steal or kill apply everywhere, and everywhere the moral order is in some way related to the idea of eternity. In any case, it's been shown time and again that without that relationship to eternity, any moral order will always necessary collapse. [#eternity](/tags/eternity) [#morality](/tags/morality) — Uncritical respect is always punished, but it is the object of that respect who is punished, not those who counter it. [#respect](/tags/respect) — ... almost no one has attempted to analyze either the reasons for the mood of antiglobalization or the errors of the INPEG, or the source of the aggressiveness of the aggressors, or the rather sad role played by media in all this. [#media](/tags/media) [#globalization](/tags/globalization) [#aggresion](/tags/aggresion) — Only a fool could believe that the nation, or the whole humanity for that matter, would change overnight and that everyone would start to behave wisely, unselfishly, altruistically, ready to make sacrifices for a good cause. [#idealism](/tags/idealism) [#nations](/tags/nations) [#politics](/tags/politics) [#history](/tags/history) [#changes](/tags/changes) — Perhaps we might all be reassured by the known fact that today's sensation will be completely forgotten by the day after tomorrow and that everyone is already looking forward to the day after tomorrow's sensations. [#media](/tags/media) — In principle ... I believe that there are cases when it is possible and proper to go to the aid of innocent people, even at the cost of violating state sovereignty. In one of the speeches I said: a state is the work of humans, a human being is the work of God. What I meant was that defending human beings is a higher responsibility than respecting the inviolability of a state. [#god](/tags/god) [#war](/tags/war) [#violence](/tags/violence) [#state](/tags/state) [#sovereignty](/tags/sovereignty) [#human](/tags/human) — The absence of standards creates unease even among the most notorious violators. I experienced that in prison. Even the worst criminals would have been very upset if the head of the state were to clearly approve of something criminal. Everyone has to play his own role: it's up to the president to say you shouldn't steal, and it's up to the thief to steal. [#politics](/tags/politics) [#president](/tags/president) [#standard](/tags/standard) — I think that the moral order stands above the legal, political, and economic orders, and that these latter orders should derive from the former, and not be techniques for getting around its imperatives. And I believe that this moral order has a metaphysical authority in the infinite and the eternal. [#morality](/tags/morality) — Sometimes I have the impression that the main ideal of our state is to exploit and disfigure our country to the hilt in the interest of a somewhat problematic consumer paradise for the present generation and to slap the face or kick the shins of anyone who resists this. [#politics](/tags/politics) [#consumerism](/tags/consumerism) — ... we will need a revolution of "heads and hearts," as Masaryk called it, a kind of general awakening, an emphasis on seeking an alternative to the established and shopworn and very technocratic political parties... [#technocracy](/tags/technocracy) [#revolution](/tags/revolution) — … everything that exists has its own purpose and system. We just don't know, and we never will know, how to understand it. But there's probably a reason for that too. [#purpose](/tags/purpose) — .. I genuinely believe that the absolutely fundamental difference between the European tradition and other cultures lies in the different notions of time and that it is fundamental source of the European idea of development and progress. Other cultures, on the contrary, honor the status quo, quietude, leaving things in place, etc., etc. [#West](/tags/West) [#Europe](/tags/Europe) [#time](/tags/time) [#progress](/tags/progress) — Yesterday was the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War... It seems that Putin is treating this anniversary as somewhat of a celebration of himself and his way of governing, which understandably causes some awkwardness. [#putin](/tags/putin) [#ideology](/tags/ideology) — ... I'm convinced that my existence - like everything that has ever happened - has ruffed the surface of Being, and that after my little ripple, however marginal, insignificant, and ephemeral it may have been, Being is and always will be different from what it was before. All my life I have simply believed that what is once done can never be undone and that, in fact, everything remains forever. In short, Being has a memory. And thus even my insignificance - as a bourgeois child, a laboratory assistant, a soldier, a stagehand, a playwright, a dissident, a prisoner, a president, a pensioner, a public phenomenon, and a hermit, an alleged hero but secretly a bundle of nerves - will remain here forever, or rather not here, but somewhere. But not, however, elsewhere. Somewhere here. [#life](/tags/life) [#existence](/tags/existence) [#Being](/tags/Being) — ... man will carry the complete truth about himself to the grave, though someone, in the end, will know that truth after all: if not the Lord God, then at least the great memory of Being. [#god](/tags/god) [#truth](/tags/truth) [#life](/tags/life) [#death](/tags/death) [#Being](/tags/Being) — Under normalization, no one believed in any ideal any longer, and the most successful were simply the most cynical. [#normalization](/tags/normalization) [#ideals](/tags/ideals) [#cynicism](/tags/cynicism) — We live in a world of intermediaries, and intermediaries for intermediaries, in a world of lobbyists, consultants, PR agents. People are paid by others to introduce someone to someone else, who will advise them how to make money on something that someone else has created. How is it possible that our population remains constant and yet we have more and more intermediaries. [#intermediaries](/tags/intermediaries) [#modernity](/tags/modernity) [#intermediation](/tags/intermediation) — People told me exactly what I would later often say to others when trying to draw them into politics: you can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it. [#politics](/tags/politics) — The beauty of language is that it can never capture precisely what it wants. Language is disconnected, hard, digital as it were, ..., it can never completely capture something as connected as reality, experience, or our souls. [#language](/tags/language) [#soul](/tags/soul) — I would like to touch upon three matters: a) the proposed new relationship of the Church to Hus as an act of confessional reconciliation; b) the related idea of the ecumenical future of the world as a way of saving civilization; c) the meaning of the Christmas holidays and the Christmas tree. [#church](/tags/church) — One simple electrician with his heart in the right place can influence the history of his nation. [#impact](/tags/impact) [#history](/tags/history) — I gave a speech in Paris for the representatives of the largest multinational corporations, the actual rules of our current global world. I wrote a pointed speech that was highly critical of the behavior of global corporations, of their unscrupulousness, of the growing uniformity of the world, of the omnipresent dictatorship of advertisements, of profit, and so on. [#postmodernity](/tags/postmodernity) — ...in democratic conditions ... it's important that politics be more than just a technology of power, but that it provides a genuine service to citizens, a service that is as disinterested as possible, based on certain ideals, a service that follows the moral order that stands above us, that takes into account the long-term interest of human race and not just what appeals to the public at any given moment ... That doesn't mean that politics must surrender all its ideals, deny its "heart", and become a mere self-propelled, technocratic process... [#politics](/tags/politics) [#humanity](/tags/humanity) [#morality](/tags/morality) [#technocracy](/tags/technocracy) — Mainly, though, despite all the things that so upset us today, conditions now are incomparably better than they were under communism. Moreover, the country is part of such a solid system of international relationships and guarantees that any form of subjugation coming from outside now seems virtually out of the questions. I think that we have never in our entire dramatic history, enjoyed this kind of certainty before. [#communism](/tags/communism) — When I said that we would no longer be a satellite but a partner, Gorbachev had an interesting reaction. He said that "satellite" was a very strong and inaccurate word, but that he would forgive me for using such a colorful expression because I was a literary man. And I said to myself, so this is how history is made. [#history](/tags/history) [#politics](/tags/politics) [#USSR](/tags/USSR) — I think that it's a sad thing that the parties, rather than thinking about which system is best for the country, always think first of all which system is best for them at a particular time. Consequently their positions on referenda, the direct election of the president, the electoral system, and similar themes are constantly changing, or rather, being passed from party to party like a relay baton. [#systems](/tags/systems) [#long-term](/tags/long-term) — What bothered me most, however, was the fact that I found a lack of conceptual vision, not only in the economy, but in our very understanding of what the state should be. "The invisible hand of the market" was supposed to take care of everything, but there are things it simply can't take care of, and I would even say that this glorious "invisible hand" is occasionally capable of committing highly visible crimes. [#market](/tags/market) [#capitalism](/tags/capitalism) [#concepts](/tags/concepts) — In subtle ways, the economic power links up with political power and the power of the media to create something once called Mafia-democracy. [#power](/tags/power) — ... modern media often lives from one day to the next, from one flashy headline to the next, so it's no surprise that they can be so mesmerized by today that they forget about yesterday. I would even go so far as to say that the media often behave like a willfull little girl; for instance, as I write this, the Czech Republic has a prime minister whom a media turned into the most popular man in the country by far for quite a while, and then recently, in a matter of days, they turned him into the most hated. Neither view had much to do with his real qualities, good or bad. [#media](/tags/media) [#headlines](/tags/headlines) — But America is a rather odd country. It's very religious, and at the same time it allows the broadcast of the pope's funeral t be interrupted by advertisements, many of which were the direct embodiment of what he had criticized fir his entire life. I found it truly hard to understand, and it made me more and more uncomfortable, until I finally switched the television off. [#television](/tags/television) [#America](/tags/America) — ... I think that the creation of a new political world order requires that special attention to be paid to the problem of borders between individual spheres of civilization, a problem that can be solved only if the spheres that are momentarily wealthier cease to consider themselves superior to those that are momentarily poorer. [#long-term](/tags/long-term) [#politics](/tags/politics) [#order](/tags/order) — I think that politicians in office have a duty to work for peace and for a better and more just world; you might say that's what they're paid for and so it's better that the prize go to someone who works for good cause voluntarily, and possibly at great risk. [#politics](/tags/politics) [#volunteering](/tags/volunteering) [#awards](/tags/awards) — It was a black congregation. There was a tremendous sense of community. They sang magnificently and, in a kind of ecstasy, communicated not only with their Cristian God, but through him perhaps with all the deities that humankind has ever had. The atmosphere of friendship, mutual respect, and solidarity was fascinating. [#America](/tags/America) [#god](/tags/god) [#community](/tags/community) — How wonderful it is, by comparison, to be a writer! You write something in a couple of weeks, and it's here for ages. What will remain when presidents and prime ministers are gone? Some references to them in textbooks, most likely inaccurate. [#writing](/tags/writing) — I am secure in my independence and therefore feel no need to demonstrate it. [#independence](/tags/independence) [#safety](/tags/safety) [#confidence](/tags/confidence) — Life is beautiful because, among other things, it is unpredictable and you can never be completely prepared for what comes along. [#life](/tags/life) — A country that finds itself at a historical crossroads must have an idea of what it is, of its possibilities, of what it wishes to be, of what role it wants to play, of what it will put its money on, and, on the contrary, what it will try to avoid. This view must be partly the outcome of the very broad and practical discussion that draws on a variety of expert analyses, and it must reach beyond the limits of individual political programs or electoral mandates. [#history](/tags/history) [#elections](/tags/elections) [#state](/tags/state) [#nations](/tags/nations) [#vision](/tags/vision) — I would develop the idea that it is we ourselves who are undermining our own identity - by the terrible way we speak, the appaling architecture we put up, our lack of respect for the landscape and historical buildings, our dubious urbanization, the way we've given up on the plurality of trades and small businesses, the depopulation of the countryside, the construction of ever greater monuments to consumption without increasing the productivity and efficiency of our own industries or making a sophisticated attempts to market our own products... We are becoming just another globalized country. [#identity](/tags/identity) [#globalization](/tags/globalization) [#taste](/tags/taste) [#consumption](/tags/consumption) — I could well image crowds of populists, demagogues, nationalists, and post-communists who would exploit every delay to argue, with increasing urgency, that the arrogant, consumerist, and selfish West neither recognized us nor wanted us, and therefore we must go our own way. Let us understand what that way would have entailed: it would have meant authoritarian governments flying, instead of abandoned red flag, the flag of nationalism, beneath which it would hide its own Mafia-like practices, and privatization of everything into its own hands. And reawakened nationalism would necessary lead to a new danger of confrontation. Nationalists may well be as alike as two peas in a pod, but this doesn't necessary lead to brotherhood; on the contrary: nationalist ideologies are essentially confrontational. [#communism](/tags/communism) [#populism](/tags/populism) [#nationalism](/tags/nationalism) [#demagogue](/tags/demagogue) — It seems to me that Europe is in danger of losing its spiritual dimension in a flood of trivial concerns, such as what kind of tariffs ought to be imposed. It's as though some fundamental discourse about the direction of the world today were lacking, a discourse about the dangers inherent in that direction, and the role that this unique community of nations can play against this planetary background. [#Europe](/tags/Europe) — ... European Union today is letting itself be dragged, with no resistance, in the same general direction as the rest of global civilization; it's driven by the idea of growth, the creation of profit at any price, development and prosperity, although unfortunately utterly one-dimensional... Europe could be an inspiration, an example of how to try to think not only of quantity but also of quality, how not to think merely about momentary short-term material success but also about qualitative, indirect, long-term success, to revive the tradition of responsibility for the world that its culture once helped to articulate. [#profit](/tags/profit) [#Europe](/tags/Europe) [#growth](/tags/growth) [#short-term](/tags/short-term) — ... at moments it's almost impossible to know whether you're in an airport in Tokyo, a hotel lobby in Los Angeles, or a hypermarket on the outskirts of Prague. The pressure towards soulless uniformity that is perceptible everywhere today - despite the seemingly endless array of choices among a seemingly infinite array of products pretending to be different from one another - poses a great threat to all forms of uniqueness. Without even being aware of it we are subtly made more alike... [#globalization](/tags/globalization) [#sameness](/tags/sameness) [#normalization](/tags/normalization) [#uniformity](/tags/uniformity) — I am an opponent of every obsession, because I consider obsessions the most dangerous of social phenomena. Thus I am also an opponent of market fundamentalism and dogmatism... But the law of profit does not guarantee anything meaningful in itself. I mention it here because market dogmatism is the part of ideology of "standardness"... I really don't know why I should, on the basis of injunction from on high, choose a standard wife, a standard flat, amass money and material goods in the standard way, and think in a standard fashion. [#obsession](/tags/obsession) [#market](/tags/market) [#normalization](/tags/normalization) [#dogmatism](/tags/dogmatism) [#money](/tags/money) --- ## /readings/treatise-on-modern-stimulants # Treatise on Modern Stimulants Very short and simple book. Didn't find a lot of interesting things when read. However, I think it's an interesting book to be written at 1839. Also the topic is as relevant as always and insights are true and common knowledge now. --- ## /readings/true-stories # True Stories Never heard of Sophie Calle. Read this tiny book in 1 hour. Simple style, some stories are funny. I think every person should have book like that. Collection of small stories and memories. --- ## /readings/utopia-for-realists # Utopia for Realists Great book. Written is the exact form I like: several ideas explained in an approachable way with a lot of supporting quotes and materials. Size was perfect too. It was an inspirational one, so it appealed both to mind and emotions. --- ## /readings/volyn # Volyn My second novel from Samchuk. Very engaging. --- ## /readings/we-are-all-weird # We Are All Weird I like Seth, but this is blog post type of book: easy and disposable reading. --- ## /readings/we-should-all-be-feminists # We Should All Be Feminists Great, short book. Doesn't go super deep into the details, but contains some personal stories and simple explanations of the issues. --- ## /readings/what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think # What Do You Care What Other People Think? Loved this. It’s been a few years since I’ve read “Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!” which I loved a lot. I really like many qualities from Feynman. No bullshit, curiosity, optimism, very little levels of hypocrisy, desire to work and learn and improve stuff, sense of humor, playfulness and humility. Humility is the big one. This book is important that there are tons of cool qualities a person might have and it takes a lifetime to nurture or develop or uncover or protect them. --- ## /readings/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-running # What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Very personal memoir by Haruki Murakami that covers 30 something years of his life: after he became a writer and started to run. Few interesting things that I noticed: ### Murakami shows his struggles with getting older. Aging is such an important topic that touches everyone often not talked about. Seeing your result getting worth with age is a good way to be aware of time in life. It keeps you focused on the crucial thing and helped you appreciate life. ### Better perspective for the duration of human life He became a writer after being 33 years old. He sold his bar, quit smoking, changed his diet, started writing and running. The best part of the life for him began after he became true to himself in the mid-30s. ### Life is the process of knowing himself better Knowing what he likes, what is crucial for him. His focus is on internal matters and not external things. He decides to spend as much time with people he likes and avoid people he dislikes. He is not competitive because for him competitiveness is about looking outward not inward. ### Everything worthy in life requires a big effort. He shows how setting up routine and rules for himself was paramount. --- ## /readings/where-does-the-world-goes # Where does the World Goes? One day read. Good book for Ukrainian market but not a break through global-wise. --- ## /readings/zero-to-one # Zero to One Peter Thiel is of course a controversial figure but the book is great. The best part for me was to learn about optimism of people in the 60s and how that changed few generations later. --- ## /readings/zizeks-jokes # Žižek's Jokes Good idea for a pocket book. Just a collection of jokes for an easy weekend read. --- ## /readings/zabuttia # Забуття Good book. Loved the idea of combining two parallel stories: one about author’s life and one about real historical figure of Ukrainian struggles for independence in the early years of XX century. I have never heard about Viacheslav Lypinsky before, so that was good education for me. --- ## /readings/misto # Місто The good part that this book surprised me again. In Feb 2020 I've read book by Mykola Khvylovy. This one was similar - same generation of Ukrainian authors during the early days of Soviet Union. Topic was modern, language was modern. What I didn't like was the main character. I don't even understand if author likes him or not. He confused me. Maybe that is the whole point? Are all of us unlikable? No, proper heroes and characters in real life. Just random creatures, with random feelings and decisions and actions. --- ## /readings/neprosti # Непрості Very unusual book. I think author tried to write in the style of magical realism. Very close to *One Hundred Years of Solitude* same side topics: magic, incest, multi generational plot lines, some real historical events and real places. So when I was reading it I didn't have a feeling of something novel. Rather it felt like a copy of someone else style. But I like the production: very nice paper, nice illustrations. Very unusual book from the Ukrainian author for the Ukrainian market. I read it just after [Ловець Океану](/readings/lovets_okeanu) and I don't know if it's coincidence or something bigger but the focus on sexual fantasies from both authors made me think a bit. I don't see this topic appear that much in the English novels I read. --- ## /readings/sentymentalna-istoriia # Сентиментальна історія Small book with three short stories. First one was *Сентиментальна історія* - I hated it. The language used was strange, the topic was strange, the ending was sad. Very nihilistic story. It was the first one I've read from Khvylovy since school. I didn't understand what is all this hype about him being the best writer of that generation. But then I've read two other short stories *Іван Іванович* and *Вальдшнепи* - that was very different level of writing. Very modern - author was present himself, similar to Thomas Mann. The style was funny and brave. And the story line is interesting. Reading these two stories I realized why he was killed by Soviets. Romantic person who supported Revolution and socialism but in 10 years of Soviet rule got disillusioned. He even called out Stalin in *Іван Іванович*. What a brave act. That couldn't only end in the death of the author during the red terror. --- ## /readings/tserebro # Церебро Easy, entertaining read. Some stories were extremely funny. But I will not remember anything about this book in few weeks. It’s a collection of very short life stories. --- ## /rozmovy/vrazryvist # Вразривість Будь вразливим. Виглядати сильним може кожен. Але сила розділяє нас. Будь вразливим. Це об’єднує. У всіх є проблеми, Страхи, недоліки, Дитячі травми, Образи, трагедії та помилки дорослого життя. Сила ізолює тебе. Залишає тебе наодинці з усім цим. Будь вразливим. Тобі буде легше. Показуй свою слабкість людям. Показуй свіх біль. Показуй свої сльози. Цe змінить усе. Прийде легкісь та теплота. Ми розуміємо один одного Не через досягнення. Ми розуміємо один одного Через страхи та біль. Ділись цим І все відкриється. З’являться усмішки добра Та сльози легкості. Будь вразливим. Це і є бути людиною. Ми не машини, ми не роботи. Ми зламані діти Зі шрамами від дорослого життя. Але в цьому наша чарівність, наша людяність. --- ## /rozmovy/dytynstvo # Дитинство Твоє дитинство пояснює все Всі таємниці та загадки ведуть туди. Я бачу в твоєму тілі багато напруги, тебе недостатньо обіймали дитиною? Я бачу ти читаєш багато. Намагалася втікти з реальності у вигадані світи? Врятуватися, тому що все було занадто важко для десятирічної дитини? Я бачу як швидко та якісно працює твій мозок. Як чудово він вміє аналізувати та знаходити рішення. Твоє оточення було беспомічним, чи не так? Я бачу, тобі важко даються спогади. Нічого згадати за перші 16 років життя, чи твоя підсвідомість блокує думки про ті події та те оточення? О, я бачу яка чиста твоя мова! Ти - протилежність свого дитячого середовища. Ти хочеш бути інакшою, кращою. Тому що ти бачила, що старі моделі не працюють. Там немає щирості, розуміння чи любові. Тому ти пробувала робити все інакше, часто навпаки. Я дякую тобі за це. Ти не любиш повертатися туди де ти виросла? А як могло бути інакше, ти хотіла вирватись. Нічого не виросте на тій землі, коріння давно прогнило. Ти шукаєш нового місця для себе. Місце з твоїми ідеалами, з мріями, з підтримкою, з чесністю, з оптимізмом, з емоціями, з якістю, з турботою, з бажаннями та прагненнями, з цікавістю та відкритістю, з різноманітністю та з повагою. Але повернутися доведеться також, хоча б тимчасово. Для примирення і прийняття, для кращого розуміння себе. Але це буде пізніше, не хвилюйся про це. Розкажи мені свої історії. Я поділюся своїми. Це допомагає. Все стає легше, ці історії стануть смішними, повір. Ти не будеш розуміти як таке могло відбутися насправді. Скоро прийде легкість. Але спочатку трохи сліз та злості. Це нормально, відпусти --- ## /rozmovy/dotyk # Дотик Доторкнись Мені потрібен твій дотик Ти не знаєш як? Зачекай, я тебе навчу Це просто, Все дуже-дуже просто Відчуй, наче ти торкаєшся себе сфокусуйся на дотику Не думай ні про що Розслабся. Відпусти Торкайся мене Як я торкався тебе Відчуття шкіри Тепло Безпека Турбота Зроби так щоб я забув себе Зроби так щоб спогади вийшли з мене Можливо я заплачу від твого дотика Зроби так щоб я забувся і заплакав Тепло, тепло сліз Тепло рук Не бійся, це сльози полегшення Сльози нової сили Будь поруч, я тебе навчу Ніхто не буде судити. Нікого більше немає Є тільки одна мить І шанс на зцілення Забудь про проблеми Нічого не важливо Запамятай як я торкаюся тебе Відчуй мою руку, мою шкіру, мій настрій Момент дотику. Нічого більше не існує Відчуй свою шкіру і відчуй мою Відчуй свої емоції і відчуй мої Доторкнись --- ## /rozmovy/liudyno-vir # Людино, вір Людино, вір. Щастя в тобі. Ніхто не знає, ніхто не вміє. Всім болить. Ти - це він. Ти - це вона. Ти - такий як всі. Всі - як ти. Людино, посміхнись. Ми всі божевільні. Ми всі біжимо, але не вміємо зупинятись. Людино, відкрийся. Ти - це мить. Більше нічого не буде. Ти прийшла нізвідки, і підеш в нікуди. Ти - ніщо, і ти - все. Тебе ніколи не було, І ти була завжди. Тому що ми однакові. Ми однакові, В болю. В помилках. В божевіллі. Людино, відкрийся. Розслабся, люби. Людино, оживи, і живи. --- ## /rozmovy/my # Ми Ти не гірше. Ти не краще. Навіщо ці порівняння? Ми всі рівні. Ми всі брати. Ми всі сестри. Чому ми такі жорстокі? Де поділась наша людяність? Ти думаєш справа у світі? У справедливості? Але так було завджи, І так буде завжди. І люди були людьми в часи голокосту та воєн. Чому ми не можемо так? Ми можемо. Ми нащадки справжніх людей. Ми їх продовження. І хтось буде продовженням нас. Ми в цьому разом. Ми ланка єдиного ланцюгу. Ми поєднуємо покоління. Без них не було минулого. Без нас не буде майбутнього. Чому ми жаліємось? Про що нам жалітись? Якщо вони змогли, то зможемо і ми. Чи не задля цього нам треба жити? Хіба усмішка дитини, Хіба сльоза друга Не варті наших зусиль? Хіба вони не варті подолання нашого страху? Ми маленькі частинки людства та всесвіту Але ми є їх невідємними частинами Без нас нічого не буде. Наша хоробрість, наша любов врятують все. --- ## /rozmovy/ne-vtikay # Не втікай Не втікай, Я теж боюсь. Не біжи, Я теж соромлюсь. Зупинись. Подивись. В твоєму страсі я бачу свій страх. В твоєму обличчі я бачу себе. В твоїх проблемах я бачу свої проблеми. В твоєму соромі я бачу свій сором. В твоєму болі я бачу свій біль. Не біжи, Я теж боюсь. Зупинись. Подивись. Я хочу обняти тебе. Я хочу щоб ти обняла мене. Я хочу багато сказати тобі. Але я соромлюсь себе. І боюсь не сподобатись тобі. Я боюсь не бути тим, ким ти мене бачиш. Я боюсь бути не гідним тебе. Мені страшно, так само як і тобі. Мені болить, що тобі болить. В твоїх очах мої очі. В твоїй сумній усмішці - я. Твоя ображена дитина - це також я. Вдвох не так страшно - повір мені. Ми не ідеальні, у нас багато проблем, Тому що ми - живі, Ми - люди. Живі люди. Ми можемо сміятись, Але ми сумуємо. Ми можемо виглядати сильними і дорослими, Але ми слабкі, беззахисні, ображені діти. Не біжи. Благаю, не поспішай. Ми завжди це встигнемо. Якщо є 1 відсоток шансу, то треба пробувати. Це коштує всього болю та всіх сліз. Ми далеко, але не поспішай, зупинись. --- ## /rozmovy/ty # Ти Ти не знаєш що слово значить Але використовуєш його все одно Ти не знаєш що слово ранить Опускає людину на дно Ти не думаєш про наслідки Для тебе слова, як і дії, пусті Ти не віриш що інші страждають Ти не знаєш що серця крихкі Ти говориш великими фразами Ти думаєш що розумніша за всіх Як же сильно ти помиляєшся Ти несеш страждання для них —— Ти не вмієш творити любов Хоча багато про це говориш Ти не можеш прийняти себе Тому іншу людину довбиш Ти не можеш знайти спокій Бо ти обманула себе Лише насолода без цінностей Ніколи не звільнить тебе Ти не вмієш вибачатись Тому що ти не любиш себе А поки себе не полюбиш Не зможуть любити тебе Ти не вмієш співчувати Тому що ти заблокувала біль Перестань себе аналізувати І любов прийде звідусіль —— Пробач себе Позбудься жалю Позбудься відчуття вини Люби себе Тебе пробачать І зможеш далі ти іти Борися з егом - ти звичайна Не розумніша ти, повір Повіриш, зможеш ти збагнути І жити знову як колись Слова не варті нічого Вчинки визначають все Слова можуть вбити Вчинки зцілити тебе Забудь що ти хотіла сказати Не варто це витрати сил Зроби що повинна зробити Відчуй любові в серці прилив --- ## /writings/age-of-questions # Age of Questions The Age of Questions is over. Or if I want to take a more optimistic stance, then at least it's on hold. There are no more questions left. We assumed to have all the answers. Somehow, as a society, we decided that everyone from 14 till 96 should be a fully formed adult with a perfect take on any topic. If you didn't educate yourself in time and didn't obtain perfect information, and didn't arrive at the socially accepted mainstream opinion - it's on you. You failed. You have all the resources at your fingertips now. You have access to the Internet, so if you are *wrong*, it's your fault. You didn't prioritize your time correctly. In 2021 you are supposed to be an expert on molecular biology, epidemiology, history of violence and racism, the history of Israel and Palestine, and what are the new advances in climate science. You need to know what is happening in Western China and Hong Kong, in Belarus, the situation with rainforests in Amazons, and how indigenous people are treated anywhere from Canada to Chile. And this is probably a very simplified list. Because you are also expected to know what is the best way to reform the police, how universal basic income would work, the state of abortion rights in Latin America and various US states. You need to know how reparations might work and what was the history behind that. You are expected to know who from the current celebrities or historical figures was recently canceled, so you accidentally don't use their name in your social posts and conversations. Again, I don't even claim this to be the extensive list of topics that attracted our attention in the past year. Who knows what did I miss? But what I miss for sure is the ability to ask questions. I'm 34, and I don't want to pretend that I know all the answers. In fact, I want to believe that life is a journey where I learn something new every day. I want to have the curiosity of the child. I want to ask a question like "what are the differences between the modern feminism movement in the US, Argentina, and Ukraine?" and have an interesting discussion where I can learn. But this rarely happens anymore. At the big companies, you might have chat rooms dedicated to some cause. But those rooms are not the place to ask for guidance. Most people actually don't know answers to questions on the topics I listed above. No one can guide you or mentor you in this educational journey. But a lot of people would jump on the opportunity to cancel someone just for posing a question. Questions are important. Asking a question doesn't mean you are attacking someone. It just means that you are humble and modest enough to admit that you don't know something and you are brave enough to ask for guidance, and you are curious enough to listen. What happened? Why did we stop embracing our curiosity? If you ask a question now, you might get: 1. a short generic lecture on the topic that is not customized to you and that lacks any depths 2. you will get shamed or attacked 3. you will get silence, and no one will reply to you but maybe just judge your lack of self work? 4. non-answer, or better answer to some different questions you didn’t ask. Politicians used this one for ages When did we become these boring fake adults? Questions are tools for play and tools for growth. Why are we playing canceling and hate games but not willing to educate and do the work? Did we became victims of the drive that comes with hate and aggression? Did we forget that learning, questions, and helping others to learn is even more fun? What pathetic and boring creatures we became. Let's reflect on that, and maybe we can do something about it. --- ## /writings/another-day-another-lesson # Another day another lesson Last weekend with a couple of friends I played questions game by *The School of Life*. The question was something like that: *What is your trait that other people don't give you enough credit for?* One of my friends said that he doesn't feel like he gets enough credit for the work he is doing. And that is where I've got caught. The interesting thing about this particular friend is that he looks very chill and calm and self-confident. In my mind, before this answer, I assumed he doesn't need affirmation or recognition. I always tried to provide positive feedback and encourage people who seemed down, not confident enough, or not happy. But it never occurred to me that the same is needed to the person who is relaxed and looks competent, self-aware. So his answer to this simple question made me rethink my particular behavior. From now on, I will try to provide positive feedback or acknowledgment of someones' actions to everyone. Whatever my perception of their state is and whether I think they need it or no. --- ## /writings/big-history-agency-and-empowerment # Big History, Agency and Empowerment In 2014 I wrote an essay called [Is History Harmful?](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/is-history-harmful) I still stand by it with some corrections. However, I do have another metaphor to make similar point. I do believe that there is this notion of *Big History*. Some countries claim that they have big history and this allows them to justify either some *action*, or *inaction*. Similar to tobacco, pharma and tech the idea of history looks benevolent initially. History is presented to be rather part of culture. And because it’s culture and culture is good we loose our guards. And we forget that history is not only a tool to promote culture. It’s a political instrument, an instrument of propaganda(in the Goebbels’ or even Edward Bernays’ sense). It’s a tool to promote some narratives. And this is where it gets scary. And that is where the word *Big *should be attached to the History in the same way as it was attached to Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and Big Tech. Many people I know don’t like the concept of *old money*. Because it’s boring and not very just. Do you remember [this story](https://qz.com/694340/the-richest-families-in-florence-in-1427-are-still-the-richest-families-in-florence/) that says that most of the people who are still rich now in Florence came from the families that were rich in XV century? Well, this is really *not* *just* and it’s *boring*. It makes societies rigid, stuck in past. Big History is like that. It removes livelihood from the country, desire to improve, develop. It sucks all the vitality, creativity and entrepreneurship out of the air. Last year I visited Italy which is obviously famous for it art. Few months after that trip, in New York, I’ve met Italian woman who said that it’s almost impossible to be an artist in Italy now. You suffocate, you don’t know how to create something new, because all prior art is imposed onto you. You don’t know how to claim your own space. You don’t get empowerment by observing prior art, you surrender to it. Can history be useful? Of course yes. It can be highly useful. Unfortunately because of our ignorance we don’t use it as a tool to learn things, to obtain some knowledge and insight. The whole notion of history is used currently as a pathological tool, it’s used as a propaganda to justify some action (see russian wars in past 20 years, or Serbian in 1990s) or justify inaction (see German or French political response to the russian war in Ukraine). Something went very wrong with our relationships with history. After Feb 24, 2022 I look at some countries with fresh eyes. I already knew for many years that I would never live in russia. But now some other countries joined this list (at least temporary for now, after all I am an optimist and I do believe that things change). I realized that if things stay the same they are now I wouldn’t want to live in Germany or France. What are the common things between russia, Germany and France? Well, all of them have *Big History*. At least according to people from those same countries. I believe that instead of being masters of history they are the *prisoners* of it. They created closed minded societies that enabled very outdated policies. When I was in Germany in April 2022 I’ve heard many times that people didn’t agree with actions of their government but they lacked any agency and desire to change it. In Ukraine (or Chile, or Colombia, or many other places around the world), if you don’t like the government, you protest and ask government to resign. As you should, because we live in the age of direct democracy, expression of peoples’ will and distributed power. We live in the age of *empowerment* and *agency*. And if some place doesn’t have it, you know it stuck in the past. That is where I personally see Germany. It might be economically advanced country. But politically and culturally it stuck in XX century. I will be more than happy to be wrong on this one. *Dynamism, vitality*. Those are extremely important things. Those things drive human progress. They drive change. If you create morbid or sleepy society that doesn’t believe nothing can be changed, then why dow we even live? It’s possible to find appropriate event in history to push for any narrative that justifies any action or inaction you want. So history can be used merely as a tool to hide behind from responsibility, not as a tool to seek knowledge. Adam Grant [wrote](https://twitter.com/AdamMGrant/status/1532440854748708881) that pessimism is when the problem is visible but mental attitude doesn’t allow to solve it. This is the most scary part of many outdated societies. It wastes tons of human potential, because the whole societies of people can exist for generations without realization that things can be changed and problems can be solved. *Empowerment and agency*. I want to see more of those in the world. We all deserve it. In April 2022, after Germany I went to Estonia and Finland. Those places have completely different mood comparing to Berlin. The mood of possibility, of human progress, of hope. Estonia went from being russian colony to highly advanced society in merely 30 years. There are robots driving on the streets delivering goods. Estonian and Finnish Prime Ministers are modern, empowered and outspoken leaders who are able to standup to the modern challenges. Nordics and Baltics set the example for the rest of us of what is possible. I’ve read book on Estonian history, and when you compare it to countries like France and russia Estonia has very little of what we perceive like history! It’s a very young country. And at the end of the day I would rather live in Estonia or Finland than France. What matters is present and what you believe the future should be. Past does’t matter that much. Past can always be retold, it exists in the virtual space, through the stories (it’s not that *real*). However, present exists in the real and physical world. And the future has potential to materialize into the reality (the thing that past cannot do). It took us 50 years to understand the issues with tobaccos industry. It took us 20 years to see problems in pharmaceutical industry and 10 years in tech. History is not an industry. It was used as a propaganda tool by the old imperial powers. I will be honest, I thought that we finished with imperial/colonial narratives and narratives of old big powers in the XX century. But it seems I was wrong. Only now, in the Age of the Internet, we are actually creating the new world order. The one that is more distributed, decentralized and ultimately more just. Places like Paris and Berlin will be less and less relevant politically. And places like Tallinn, Santiago, Abuja will play more important roles - either in their respective regions, or hopefully even globally. We live in the world that is more flat and less hierarchical (still long way to go), and in this world past doesn’t matter much. What matters is the present and your values and your attitude. Do you want to work? Do you want to make things betters? You can do that now. Welcome to the *Brave New World*. P.S. As a reminder, at the age of the Internet we don’t need to ask anymore anyone for permission for anything. See [Alexis Ohanian's book](http://withouttheirpermission.com/). It’s different now. Many things are possible. Starting your own company is possible, starting political party is possible, making sure old politicians resign is possible. To some extent you are limited by your imagination. --- ## /writings/cat-person # Cat person I am a cat person. Not in the sense that I like cats more than dogs, but I see myself more of a cat than a dog. I am gentle and fluid and smooth. I do not care about food. Yes, I can be hungry, and I can eat your food. But I will not love you more just because you feed me. I don’t care about that, and I will never will. I perceive love differently. Can you stay with me while I have my mood swings? Can you stay with me when I am snarky or making punchy remarks? Can you stay with me when I don't want to see anyone and be by myself? Can you touch me and hug me when I need it? And accept that there are times when I can't receive touch? I am not a dog. I am much more complicated. I have a multitude of paradoxes inside me. I can crave for distance and closeness at the same time. I love and despise smartness at the same time. I can look at you with admiration, but I can also be completely detached. It is that simple. You wouldn't see full-time adoration in my eyes. I am not a dog. My love is not unconditional. It can be, sure, but not exclusively. I don’t accept you the way you are, because you feed me. I know you can be better. It’s about future for me too. Not only now. Now is beautiful and powerful but it's not enough for me. There can be more. I am demanding. I care about details too. I care about my looks, my brain, my body, my emotions. Everything matters. Not just food. ^blk-01kxr7hrvjfapaqsk8w9rg8ahw I am a cat. Everything matters to me. I am a cat. I am gentle being. My touch gives you pleasure. But beware, I can bite and scratch your face. I am an intelligent being but I'm a wild animal too. Be genuine, pay attention, listen, care, and we will be good. --- ## /writings/communities-2 # Communities? I’ve been reading [Balaji’s](https://balajis.com) new book [The Network State](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VPKZR3G) and Vitalik’s [review](https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/07/13/networkstates.html) of it. They are both extremely smart people and it’s always interesting to read or listen to their ideas. Balaji in his book wrote about new types of communities. > > Next, let's do an example which requires a network archipelago (with a physical footprint) but not a full network state (with diplomatic recognition). This is Keto Kosher, the sugar-free society. > > > Start with a history of the horrible USDA Food Pyramid, the grain-heavy monstrosity that gave cover to the corporate sugarification of the globe and the obesity epidemic. ... Organize a community online that crowdfunds properties around the world, like apartment buildings and gyms, and perhaps eventually even culdesacs and small towns. You might take an extreme sugar teeotaler approach, literally banning processed foods and sugar at the border, thereby implementing a kind of "Keto Kosher". > > > You can imagine variants of this startup society that are like "Carnivory Communities" or "Paleo People". These would be competing startup societies in the same broad area, iterations on a theme. If successful, such a society might not stop at sugar. It could get into setting cultural defaults for fitness and exercise. Or perhaps it could bulk purchase continuous glucose meters for all members, or orders of metformin. > Vitalik in his post wrote following: > > One can think up of many more examples for both categories. One could have a zone where it's okay to walk around naked, both securing your legal right to do so and helping you feel comfortable by creating an environment where many other people are naked too. Alternatively, you could have a zone where everyone can only wear basic plain-colored clothing, to discourage what's perceived as a zero-sum status competition of expending huge effort to look better than everyone else. One could have an intentional community zone for cryptocurrency users, requiring every store to accept it and demanding an NFT to get in the zone at all. Or one could build an enclave that legalizes radical experiments in transit and drone delivery, accepting higher risks to personal safety in exchange for the privilege of participating in a technological frontier that will hopefully set examples for the world as a whole. > > > What is common about all of these examples is the value of having a physical region, at least of a few hectares, where the network state's unique rules are enforced. Sure, you could individually insist on only eating at healthy restaurants, and research each restaurant carefully before you go there. But it's just so much easier to have a defined plot of land where you have an assurance that anywhere you go within that plot of land will meet your standards. Of course, you could lobby your local government to tighten health and safety regulations. But if you do that, you risk friction with people who have radically different preferences on tradeoffs, and you risk [shutting poor people out of the economy](https://podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast/the-truth-about-food-trucks-ft-kyle-sweetland/id1390384827?i=1000557605438). A network state offers a moderate approach. > Both of those descriptions for future communities are very similar and sound dystopian to me personally. They resemble my personal hell rather than my personal paradise. Which is an interesting in itself! Meaning there are people living and working now towards opposite models of the future. Which in itself is a beautiful idea. It shows that people are diverse and our ideas and desires are diverse too. Why do I personally not like ideas about future promoted by Balaji and Vitalik? My first issue is the meaning of the word “community” used by both Balaji and Vitalik. They think of online communities - the ones that are created around one idea or interest - and their materialization into the physical world. Neil Postman many years ago in his book “Building a Bridge to the 18th Century” wrote following > > Think, for example, of how words “community” and “conversation” are now employed by those who use the Internet. I have the impression that “community” is now used to mean, simply, people with similar interests, a considerable change from an older meaning: A community is made up if people which may not have similar interests but who must negotiate and resolve their differences for the sake of social harmony… As to “conversation”, two (or more) people typing messages to each other are engaged in activity quite different from what is usually called a conversation. > This idea of community stuck with me since then. This is why I consider New York City to be the greatest city we currently have. New York City has people of most of the ethnicities in the world, it also has people of all economical backgrounds, it has people from all the religions and also atheist. It’s the city of diversity. The city that tries to include different people. Online communities and ideas proposed by Balaji and Vitalik have different goal. Theirs are the communities for exclusion and not inclusion. Ideas of burning bridges instead of building them. They are about “we vs them” mentality. And I cannot subscribe to those ideas. I grew up in extremely homogenous society - Ukraine of 1990s: when everyone was of the same economic status, looked the same and believed in the same things(25 years later it is not the case anymore). Later in life I lived for 6.5 years in San Francisco. While SF was way more diverse than Ukraine in 1990s, it was too easy to get stuck in the homogeneous tech bubble. Both Balaji and Vitalik are talking about Keto or Paleo “societies”. And this is the part that I don’t understand at all. I love to have one latte with a pastry every day. Does it mean I want to live in the physical community in which everyone does the same? Do I want to live in the city where everyone drinks latte and eats pastries every day with me on the same schedule? Do I want this town to be optimized for latte drinkers and pastry eaters? Hell, no. It’s absurd. Such shallow “communities” scare me. I wrote a bit about it [here](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/copied-unicorns). “Communities” that build around one common trait and idea are not desirable to me personally. It’s kind of like attending meetups. You go and see people who share one interest with you. But it doesn’t make you true friends. You know nothing else about each other. You see one side and usually it’s one side of compartmentalizes individuals. Another interesting part form Vitalik is in this paragraph: > > What is common about all of these examples is the value of having a physical region, at least of a few hectares, where the network state's unique rules are enforced. Sure, you could individually insist on only eating at healthy restaurants, and research each restaurant carefully before you go there. But it's just so much easier to have a defined plot of land where you have an assurance that anywhere you go within that plot of land will meet your standards. > Basically explanation why such online communities should be manifested into the physical world is just “because it’s just so much easier”. I think this is the key message. One month ago I [tweeted](https://twitter.com/podviaznikov/status/1534651769749483520): > > Blockchain and NFT tech are so popular because developers are lazy. Instead of going out and protesting and asking governments to update laws (to democratize access to financial tools and so on) engineers prefer to write code from the comfort of their homes. Most of the things that crypto promises are possible in our current frameworks. It just those things require different type of work. > I think it applies here. Laziness creates desire to come up with new ideas - which is great. The problem is not all the ideas are equal and not all the ideas are good. Somehow I didn’t see Balaji and Vitalik writing about of all the side effects of their ideas. And what those new “communities” not only would bring but also would destroy. At the end of the day, I like that Balaji and Vitalik proposed some new models how humans can live. All I have to say is that I am glad I have freedom and option of not participating in those models. And I have freedom to stop reading books I don’t like. [#community](/tags/community) [#crypto](/tags/crypto) --- ## /writings/communities # Communities? I’ve been reading [Balaji’s](https://balajis.com) new book [The Network State](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VPKZR3G) and Vitalik’s [review](https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/07/13/networkstates.html) of it. They are both extremely smart people and it’s always interesting to read or listen to their ideas. Balaji in his book wrote about new types of communities. > > Next, let's do an example which requires a network archipelago (with a physical footprint) but not a full network state (with diplomatic recognition). This is Keto Kosher, the sugar-free society. > > > Start with a history of the horrible USDA Food Pyramid, the grain-heavy monstrosity that gave cover to the corporate sugarification of the globe and the obesity epidemic. ... Organize a community online that crowdfunds properties around the world, like apartment buildings and gyms, and perhaps eventually even culdesacs and small towns. You might take an extreme sugar teeotaler approach, literally banning processed foods and sugar at the border, thereby implementing a kind of "Keto Kosher". > > > You can imagine variants of this startup society that are like "Carnivory Communities" or "Paleo People". These would be competing startup societies in the same broad area, iterations on a theme. If successful, such a society might not stop at sugar. It could get into setting cultural defaults for fitness and exercise. Or perhaps it could bulk purchase continuous glucose meters for all members, or orders of metformin. > Vitalik in his post wrote following: > > One can think up of many more examples for both categories. One could have a zone where it's okay to walk around naked, both securing your legal right to do so and helping you feel comfortable by creating an environment where many other people are naked too. Alternatively, you could have a zone where everyone can only wear basic plain-colored clothing, to discourage what's perceived as a zero-sum status competition of expending huge effort to look better than everyone else. One could have an intentional community zone for cryptocurrency users, requiring every store to accept it and demanding an NFT to get in the zone at all. Or one could build an enclave that legalizes radical experiments in transit and drone delivery, accepting higher risks to personal safety in exchange for the privilege of participating in a technological frontier that will hopefully set examples for the world as a whole. > > > What is common about all of these examples is the value of having a physical region, at least of a few hectares, where the network state's unique rules are enforced. Sure, you could individually insist on only eating at healthy restaurants, and research each restaurant carefully before you go there. But it's just so much easier to have a defined plot of land where you have an assurance that anywhere you go within that plot of land will meet your standards. Of course, you could lobby your local government to tighten health and safety regulations. But if you do that, you risk friction with people who have radically different preferences on tradeoffs, and you risk [shutting poor people out of the economy](https://podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast/the-truth-about-food-trucks-ft-kyle-sweetland/id1390384827?i=1000557605438). A network state offers a moderate approach. > Both of those descriptions for future communities are very similar and sound dystopian to me personally. They resemble my personal hell rather than my personal paradise. Which is an interesting in itself! Meaning there are people living and working now towards opposite models of the future. Which in itself is a beautiful idea. It shows that people are diverse and our ideas and desires are diverse too. Why do I personally not like ideas about future promoted by Balaji and Vitalik? My first issue is the meaning of the word “community” used by both Balaji and Vitalik. They think of online communities - the ones that are created around one idea or interest - and their materialization into the physical world. Neil Postman many years ago in his book “Building a Bridge to the 18th Century” wrote following > > Think, for example, of how words “community” and “conversation” are now employed by those who use the Internet. I have the impression that “community” is now used to mean, simply, people with similar interests, a considerable change from an older meaning: A community is made up if people which may not have similar interests but who must negotiate and resolve their differences for the sake of social harmony… As to “conversation”, two (or more) people typing messages to each other are engaged in activity quite different from what is usually called a conversation. > This idea of community stuck with me since then. This is why I consider New York City to be the greatest city we currently have. New York City has people of most of the ethnicities in the world, it also has people of all economical backgrounds, it has people from all the religions and also atheist. It’s the city of diversity. The city that tries to include different people. Online communities and ideas proposed by Balaji and Vitalik have different goal. Theirs are the communities for exclusion and not inclusion. Ideas of burning bridges instead of building them. They are about “we vs them” mentality. And I cannot subscribe to those ideas. I grew up in extremely homogenous society - Ukraine of 1990s: when everyone was of the same economic status, looked the same and believed in the same things(25 years later it is not the case anymore). Later in life I lived for 6.5 years in San Francisco. While SF was way more diverse than Ukraine in 1990s, it was too easy to get stuck in the homogeneous tech bubble. Both Balaji and Vitalik are talking about Keto or Paleo “societies”. And this is the part that I don’t understand at all. I love to have one latte with a pastry every day. Does it mean I want to live in the physical community in which everyone does the same? Do I want to live in the city where everyone drinks latte and eats pastries every day with me on the same schedule? Do I want this town to be optimized for latte drinkers and pastry eaters? Hell, no. It’s absurd. Such shallow “communities” scare me. I wrote a bit about it [here](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/copied-unicorns). “Communities” that build around one common trait and idea are not desirable to me personally. It’s kind of like attending meetups. You go and see people who share one interest with you. But it doesn’t make you true friends. You know nothing else about each other. You see one side and usually it’s one side of compartmentalizes individuals. Another interesting part form Vitalik is in this paragraph: > > What is common about all of these examples is the value of having a physical region, at least of a few hectares, where the network state's unique rules are enforced. Sure, you could individually insist on only eating at healthy restaurants, and research each restaurant carefully before you go there. But it's just so much easier to have a defined plot of land where you have an assurance that anywhere you go within that plot of land will meet your standards. > Basically explanation why such online communities should be manifested into the physical world is just “because it’s just so much easier”. I think this is the key message. One month ago I [tweeted](https://twitter.com/podviaznikov/status/1534651769749483520): > > Blockchain and NFT tech are so popular because developers are lazy. Instead of going out and protesting and asking governments to update laws (to democratize access to financial tools and so on) engineers prefer to write code from the comfort of their homes. Most of the things that crypto promises are possible in our current frameworks. It just those things require different type of work. > I think it applies here. Laziness creates desire to come up with new ideas - which is great. The problem is not all the ideas are equal and not all the ideas are good. Somehow I didn’t see Balaji and Vitalik writing about of all the side effects of their ideas. And what those new “communities” not only would bring but also would destroy. At the end of the day, I like that Balaji and Vitalik proposed some new models how humans can live. All I have to say is that I am glad I have freedom and option of not participating in those models. And I have freedom to stop reading books I don’t like. [#community](/tags/community) [#crypto](/tags/crypto) --- ## /writings/context-matters # Context matters I’ve been reading [Balaji’s]([https://balajis.com](https://balajis.com)) new book [The Network State]([https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VPKZR3G](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VPKZR3G)). He is an extremely smart person and it’s always interesting to read or listen to his ideas. However, reading his book (and before that listening to his podcasts) I noticed that it seems like he always gives examples of US, India, China, Russia and Singapore to justify his ideas. This kind of makes sense. I think he lived in at least 2 countries from this list and it seems like he spent decent amount of time reading about India, China and Russia. Because Balaji lived in at least 3 countries he has way more context about the world than regular person. But I don’t think even this context is enough to justify his ideas. He reminds me of Adam Curtis. Adam Curtis makes brilliant documentaries and have this beautiful mind that connect different dots and able to produce incredible stories. However, there is one issues with Adam Curtis’ work. Most of his films are about US, UK, Russia and China. He is an expert on this countries. And he tried to explain everything (from history to the future) through the knowledge of those 4 countries. And if you happen to know any other context that is not the same that Adam Curtis or Balaji know their ideas and their explanations stop to be so solid. World is way more diverse than US, UK, China, Russia and India. There are so many places with so many different histories and trends - think Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, Central America and so on - that they would break any theory of the past, or present, or the future that you are trying to build. Another example is Alain de Botton. Alain de Botton knows a lot about US, US, Switzerland and judean societies. That is his context. His work inspired by what he knows in this context and solves some problems in it. But Alain de Botton is at least acknowledges this limitation. He always says that he is focused on the problems of the Western world. He doesn’t try to come up with the solution for Eastern Europeans or Latin Americans. So we come to the second point I want to make. I’m reading [“What Do You Care What Other People Think?”]([https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA6KIS](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA6KIS)) by Richard Feynman. He says the following: > > I’ve always been very one-sided about the science, and when I was younger I concentrated almost all of my effort on it. In those days I didn’t have time, and I didn’t have much patience, to learn what’s called the humanities. Even though there were humanities courses in the university that you had to take in order to graduate, I tried my best to avoid them. It’s only afterwards, when I’ve gotten older and more relaxed, that I’ve spread out a little bit. I’ve learned to draw and I read a little bit, but I’m really still a very one-sided person and I don’t know a great deal. I have a limited intelligence and I use it in particular direction. > Please read this carefully. How come one of the smartest people of XX century had this humility and honesty about himself? And how come we don’t have such disclaimers in the books of “experts” and “thought leaders” of our time? Balaji (and many others) has a very beautiful mind (probably 10x more powerful than mine will ever be). Why doesn’t he just write something like this? > > I’ve read many books on topic such and such. I lived and heavily studied this and that society. I don’t know much about anything else, but here is the list of ideas and connections my mind was able to produce based on all the knowledge I received. Read those ideas and stories, think about them, try to criticize them, but don’t take it as a final truth. > That is what I want from the modern books. It feels not many people since Richard Feynman or Neil Postman were able to stay humble and honest and down to Earth. The idea is simple. No one can discover ultimate truth and find prescriptive solution. The idea is to make small advancement, acknowledge its shortcoming and pass it on to further generations. [#science](/tags/science) [#honesty](/tags/honesty) [#humility](/tags/humility) [#context](/tags/context) [#geopolitcs](/tags/geopolitcs) --- ## /writings/copied-unicorns # Copied Unicorns Last year I moved to New York City. At no time in the past was I more aware of my non-authenticity. So many episodes led me to feel this way. First, why did I even move to New York? Is it because of my internal desires and dreams? Or was it just because I - together with tons of my peers - were preprogrammed to come to this city. Didn't we all absorb the same culture? Didn't we watch Friends, Seinfeld, How I met your mother, Woody Allen, and countless other films, TV series set in New York and told us that coming here will solve our issues and make our lives different? Full of meaning, great friends, incredible jobs, honest and deep relationships, and so on. NYC is a cultural siren. It calls you. What is the share of this cultural wave in "my" decision to move once again in my life? Ok, I moved to NYC. I go and visit Brooklyn and Williamsburg. Nowhere else in the world do I feel like being copy/pasted. I feel like an exposed impostor because I look like everyone else. This place is full of people who are supposed to be on top of their creative game, but all look very similar - similar age, style, similar tastes. All the coffee shops are packed with people and out of croissants by 2PM, just because everyone went to the coffeeshop and had their own. Do I really like croissants and coffee shops? Or was I made to love them? It's Saturday morning. 11AM. I walk in the city. All the brunch places are full. 90% are filled with women. They are drinking their brunch cocktails. All of them would tell you how they love brunch and cocktails and mimosas. But if cocktails are so "objectively" great, how come they are no so popular in other demographics? Do those women are authentic in their taste or were they programmed by watching Sex and the City and reading glamour magazines and so on? What is authenticity? Where am I? Who am I? Are we memetic machines that just reflect back what was absorbed by culture? We were made to think that we are creative unicorns. That authenticity is the key. But where are those authentic people? I doubt I'm one of them. --- ## /writings/danger-danger # Danger, danger Three years ago I wrote an essay about [people I'm afraid of](https://podviaznikov.com/people_i_am_afraid_of/). I still mostly stand by that article. However, I want to address some things. I'm no longer *afraid* of these people. They are there, and we can be aware of them and do something about their impact. But there is nothing to be afraid of. It's easy to spot such people. However, today I want to talk about different a kind of people. Today, people who are the most dangerous to me are not "one-dimensional" people I described years ago. The most dangerous people are *complicated* people that talk about being kind and empathetic, but in real-life situations, they are often the exact opposite. I've met a decent amount of people in my life who claimed to be *empathetic*. They usually also seem to *love dogs* and maybe even care about big causes like *nature*, *education*, etc. They would talk to you about *love*, *empathy*, and all the noble issues. However, when you see them act in life in real-world situations - that is where everything breaks up. Those people actually cannot emphasize with anyone. They can feel their pain, but for some reason, they can't feel other people's feelings. They do crazy things. Because they can't see that their actions may cause to other people's sadness or pain, or anxiety, or anger. Even worse, not only can't they see it, even if you tell them what you feel - they would not understand. They wouldn't be able to put themselves in your shoes. They will continue with doing what they are doing. So why are these people are the most dangerous ones? Because they pretend to be someone they are not. *Empathy* is an illusion in a sense this word is used today. A lot of modern people claim absolute empathy. They are not aware that at best they can emphasize to the *tiny subset of feelings* and in *tiny subset of situations*. This unawareness strikes very hard. Because usually, when you hear that someone is empathetic, you want to trust them. And that is where the reality will hit you. So what is one can do in such circumstances? *Actions* speak louder than *words*. This is one of my core [beliefs](https://podviaznikov.com/beliefs/). People can talk to me about *universal love* all day. But in reality, very simple life situations can tell much more about them. If someone cares more about *abstract* things than everyday simple situations run from them. You deserve better. Simple things in life that is what matters. Care, attention to details, to your dreams, your feelings, your thoughts, your emotions. You can get that. --- ## /writings/eastern-european-man # Eastern European Man Warning, unfair generalization and reversed sexism ahead. This is just an exercise to describe one of the archetypes, don't take it too seriously. Eastern European Man appears to be smart, tough, direct and confident. He appears to be able to loudly disagree with a group of people. He is ready to put himself into the opposition/confrontation to the group of people of any size. He appears to be also quite in most of the life situations. He looks like as if he knows something about life. He looks calm and it might seem like his calmness comes from inner security and integrity. Maybe he looks like he is at peace with himself and life. However, underneath it is not like that at all. Eastern European Man is a child in a body of an adult. His quietness and calmness come from the fact that he was never taught to express his emotions properly and integrate them into his life. His directness in expressing unpopular opinion comes not from the fact that he is smart but from the fact that no one taught him how to behave in the groups of people. When Eastern European Man meets Westerner (and especially American), he sees a shady person who never speaks his mind. Immediately he feels superior. But he doesn't know that it is him who is shady in reality. You can't do much with direct, but aggressive and careless person. You can't build team or company, you can't build friendship or relationship, you can't build society and a country with such people. Aggressive directness is toxic and counterproductive. No one taught him that the best strategy for life is to be kind to other people, and no one taught him that there are different ways of expressing one's opinion. He only knows the way in which you isolate yourself, make other people feel bad (or stupid) and close possibility for the future dialog and development of relationships. Have you been to programming conference or event? There is always this Eastern European Man in the audience who would ask some strange question to not help improve conversation or common understanding of a problem but to show off. Eastern European Man tries to show his intellectual superiority to everyone: his partner, colleagues, etc. It is acceptable to him that he would hurt every one of them in the process. But at least he is a "true man", he sticks to his principles and stays direct and "tough" at all time. Eastern European Man always competes. He is never *for* something, he is always *against*. He competes against everyone else. No one taught him that competition is good, but it should be in the balance with cooperation. The combination of cooperation and competition is the secret to every game, and to life and evolution itself. Eastern European Man shouts at his colleagues and insults them. Just to show who is the boss, who is the smart one and the tough one. The tougher you are, the better you are. He would show that he does not care about you and despises you. Because he is independent and a loner. But, of course, it comes from the inner insecurity. Eastern European Man swears a lot. To him, profanity is the symbol of adultness because only adults can do this. But in fact it is opposite, real adults *know *swear words and have the discipline and wisdom to not use it in every sentence. Eastern European Man jokes at the expense of other people. He would mock and make fun of his friends. It should always be one-directional. Nothing like that should happen to him. For the Man, a joke is a tool to boost ego and to establish his superiority towards the other people. In fact, Eastern European Man preoccupied with his ego all the time. Building it up makes him feel better. No one taught him that it is better to go the opposite direction with ego. Eastern European Man doesn't know the difference between information, knowledge, and wisdom. He would think that he is smart just by knowing a lot of different facts (which is information). He doesn't know that there is something beyond that. Eastern European Man looks grumpy. And you would think it's because he is so smart and read great literature and philosophy and he is preoccupied with understanding the world and life. But it's because no one told him that he can be happy and how to achieve that. He only knows how to be bitter about life. Eastern European Man is of course nihilist. He believes in "Nothing Mattersness." Everything is someone else's fault, nothing can be done about it. Only he is enlightened but no one from these stupid people is smart enough to realize his greatness and start listening to him. Eastern European Man is of course selfish. He doesn't believe in people, collaboration, and action. He is not preoccupied with self-transcendence. Eastern European Man is, of course, an unhappy person. But more than that he would be very willing to destroy fun for everyone else. If a group of people is having fun and the man can't participate, he would ruin the mood for everyone (by shouting or saying stupid things). If he can't have fun, no one should, and it's his right to make everyone feel in tune with him. Eastern European Man wouldn't dance. He would explain it as a trait of a "real man," however, it seems like he couldn't integrate his body together with mind. Eastern European Man has no feelings. He is a person of the intellect, and he is above emotions. But of course, it is because no one taught him how to integrate his emotions and feeling with his mind and body. Eastern European Man doesn't know that they are essential, he denies them, and is scared of them. Eastern European Man is very romantic and believes in magic. For some reason, he thinks that other people can read his mind and read his feelings without him saying a word or expressing any emotions. --- ## /writings/gatekeepers # Gatekeepers 6 months ago I wrote on [[Tools, thinking and people]] where I explored how interacting with AI is a bit similar to interacting with Google Search 20 years ago. Today I want to talk about a different thing that bothers me in the tech industry. Recently Sunil wrote this longer [tweet](https://x.com/threepointone/status/2090397096176177397) - exploring how some senior tech people were publicly skeptical of AI and how after AI improved dramatically they painted themselves into the corner. There is one more related phenomenon. Even before AI I worked with a few very senior engineers who stayed at the company for many years. They were setting up all the technical agenda and making key decisions. But if you look into company software and tools and processes - all were 10 years old: slow UI, ugly interfaces, deprecated libraries - no preview environments, no easy way to deploy a prototype. 10 years ago I worked at a company called [Runnable](http://runnable.com) - we tried to do staging/preview environments for each pull request. Very similar to what every single sandbox company tries to do for agents (same isolation, per agent instead of per pull request). Even large enterprises tried to build similar in-house solutions using kubernetes. Then of course we hit the age of AI and all the vibe coding tools changed the math here. Ability to quickly spin up a new app became so much more important. So the flow became clear (with Lovable and all the companies in the space) - you start a new app, work on it and it should be live (publicly or internally). We knew what the process should be for 10 years. But here come gatekeepers. I also worked with engineers who were not aware how much the world changed (not even saying in the last 4 years with AI). They just wouldn't understand how important it is to let people easily create internal live apps and demos. Friction is not acceptable anymore. I worked at one company where a senior engineer mandated one specific Python library and one blessed server technology for all internal apps. Long deploy process, internal bureaucracy just to get a “Hello World” app live. Something I last experienced 16 years ago working on government projects! It was annoying before AI. In 2025-2026 it became unacceptable - AI raised the bar. By the way, that same engineer didn't even try AI at all for the whole of 2025! People who didn't revisit their technical choices before AI have trouble revisiting them now. Not all of them, but some! If you are not willing to improve processes for your teammates or customers, if you want everyone to use the tools you learned 20 years ago - you are the gatekeeper. --- ## /writings/good-causes # Good causes Few years ago, I subscribed to the leftist magazine published in the US. I wanted to learn more about socialism and politics in the US. I joined the reading group for that magazine in San Francisco. I attended a few meetings but very soon realized that it was not for me. You see, I always thought that left politics are more humane. Maybe that is the case somewhere in Northern Europe, but it wasn't my experience here in San Francisco. During the last meeting I attended, I observed a lot of hate. Initially it was hate mostly directed towards ultra-right people. But also such words as "liberal" were used as curses. Surprisingly, the angriest person in the group was 45+ years old professor. He projected anger. After the event, we all went to the dinner, and he started talking bad things about his colleague at one of the local leftist organizations. The colleague wasn't there to defend himself, and lots of people (including me) didn't know who he was. One of the people asked the professor to stop ranting because it made him uncomfortable to hear things about his colleague. This man couldn't stop. It took him minutes to wind down. He was full of anger, and it was all about his emotions. He couldn't attune himself to the feelings of other people in the room. I didn't like it. I have nothing against *anger*. But I do not like an organization that is setup with hate at the core. It seems like creating an enemy and hating other people was the motivation, at least for some people in that group. For me it was the last event there. I explained my thoughts and feelings in the email, left the group and unsubscribed from the magazine. The biggest paradox here for me was the contrast between goals and means to achieve the goals. Equal pay, diversity, equality, liberation - those are all good causes.But the means were the opposite. I do believe that the emotions behind the cause and values should match emotions of actions. Or at least to be close enough. Here is another situation. I happen to experience how small group of people that belonged to Christian religion (with crosses, going to the church on Sundays) handled one complicated interpersonal situation. They went mad, started swearing, drinking, scandaling when things didn't work their way. I didn't like that at all. I do not believe in virtue signaling by belonging to some group or by proclaiming some values. I covered this topic also [here](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/danger_danger). I stand by the statement that actions (and primarily actions in critical situations) tell me more about who you are than all the conversations in the world. --- ## /writings/grateful # Grateful On March 1, 2022 I arrived to Warsaw. You can read more about it [here](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/the-bravest-of-men). Poland was the best place for me to be at the time. You could feel unity and solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainians everywhere and the desire to help. Ukrainian flags were everywhere. Posters to help displaced Ukrainian were everywhere. It made me feel that Ukraine is not alone. And that was very comforting feeling. Who likes the feeling of being alone? Especially during the most troubled times - such as war. I remember coming to Poland thinking that maybe I can somehow help displaced Ukrainians. With translation or something. But when I came I quickly realized that Poles had everything covered. So many people were involved in helping newly arriving Ukrainians. And that was comforting to me too. Because I realized that I can focus on thinking how to help people in Ukraine. It was less things to worry about. It was important because at the end of March I went to Germany and my experience was the opposite. Instead of worrying about Ukraine in Germany I’d worry about German politics towards the war. Which is the last thing you want to do - worry about things that are of way less priority and which you cannot impact much. Anyway. I wanted to tell two stories from my time in Warsaw. After I arrived to Warsaw I immediately went to the military store to buy some things that I can sent to Ukraine. On March 1 the most important things at that moment - bullet proof vests and helmets - were already sold out. So I needed to buy some smaller things that were requested. Shopping assistant was so helpful all this time. He really felt for Ukraine and people and tried to help. I bought some things and he gave me 25% discount. And that felt very good at the moment. Because you often hear about profiteers that try to make money of people during troubled times. And he didn’t. You can see that he cared and wanted to help. And it was a small thing. But I had tears writing this, because I remembered him and that day again. Small thing - calling his suppliers, giving discount, really carrying - that makes such a big impact. We are human and we can be humane and when that happens it’s beautiful. Next story happened maybe 10 days later. A friend of mine was coming to Warsaw. She needed to go to the Ukrainian border, pick up her godson, go back to Warsaw and then go with her godson to Estonia. I volunteered to drive her from Warsaw to the border and back. It was great for me, because doing anything during those days meant so much for my mental health. It meant 1) not checking news for one day 2) doing physical work that would exhaust me 3) doing something useful for other people. So I went to the airport to pick her up. I was going to rent a car directly from the airport. I come there with my American Driving License and the guy told me that it’s not possible to have a car because American Driving License is not accepted anymore and I need International Driving License - which I don’t have. This surprised me because just 5 month before I was able to rent a car in EU with my license, so I wasn’t prepared for this situation. But then guy sees my Ukrainian passport and asks me what do I need. I tell him the story how I need to go to the border. He calls his friend that works for the smallest rental agency that only has 3 cars. Guy tells me that he can give me the car from his friend. And that I would need to pay the same amount. I pay him money. He doesn’t even take the copy of my credit card details and we go to pick the car. And when we came to the car I’m shocked. He gives me the keys from the white BMW. He gave me keys from very expensive car. That belonged to his friend. Without charging me extra for that expensive car. He didn’t ask for any deposit or thing like that. He just wanted to help. All he said was - when you are done, try to fill up the gas and drop off the keys. That was it. The fact that two random people at the airport helped me that day still touches me today. I’m grateful for the car of course, but mostly I’m grateful for that act of kindness and support and help. It was so important to me during those days. And I’ll be forever grateful to those 3 people in Poland. --- ## /writings/hacker-school-vs-finnish-education-system # Hacker School vs Finnish education system ### Intro I'm a big fan of the [Finnish education system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Finland). I like to read about it and discuss it with people passionate about education. I just spent 12 incredible weeks as a student in the fall batch of [Hacker School](https://www.hackerschool.com/). Hacker School is a unique place, I'm excited about it now even more than before applying. It was that good. Now let's try to find some similarities between education in Finland and Hacker School. ### Minimal structure They have very minimal structure of education both in Finland (the national curriculum is only broad guidelines) and in Hacker School. It helps students focus on things they want to study themselves, things they are passionate about. Motivated students are the biggest achievement of any educational system. ### No grades During the first years of school in Finland, grading may be limited to verbal assessments rather than formal grades. Why do we need grades? It's refreshing, when you can spend time learning what you like, instead of thinking about how to get the highest grade. ### No fees There are no tuition fees in both Finland and Hacker School. ### No competition Finland's experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on [cooperation](http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/). The same principle applies to the Hacker School. Students constantly try to help each other. ### Collaborative environment In Finland they have open and collaborative environment in [classes](http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm): > > In a typical classroom, students are likely to be walking around, rotating through workshops or gathering information, asking questions of their teacher, and working with other students in small groups. They may be completing independent or group projects. > Same happens at Hacker School. Students self-organize themselves into smaller groups by interests: SICP group, Machine Learning group, JavaScript learning group, Hardware group, Nand2Tetris group etc. Anyone can join as many groups as she/he wants (or work by herself/himself). In each group students work together and try to help each other. Also, students learn a lot during pair programming sessions. ### Teachers Teaching is a very [respectful profession](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Finland#Teachers) in Finland. Only person with the Master of Education degree can teach others. It's hard to become teacher. Competition is high - 10 people per spot. Salaries are really good. This drives the best people to teach others. Best people can prepare even better next generations of students. A very similar approach is used in Hacker School. Facilitators are previous hacker schoolers. And they are really good. They set high standards for students. ### Social responsibility and help Finland is the socially responsible country. They try to support people that need support. Hacker School tries to bring more women to industry. They work hard and spend lot of time to get grants from big companies for female students who need financial support. ### Conclusion Personally I found lot of similarities between modern approach to education in Finland and Hacker School. Both Finland schools and Hacker School try to achieve an environment of creativity, exploration and learning. For many years Finnish education was ranked as the best in the world. I like that they are trying to [improve it](http://www.finnbay.com/golden-days-where-acceptance-of-finlands-success-in-education-is-over/). The same approach is used at Hacker School. Each batch at Hacker School is different from past ones. They always try to do something differently. ### Disclosure I've never been to Finland so my understanding of its education system is based on online articles, blogs and talks with friends. --- ## /writings/immigration # Immigration I often get asked when and how did I leave Ukraine. I told this story many times. But it was such a long time ago - almost 13 years from the moment I write this - that I get this question less and less and my memories are starting to change and I don’t remember it as crispy anymore. So I will write it down. That is why writing is so great. So the year is 2010. I am at my last year of my university program. I think it is sometime around the March or April. I have been working part time as software engineer for 2.5 years. I live in Kharkiv - which is east of Ukraine. Few things are going through my mind in parallel. 2.5 years at my first job seems enough, I just finished one incredible project for Ukrainian Aerospace Agency. I feel ready for something new. Also the idea of living abroad and learning about new countries excited me a lot. At the same time Viktor Yanukovich won Presidential election. I felt terrible. In the region where I lived most people I knew supported him and I felt isolated. I was 22 at the time. I was thinking back then that with such support he would probably be Ukrainian President for two terms - which is 10 years. My mind drawn very dark picture for me - not until I turn 32 there would start to be a progress in my home country. When you are 22 being 32 feels like an eternity away. Obviously in retrospect I was wrong. I didn’t expect Revolution to happen in less than 4 years. This was mostly due to the fact that I didn’t have open minded and progressive people in my environment. There were plenty of them elsewhere - I just didn’t know about their existence. If I was asked to replay the thing I would probably just go to Kyiv or Lviv in 2010 and meet all the young people who had similar ideas and outlook. Anyway. So it’s April 2010. I start thinking of going to live and work abroad. I think I've sent resume to one company in Denmark - I loved reading their blog and gave it a shot. At the same time I also decided to go on a short vacation abroad - one week trip to Montenegro in May. So the idea hit me - open LinkedIn and search for companies there. I probably found 5 companies and did send emails to all of them asking if they need software engineer. One company replied and we agreed that I will come for an interview in person while I am on my vacation. So that is exactly what happened. I went to Montenegro to rest for a bit, took one day from my vacation and hopped on a bus to Podgorica - Montenegrin capital - where I had an interview. I think they liked me immediately and send me a message that they want to hire me. I told them I need to come back to Kharkiv to finish my university and get my diploma. So I came back to Kharkiv, got my master diploma in June, finished with my job in July and on Aug 1 I came back to Montenegro ready to start a new chapter in my life. That is it. It was very simple. Got an idea to work abroad and executed it in a very relaxed way in the background. I also want to highlight - I didn't go to Montenegro for money or career development. I rarely optimize for those things in my life. In fact I earned 33% less money in Montenegro than in Kharkiv. Also in Kharkiv I had a clear career path and was promised many exciting things by my former company. However the decision was very easy to made. I felt excitement. And whenever I feel that I try to follow and chase it. PS I maintain timeline of my moves [here](https://podviaznikov.com/places). [#immigration](/tags/immigration) [#life](/tags/life) [#Montengro](/tags/Montengro) [#Ukraine](/tags/Ukraine) --- ## /writings/implementation-details # Implementation details We live in a post-modern world driven by the discussion of the wrong issues. It's an obvious thing to say when the year 2016 comes to an end. "Discourse" is mainly centered these days around things we shouldn't even care about: tax breaks, income tax rates, problems of global terrorism, immigration, etc. In my opinion, there is no need for us now to agree on specific policies and actions - those are implementation details. We don't even need to agree with some ideas either (e.g. the idea of the free market). Ideas are very vague, we all understand them differently, they can be easily misinterpreted. But the main problem with ideas is that they bundle too many things together. E.g. we couple both dreams and ways of implementing them - the idea of capitalism or democracy for some reason nowadays carries the assumption how it should be implemented. What I think we should discuss more are values. Values usually remain unstated both in interpersonal dialogs and discussions on the higher levels. I think we should strive to change this situation and be very explicit in stating our values and enquiring about values of people and systems we deal with. Before we even start discussing why some idea or policy (implementation detail) is good or bad, we should clarify each others' values and rank them. We should try to find some consensus after such discussion. The next step would be to reflect what are some problems with our existing values and dream up of some possible future values we would like to have. I think that political parties, social movements, people organizations should work on this level. They used to work on ideas and ideologies in the XX century, and on specific practical policies in the past few decades. We should approach thinking about future in the following way: let's identify our current values and their precedence let's find some problems with our current values let's dream up of what values we would like to have in society in 10, 20, 50, 100 years (and not what the income tax should be in 2018) let's compile those values in a well-defined system and focus on talking about it The rest is implementation details. Yes, it can be difficult to come up with the ideal solution in this complex and interconnected world, but some progress and solutions with positive impact are always possible. For my engineering friends, I have a following metaphor for the issue I'm discussing. We have a complicated system because we coupled interfaces and implementation details. Everything is so messy right now that it's hard to see what is where. In my opinion values are interfaces. They are high-level things that should be clearly defined and exposed. Interfaces are necessary because they allow communication between actors. Policies, actions, decisions, processes are implementation details. They should be implemented in the best rational way (given all the constraints) to comply with defined interfaces. E.g. the income tax is not a question of great importance in such approach. Pick the one that helps system to conform to the defined interface (achieve desired declared values). Another great benefit of such clear separation is that it's easier to run the migration on a live system, that is, provide a real positive change. It's much easier to understand interfaces between system A and B and came up with an appropriate plan than to understand messy coupled beasts we have now. Our branches of life: economy, technology, philosophy, education, science should be values-driven. They should be considered in the context of the future societal values and not some specific metrics they rely on now. To reiterate, I think that *implementation detail* < *idea* < *values* < *desired values*. Let's steer discussions and the whole discourse to the appropriate level of abstraction. Also working on the proper level of abstraction can eliminate whole classes of problems automatically. E.x. if only we can rethink our values, a lot of issues we are discussing today would be eliminated: terrorism, an immigration crisis, tax issues and global warming. This sounds too idealistic and naive in 2016, but I think humanity did it before and can switch to the new way of thinking again. I don't want to discuss now what one should do next after agreeing on values, that is, I don't want to discuss implementation details. I think 1) it's an easy problem to solve once you have a simple system design, 2) it would contradict the whole message of this essay, which is *start from the most important issue first*. --- ## /writings/is-history-harmful # Is History Harmful? I love history, it’s fun, it’s interesting, it has a lot of "answers" to a lot of questions. You can pick any today's problem, find something similar in history and propose solution or explanation or even predict the future. History is a powerful tool. But it is also a dangerous tool (especially in the hands of people that try to use it for manipulation). But there are at least several problems with it. History gives context (often harmful one) to each nation. When you meet a new person of another nationality sometimes by default, you might assign some features from the past (decades and centuries back) to that person. This context depends on your country of origin and the way you personally were taught history. History plays a particularly bad joke with countries that have the history full of "glory." Let take e.g. Europe. It had a lot of empires/kingdoms in the last 2-3 thousand years. Ancient Greece and Rome, Holy Roman Empire, Austro-Hungarian empire, Rzeczpospolita, the Russian empire, Ottoman empire, British empire, Napoleon empire, different Slavic kingdoms (Kingdom of Bohemia, Serbian empire, Kievan Rus) and so on. This is an incomplete list of "big" countries with overlapping borders across different centuries. Even today when you meet an average European person they might tell you that their country was once big, and maybe the part of your home country was under their rule 1000 years ago or so. There is a significant chance that modern European nations were one country a few centuries ago or had several wars between them. Does it make an impact on some people today? Unfortunately yes. After traveling a lot in the past 2 years and talking to people of different nationalities, I can say that sometimes it's still a problem. Can we pause for a second and think why all these borders, kingdoms that disappeared centuries ago still meter for the average person? Maybe it is because everyone studies history in school. I do have a feeling that countries that either don’t have glory moments in their history or at least don’t put a lot of stress on it during history program in school have much more liberal citizens. I remember meeting a person from Finland. He was studying political science, and he told me that Finnish people have very low national self-esteem because they don’t have glory history. What is interesting that for me on average Finnish people are more intelligent, smart, pleasant to talk to than average person from "big" country. At the end of the day Finland has: one of the best education systems in the world great quality of life technology/Internet penetration is extraordinary Finnish people have much more reasons to be proud of themselves because of their achievements in the last generations than people who are proud of achievements decades and centuries ago. Those are the questions that pop up periodically in my mind: Why do people still so obsessed with countries, sizes, borders, power? Why do people celebrate war heroes and not great scientists? Why do people celebrate people from the past but not people who are working on improving our lives now? Don’t you think that Elon Musk is doing more positive things to humanity than some crazy dictator from the huge country in Eurasia? Why do people divide humankind between "us" and "them"? What makes "us" good and "them" bad? Why do people admire "strong" and "firm" leaders but not people with the intellect, with the vision for the future of the humanity? Why don't we celebrate intellectual victories and scientific breakthroughs, but we celebrate military "victories days"? Why people who are responsible for so many deaths are more famous and respected in history than people who saved millions of lives? Can it be because of history and the way it was/is taught in our schools? In my opinion, when we study history accents are made on the wrong details. We shouldn't admire war heroes, we should learn and realize why the war happened in the first place, what mistakes were made. We can't live in the past, we need to live in the today and think about the future. World today is very different from what it was even century ago, so many things, ideas, idols, ideals from the past are obsolete now. Can we imagine what will happen if we just "forget" all the history? Wars between the nations, slavery, genocides - all of that. How we will treat every new person we meet? Will his nationality, origin, skin color matter to us? Does the history protect us from repeating mistakes of the past or does it influence our attitude to each other? History is important, but quite often it is used for propaganda and forming prejudices. --- ## /writings/issues-with-tests # Issues with Tests I have this weird problem: I can't take personality tests. When I'm trying to do such tests, my brain starts working extremely hard. How should I answer the question like "You often get so lost in thoughts that you ignore or forget your surroundings."? What do they mean by "often"? If I don't have a definitive answer, should I go through all my history and find in what percentage of cases I forgot about my surroundings? I find it impossible to give even a slightly precise answer to this question. Or take another one: "You try to respond to your e-mails as soon as possible and cannot stand a messy inbox." How should I respond to that? It definitely depends on my motivation in that particular year, month or day. Sometimes I'm dedicated to cleaning up my inbox, sometimes I'm messy. I'm fast with replies for some people and not so fast with others. My response depends on so many factors that I can't just provide any definitive answer to the posted question at all. Whenever I tell someone I have this problem, they usually look at me with disbelief and say "What do you mean? Taking a test is easy, just don't think about it hard and quickly pick the answer that first comes to your mind". I heard this advice time and time again. It just isn't so easy with me. What is even more strange for me personally is that I am still to meet a person who has the same issue. My mind couldn't accept the nature of the test: it's desire to reduce the complexity of our personalities to the numbers. I want it to provide as accurate model of me as possible, but I don't think tests designed to do that. They are designed to paint as broad picture as possible, and I have very little interest in that. Recently a situation occurred that triggered even more skepticism towards the tests from me. A friend of mine asked a bunch of his and my friends to do Myers-Briggs personality test (there are 16 personality types). All the people besides him and me got ENFP personality type. So 6 people out of 8 got ENFP personality, but according to the global statistic, only 7% of the population has this personality type. Of course, 8 people are not enough to disprove global statistic, but it's enough to make one even more suspicious. Here are the problems I see with personality tests: *we don't know ourselves that well*. It seems like personal questions should be the easiest. But I found it to be untrue. I'd go ahead and say that life to some extent is about learning about yourself. So if you don't know yourself perfectly well, you can't really assess yourself objectively. *wishful thinking*. People understand what features are "better" than others and then select them. Sometimes, we select option we would like to have, but not the one we have now. *reduction*. I'm ok being reduced to some type of personality, but it doesn't work. You can't fit individual into the model. It will be always to some extent wrong. *behavior changes.* Day to day. Based on moods, lessons, events, contexts, people. *fluidity*. Mind and soul are moving dots on the line, they are not fixed. Everything changes, and we are not even aware of all changes that happen to us. *internalization*. There is some desynchronized state between what we do and what we believe and know mentally. So we might behave differently than before, but we don't know why. And if someone asks you what do you do in the situation - you might provide an obsolete answer, just because your mind didn't fully catch up yet, and didn't internalize the situation. *complexity*. asserting your personality through the tests reminds me of the scientists trying to build mathematical models for the climate change. The world is too complex to comprehend and build an even slightly realistic model. The same applies to our personalities. The complexities are so high that I can't imagine a test that would be able to provide semi-accurate models of us. Ok, so personality tests have a bunch of problems. Should you still take them? Absolutely. They can provide ideas, insights or rather questions for you to think about play with. They are just a tool to facilitate self-discovery, not to provide answers. So take them for what they are. --- ## /writings/joke-is-on-us # Joke is on Us Imagine two people. They are friends or colleagues or neighbors. One person starts telling jokes about another, only criticizes her. All the time. Sometimes the jokes are offensive. He says how stupid that person, how unreasonable all her thoughts are, how limited and second-class she is. What would be the outcome of such behavior? At least it will be alienation, at most it will be rivalry and fight. One person pumps his ego up at the expense of another person while destroying the possibility of the dialog, cooperation and any constructive type of relationship. The second person might just either withdraw forever from such type of abusive relationship or will mirror the attitude towards her and start the fight. And now think about "progressive" liberal media in the US. Starting from 1999 till today people like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver run highly popular daily/weekly shows where they laughed at people with whom they disagree. The result of that is highly divided society each with each own media. I've heard that such daily shows are a unique feature of American culture where it's allowed to make fun of anyone. I've been told that that is precisely the symbol of democracy. That might be a good point if such shows were merely additions to some serious media programs. But as far as I can tell, at least for the young people, those programs are *the main* source of political discourse. Those programs divided people on "right"(pumping the egos up, because who don’t want to be "right" and it feels great to be on the "winning side") and "wrong". It is unfortunate, because I saw this happened in Ukraine in the years between 1991 and 2014. Once you have divided society it’s tough to bring it back. Usually, some tragic events follow such situation. On top of dividing society, those programs, and those comedians completely *trivialized* discourse. Everything became a joke. There are different metaphors for life. I think John Oliver's metaphor is "life is a comedy… dark comedy". When you make fun of Dalai Lama, privacy, religions, elections - you create a world where there is no serious subject anymore. Every topic is a comedy, which is there only for our entertainment. In fact, the current President of the US is an entertainer and for a lot of people idea of him becoming a President was a joke. But it’s the logical consequence of the world created by daily shows and comedians who became political commentators. In the world of "old" political discourse, Donald Trump would never become a President. But in the "new" world of comedy, it's precisely him, who *should be* a President. Nowadays comedians also bring a lot of pure anger into the world. Please watch "Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner" video and his commentary on it. He went there to make fun of President Bush, and he made him extremely angry by the end of the evening. In what moral framework is it acceptable to *consciously* make other people angry? He had no intentions for President to change his positions, opinions or actions. Because if he had, he would approach the problem differently. I think all he cared about was his fame. He prioritized his ego and made the President of the United States angry. When someone is angry, it's quite difficult to act and reason appropriately. You become less rational, more aggressive and bitter. It doesn't matter if I agree with policies of President Bush, I think Stephen Colbert is essentially a high-school bully in this situation. Instead of being engaged in a constructive dialog he went for inappropriate behavior of the poorly developed teenager. If you are liberal, why do you waste your energies blaming Trump, conservatives, Fox News, etc? What is the point in such blame? *Big part* of the responsibility lies with liberals. The only constructive way is to withdraw blame and hate, analyze own mistakes and follow up with some conclusions and lessons learned about own behavior. We need to change ourselves first. And we can start building bridges instead of burning them. [#comedy](/tags/comedy) [#politics](/tags/politics) [#discourse](/tags/discourse) [#modernity](/tags/modernity) [#liberalism](/tags/liberalism) [#America](/tags/America) --- ## /writings/life-as-a-dance # Life as a Dance Remember, when you were a kid, you could dance and enjoy it enormously even if you *didn't know how* to dance? After you grow out of childhood, you lose that bliss. You're starting to learn how to dance in the school. It's painful, and it takes time, and it might be not fun anymore. And those years are filled with effort, tears, setbacks, lost hope, varying levels of motivation, ups and downs, defeats and victories. And then, maybe, if you're persistent and lucky, you might rediscover the joy from your childhood again. And that is the point where you know how to dance as professional, and you feel it and enjoy it as a kid. That is the integration point: your inner child integrated with an adult to form a mature creature. For me, that is the metaphor of life. You go from childhood - which most people enjoy - to sometimes painful period of adulthood where you need to learn how to live and how to bring that joy back, and when you're done - you are a mature person. The one, who has a deep understanding of life and know how to enjoy it and appreciate it. It is not about just rediscovering what was lost during adulthood. It's about bringing together all sides: mind and body and soul. It's this three-dimensionality that gives new depth to the joy. That is the whole point of growing up - to lose joy so you can find it again in a new broader sense and with new intensity. Childhood is about not worrying about judgments from other people. You have no notion of shame, and you are yourself. You loose it in the process of growing up but rediscover later if you are lucky. Maybe that was the meaning of Adam and Eve story. Becoming aware of themselves and ashamed of whom they are expelled those two from the paradise. They lost themselves. But the way back is also possible as the story tells us. --- ## /writings/life-experience # Life experience There are a lot of people with a deflected sense of reality. I know people who are assholes. That is not surprising of course, on its own. What I found to be interesting that those people usually have not much life experience. I used to have a colleague who was not the best coworker I ever had. He couldn’t communicate with other colleagues, and he couldn’t take feedback. He couldn’t listen and was sure that he was correct all the time. He was like that partly because he was the most junior person on the team without any professional experience. He didn’t know how to program well and, most importantly, how to collaborate and communicate. And I saw that in people in other spheres of life. The more arrogant someone is, the more self-righteous the person is, the less experience they have. Usually, such people are very quick with offering advice. I’ve got a lot of it from the people who have no experience in their lives. I listened to the feedback, thought about it at home, and usually concluded that I should do the opposite. Because all the reasons the person provided to me were wrong and came as a result of their background. In my opinion, it is still important to listen and reflect on this advice and opinions. But mostly as an exercise in reflection. Opinions from some people serve as an excellent warning sign what *not to do*. Listen to genuine people who lived their lives and had careers. E.g. never take advice on parenting from someone who is 25 and have no kids. Do not take relationships advice from someone who had never been in at least mid-term relationships. Do not listen to what to read or watch or to do from such people. Listen to people who are nice, and lived their lives and also are always *changing*. Self-righteous people change very slowly. Because they already have all the “answers.” Be open to the ideas, but really think who are you talking to now. Bad advice is much worse than no advice at all! Another small observation. Do not spend much time with people talking with whom leaves you feeling “dirty” afterward. Respect yourself. Avoid people who have no much respect for others! Because they will not respect you too. If you spend time with someone who doesn’t respect you, it will hurt your self-respect too! You want people around who will make you a better person, not a worse one. --- ## /writings/managers-and-ministers # Managers and Ministers In 2013 - before the revolution in Ukraine - I had this idea, that Prime Ministers and CEOs of large multinational corporation share mostly the same skills. In 2013 it seemed to me that my home country had two principal problems: corruption and lack of talent. My idea was supposed to solve both of them. Since Ukrainian politicians and government officials were poorly educated, corrupted and incapable of reforming the country in over 20 years, I thought that we need to invite professional managers from respected and successful foreign companies. Of course, to such professionals notions of corruption would be unthinkable. I was thinking about making offers for CEOs of Nokia, IKEA, Ericsson, and the likes. It would work like that: pay competitive global salary, with 4 years contract and bonuses tied to the agreed KPIs. I remember pitching this idea to a few Ukrainian friends and, of course, they said that I was crazy. There were two main arguments against it.A foreigner can't run a country because she is not a patriot and her interests may collide. My counterarguments are: Ukrainians stole much more money and made much more harm to Ukrainian state than any foreigner ever did. It is as simple as that. Most of the Ukrainian politicians and managers live at the bottom of the Maslow pyramid of needs - they don't invest in educating themselves, and they don't care about building a proper state, that is why they are least qualified to run the country. PM has nothing to do with international politics and national security. It's purely managerial role, and foreign policy and army are controlled by the President. The second usual argument was that we can't afford to pay high salaries to PM and Ministers. If you mention salary of 100K USD per year in Ukraine for the Prime Minister some people might go crazy. However, I think that is because they lack perspective. We live in the globalized world and in to compete for the top talent you need to pay premium salaries. Prime Minister of the country can't earn less than creative professional in the Silicon Valley. In fact, I think Ukrainian PM should earn around 1M USD per year. According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_salaries_of_heads_of_state_and_government) salaries of state leaders are following: Ukrainian President - 94K USD russian president - 136K USD France PM - 200K USD Sweden PM - 220K USD Germany PM - 300K USD New Zealand - 325K USD Luxembourg - 340K USD Switzerland PM - 495K USD Australia PM - 507K PM Singapore PM - 1631K USD So why am I proposing to pay second biggest salary in the world to Ukrainian PM? I think, except Singaporean PM, those wages are unbalanced. Those are government salaries. Please, go look up salaries for CEOs of big companies. Most top companies pay well above 1M USD per year in base salary plus huge bonuses. Government salaries are lagging here, but that means they attract talent of lesser quality. If you want the best managers, who have an excellent education and excellent track record - pay appropriately. If you still think 1M USD per year for PM is too much, please check out salaries for football coaches of national teams. In 2016 even Ukrainian National manager earned 170K Euro (which is higher than the wage of Ukrainian President). Top 9 European coaches earned between 1M Euro and 5M Euro per year. Fabio Capello, while coaching russian football team earned ~11M USD per year. Think about those numbers, and compare them to the salary of the President. Why did Capello receive salary well above the average? Because he is top manager coming into below the average team and trying to make the difference. Football coaches manage just 20-30 people, yet they receive salaries that are 20-100 times higher than people who manage the whole states. I'm not arguing that the salaries should be reduced, I'm arguing that even higher salaries should be paid for PMs of the countries which are serious about making the leap. If you think about those numbers with a clear head, you will realize that proper professional government can deliver value much higher than the salaries they receive. I want to acknowledge, that since the revolution Ukraine took a bit similar path to the one I described. In fact, decent amount of Ministers were foreign citizens. However, I think it's not enough. I think PM should be a successful international top manager. The same goes for Ministers. I think they should come from highly developed countries of Western Europe, Asia, etc. They should have the very best education in the world top schools. I bet some of these successful managers would love to come to Ukraine. Because it will be a challenge for them - to modernize a country with 40M people. We talked about salaries a lot, but the challenge and the prospect of the big impact are what really drives these people. Salary is just a way of showing that you are serious about the project and believe in fair compensation. --- ## /writings/mcp-first # MCP-first nowadays it's possible to build new products in [MCP](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro)-first way. we had web first, native first, local first, mobile first approaches in the previous decades. now we have a new way: build a backend for your product and expose its functionality as MCP server. now any MCP client (like Claude and others) can use your new product. so UI is already there, Claude becomes your UI and you can focus on the logic. if I start working on a new CMS platform or newsletter writer or reader or any tool really I would make it MCP-first with no additional UI. if my understanding [here](/writings/what-is-coming) is correct MCP-first will become the main way to build tools. --- ## /writings/more-personal # More personal I cannot listen to the most music from 90s. I don’t have nostalgia for those bands and songs. A year ago I accidentally heard one song from Incubus and realized why it doesn’t touch me. I don’t remember lyrics exactly but it was something about the person riding in a car towards the sunset. The whole song was about that. Kind of like very abstract description of what is happening in the *outer* word. It’s quite easy to write lyrics like that. You play with the words and the form. I can call this “writing about nothing”(inspired by Seinfeld). Or rather writing about *nothing personal *or even *nothing substantial*. And now compare lyrics of most rock and indie bands of 90s to the lyrics of Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo(or many other modern artists). Their lyrics are so personal and intimate. They write about what they’ve lived through and what they’ve felt. Their songs have emotions and reflections. It’s completely different level of craft. First of all it’s very difficult to do technically. You don’t just play with words, you try to recall your feelings and turn them into the words. On top of that writing personal things is way more scary and requires courage. You cannot hide behind the words. And don’t forget about reflections and self-awareness. Billie and Olivia are extremely self-aware and reflective. They don’t just write about driving the car towards the sunset. Billie drives in the car and she reflects on her struggles, her dreams and connection with people. When Olivia drives in the car she reflects on finished relationship and her insecurities. I don’t want to dunk too much on the music from 90s. But I want to say that modern art is better. It’s more honest because it’s more intimate and personal. And it has meaning. Personal stories have reflections and lessons in them. So when we listen to modern songs we can relive some moments from our lives, reflect on them, learn something about ourselves and eventually let go of some feelings that hold us back. I love that we make progress. It should be that way. Younger generation should be better than older ones in many respects. And they are. [#reflection](/tags/reflection) [#music](/tags/music) [#art](/tags/art) --- ## /writings/my-travel-routine # My travel routine I love traveling and I hope I will do it till the rest of my life. However my traveling habits change over the years - depending on my interested and stage in life. I do decent amount of travel with friends. But I also love solo travel. As a single person in mid-30s I have a very specific travel routine. Because I love to spend time by myself too much I need to setup some structures in order to get social time. ### Running When pandemic started I picked up running. Before pandemic I used to play football and bike and walk a lot. All the group sports were out in March 2020 in San Francisco. So I picked up running. It was very difficult the first week but then I started to enjoy it. Now I appreciate it a lot. I incorporated running into my travel routine. Before I would try to find folks to play football (which worked quite good), I would need to pack my football boots for each trip - and that was an issue since I usually travel with only one travel bag. Running is so much better for traveling. I can run anywhere and I just need regular shoes. When I come to the new city I immediately go for a run and try to keep it as part of my routine. In the past 2+ years I went on runs in Rome, Venice, Madrid, Mexico, Barcelona, Tallinn, Warsaw, San Diego, Lisbon, Kraków. I run often when at home in New York. And doing exact same routine while traveling is priceless. ### Routines In addition to running I keep many of the same routines. I go to my local coffeeshop in New York almost every day. I talk to my baristas and then read some news and do my work for few hours. I do exactly the same thing while traveling. I immediately find coffeeshop that suits me and go there first thing after my arrival. It establishes some familiarity. ### Classes I also have a great trick to make travels useful and find some people to talk to. I take classes. It can be language classes - Portuguese or Spanish in local school. It can be music lessons - guitar or some more exotic local instrument. It can be sport classes. My favorite so far is altinha classes in Copacabana beach in Rio. Surfing is a great option too when available. Learning some local dance is another great option that I’am planning to try. ### Touristy things I don’t do many touristy things nowadays. I am at the stage of my life that I like my routines a bit more than hunting for some new museums. There are however exceptions. Eg in 2021 I went to Venice. I had low exceptions and thought that the city is overhyped. But I was wrong and loved it so much and I did many touristy things. Another great travel idea is to attend specific events. Eg while in Venice I went to see Venice Architecture Biennale. And it was great. There are so many great events happening around the world all the time: film festivals, unique concerts, book fairs and so on. When I feel like I’m out of the ideas and don’t know what to do I do use AirBnB experiences. They are usually nice deletions of good ideas that I can do in this new location. ### Locals I’m not into bars or night life, so it can be challenging to meet locals of my own age. I do use “online dating” apps to meet people. However, I use them as a way to meet locals and go for a walk to the park and get coffee and chat a bit. I do think that the category of those apps is a bit misleading. Different people have different needs. Some look for serious relationships, some for casual one and some people look for new friends or even a nice walk in the park. [#travel](/tags/travel) --- ## /writings/non-believers # Non-believers Recently at work, we were discussing 401K - personal pension fund that you can contribute to during life and use after the age of 65. I wanted to be persuaded to use it and listened to all the arguments made by my colleagues, but they didn't work for me. I tried to think why having 401K is a no-brainer for my American friends and why my perspective was so different. The answer lies in my background and my comprehension of history, states, society, institutions, etc. It seems to me that my colleagues believe in the stability and immutability of the existing system they live in. Consciously or not they bet that in 40-60 years the system they live now would remain unchanged: the United States would still exist as a country banks and financial institutions would not go bankrupt laws to protect savings of the regular people still would be in place the balance of social power would remain similar to the one we have today and middle class would still exist in similar proportion and have some political voice It is a tough bet to make in my opinion, the probability of change in each system might not be high, but overall probability of general change is much higher - because it's multiplication of individual probabilities. To be fair, I'm happy that my colleagues can hold such belief in the system's stability and predictable future. To some extent, I would like all of us to have this belief because it is much easier to live when uncertainties are low. However, my background does not allow me to believe in such story even if I wanted to. I think this belief in the unpredictability of the future is quite common among Eastern Europeans. And there are historical reasons for that. Here are the facts. I'm older than Ukrainian state. My grandparents and parents grew up in the country that disappeared in 1991. All of them lost their savings. All of them experienced a radical change in the way of life, values, ideology, etc. They would never be able to anticipate coming changes few years in advance. My grandparents lived through WWII as kids. My great-grandparents were born in the Russian empire, lived through WWI as children, witnessed the collapse of the empire, revolution, civil war, and emergence of the new state of Soviet Union. Even in my not long adult life I already experienced two revolutions in Ukraine and one war. I lived through the countless revolutions and wars across the globe, global economic crisis, banks going bankrupt and people losing their savings. If I were born 100 years earlier - in 1887 instead of 1987 - I would experience following events: by the age of 27, I would see WWI starting by the age of 30, I would see Russian revolution, the collapse of Russian empire and emergence of the new states in my late 30s and 40s, I would live through Stalin's repressions and genocide by the age of 52, I would see the start of WWII that would last six years by the age of 60, I would witness the start of the Cold War (and would probably die before it ends) If I could live until the age of 104 years I would see the collapse of the Soviet UnionI think that it's valuable to map scale of one's life to the history. The speed of history is increasing with each new generation after all. Many changes may and will happen during the 80 years of person's life. Exact changes are unpredictable and uncontrollable, but with high confidence, we can predict that extreme changes will happen in the next 40-60 years, and we should plan for this fact. Another Eastern European - Zygmunt Bauman - describes our times as "liquid modernity." Those are the times of chaotic change. We change ourselves constantly; we flow through the life-changing places, jobs, life partners and even values. If we are changing ourselves, how could we expect large systems - states, banks, culture, etc - to remain stable and still exist in half a century? --- ## /writings/no-questions # No questions October 2024. I'm sitting in there Warsaw Airport waiting for my flights to the US. Two more people sit close to me. They will take the same flight. They've just met. One is Polish guy in his late 50s or maybe early 60s. He talks to the Ukrainian women just few years younger than him. Guy talks almost non stop. He tries to explain to the woman why there is a war between russia and Ukraine. He mentions orthodoxy, "politics" and something else. He goes in circles. He makes tons of matter of facts claims on what Ukrainian and russian societies are. And I'm like dude, you have person just in front of you with more direct knowledge. Ask her about her thoughts and experiences. Then you can share your ideas but ask what the other person thinks about them. He never did that. Then he asks the women what flight did she took from Odesa to Warsaw and he says how there are many flights now from Poland to Ukraine. I'm in shock, the woman is in shock too. He tries to explain to him that there are no flights to or from Ukraine since Feb 2022. He still keeps asking the same question about the flight. He doesn't listen. He also asks me bunch of questions. Learns that I'm Ukrainian too and then keeps asking what is my home city - I said I have none and that I live abroad for many years, then he asks where in Ukraine I was born - I wasn't. Then he presses me to name any Ukrainian city. I finally tell him - Kharkiv. Even though I've only spent less than 9 years from the 37 I've been alive. He makes final remark about the war and I completely disengage from the conversation. Anyway, it brings me back to the countless conversations I had in my life. People make absolutely shitty statements about things they know very little about. And more importantly they don't ask questions. And even if they ask those questions, it is just to pour a bucket of shit opinions they have ready. How many conversations with taxi drivers. How many shitty conversations with randos but also colleagues at work. It's very rare to meet a person who can 1) ask few questions 2) reflect and process answers and 3) take those answers into account while continuing conversation. Most people just have buckets of shit opinions already pre cooked that they want to splash on you. --- ## /writings/no-russian-rebound # No Russian Rebound Recently I read interesting [post](https://www.evernote.com/shard/s3/sh/64926e07-83b7-47f2-8d66-42519ca42e42/56cd665b9cd6ebc659ed7a79b4dd770a) about Russia from Max Skibinsky. In general it is seems like a well written article. But then the author started discussing Ukraine and Ukrainians in "Ukrainian Valor" section. In this post I would address some facts from the original article that I find controversial or incorrect. **Mistakes** > > The differences between "Ukrainian" and "Russian" people are cosmetic. The distance between Kiev and Moscow is about same as Sacramento to San Diego. > In my opinion saying that difference between Ukrainian and Russians is cosmetic and refer to Ukrainians as "Russians" is at least impolite. Can you say that Danes are "Swedes"? Can you say that Croats are "Serbs"? Can you say that Canadians are "Americans"? Can you say that Macedonians are "Bulgarians"? Can you say that New Zealanders are "Australians"? At the very minimum it’s very rude to call one nation with the name of another. It’s disrespectful to the culture, to the people. > Max refers to the distance between Kyiv and Moscow as indicator of equality between two nations (and gives distance between two US cities as an example). Just for the record distance between Kyiv and Moscow(851.8 km) is bigger than between Kyiv and Warsaw(772.6 km), Paris and London(449.9 km), Warsaw and Berlin(566.8 km), Lisbon and Madrid(625.2 km). In general, applying US (American, African, Asian) absolute distances to Europe never works because Europe is much more compact. He didn't even bother to spell the name of the Ukrainian capital correctly. **History** Max refers to [Novgorod Republic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod_Republic) as the “the last group of Russians who were not ruled by khans, czars, communist chairmans or KGB generals”. That is why him describing differences between Russian and Ukrainian being cosmetic is scandalous. Ukrainian history is very different from the Russian one. Ukrainians do have very democratic pages in our history during the past 1000 years (and those events, periods are unique to us, not other Eastern Europeans). First of all we had [cossacks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporozhian_Cossacks) in Ukraine at least during period of 1492–1775 - people who became known as members of democratic, semi-military communities. Those people were building very progressive type of society for several centuries. They had very democratic process: hetman was the head of the state and he was elected together with other members of the government. Go read about it, it’s fascinating, think about what was going on in the world during the same period! Cossacks are the big part of Ukrainian identity. Their love to freedom and justice are celebrated by our poets and writers. Learning about cossacks is a big part of Ukrainian school program - from history to literature. We also had another type of rebels in the Ukraine called ["haydamaky"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidamaka). And again those people were very similar to cossacks and were fighting for the better and more fair life. In 1710 the leader of the cossacks (Pylyp Orlyk) created [constitution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Pylyp_Orlyk). It was even before [US Constitution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution) was written! This constitution declares some rights and values unimaginable for that time. In 1917 after collapse of Russian empire Ukraine was able to create democratic state - [Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_People's_Republic) - that existed for almost 4 years. It was invaded by Russians several times and destroyed. What is interesting is that UPR had parliament and President - [Mykhailo Hrushevsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykhailo_Hrushevsky). It was very unusual for both place and time. The most impressing thing is that Mykhailo Hrushevsky was smart, educated and well-respected person - he was academician and historian. Not to mention that after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 we already had two revolutions and 5 elected presidents (realistically Russia had just two of them in the same period). We had these revolutions because people were against of usurpation of the power by one person or group of people. **Politics** > > Ukraine was a satellite state > In the most recent history of Ukraine we declared international policy very different from the Russian one. We were very neutral country, gave up nuclear weapons and didn’t participate in wars. That is why I doubt, that Ukraine was a satellite state. > Check for example how Ukraine and Russia voted on different international questions in the United Nations. E.x. check [votes on Kosovo](http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=14B6698V585J8.8756&menu=search&aspect=power&npp=50&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=voting&ri=5&source=~%21horizon&index=.VW&term=Kosovo&x=0&y=0&aspect=power), [Georgia](http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=14B6698V585J8.8756&menu=search&aspect=power&npp=50&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=voting&ri=2&matchopt=0%7C0&source=~%21horizon&index=.VW&term=Georgia&x=14&y=13&aspect=power) and so on. **Education** Ukraine was independent for almost 23 years now. Basically everyone under 30 years got their education in Ukrainian schools and universities (not Soviet Union or Russian). To put it in perspective: in schools we almost don’t study Russian history or Russian literature anymore (it's just a part of regular world history and world literature classes). The greatest people (most celebrated) in the history of Russian state (Peter I, Ekaterina II, Lenin, Stalin) are considered biggest enemies of Ukrainian nation and state. Those "leaders" were responsible for genocides and repressions of Ukrainian bright minds and ordinary people. Russian classic literature is not required subject in schools anymore. We don’t study Pushkin or Dostoevsky as much as our parents. In fact we study them in the same quantities as other world writers and poets. We do study our own writers, who wrote about our own heroes and our own values, much more. **Identity** During my adult life I didn’t see many people of my generation (and younger generations) who associated themselves with Russians. When I went out of the country I was embarrassed, when someone would ask by mistake if I am "Russian". A lot of Ukrainians do speak Russian language. But that doesn’t make them Russians. Canadian and Americans speak English. But still two countries have very different values. Same is true about Ukraine: we do have our own values, culture, traditions, cuisine, heroes, land and history. **Conclusion** Also I have an opinion about difference in mentality between Ukrainians and Russians. But it is the topic for the future opinionated post. Here I just tried to show some factual mistakes in the Max's post. I don’t comment on other parts of the post from Max. I found them interesting but I can’t verify if they are correct. I have never been to Russia and I don’t have enough facts and information about that country. That is why I don’t try to make statements on Russia and Russians in this post. I wish Max did the same in his original post. We have this belief in Ukraine: even the most democratic or liberal Russians stop being democratic and liberal when they start speaking about "Ukrainian question". Sadly it’s so rare (but not impossible) to find Russians that are tolerant to other nationalities (specifically Ukrainians). --- ## /writings/on-abundance-and-moderation # On abundance and moderation Goethe wrote, "One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words." We can take few good points from this wisdom but let focus on one for now. What is interesting here to me is that Goethe didn't advice us on reading several poems per day, he didn't advise us on listening to the whole music album or talking a lot. Almost every major world religion I know has the concept of self-restraint. Restricting ourselves during some periods for food consumption, sex, sleep and other sources of physical pleasure. There are also a lot of proverbs on this topic in each culture. In my country, we have a saying that "what is a lot is not good." Neil Postman also said "if we eat too much food ... we turn a means of survival into its opposite." This wisdom existed for thousands of years. Do we forget it now? If we are, why is that? Why do we need to restrict ourselves? Why can't we have it all and at once? Maybe because we should be able to control our wishes and our vices. Otherwise, they will become our masters and drive our decisions, actions, thoughts, identity, and destiny at the end? Or maybe moderation allows us to enjoy something better? If we have unlimited access to some resource can we truly be able to fully appreciate it? Isn't the abundance of something destroys its value? This sounds very similar to the law of open markets. Can we still truly enjoy our ice-cream if we eat it every day? Or can we truly appreciate watching some sport game if we can see it every day instead of once per week as it was only a few decades ago? Those examples are countless. Or maybe moderation provides us with variety? If we can't spend all our time on one thing we, will try something else. And maybe this variety is a key to our development and health. Or maybe abstaining from something makes us better? It allows us to better understand our true nature and true desires? Maybe it makes us more resilient to difficulties? Or maybe restriction of some sort allows us to focus and turn on from one category of needs (e.g. physical) to another (e.g. intellectual, spiritual etc)? Or maybe the idea of artificial restraint presents us with the change in our routine which is essential on recognizing when we do something on the autopilot? Maybe it helps us to fight boredom? It allows us to revisit our habits and default behaviors? E.g. instead of falling back to eating something when we are bored we can try to discover a new source of joy or even find some new meaning in our actions? Or maybe it will allow us to be more careful with our choices. If you can listen to only one song today, which one it will be? You'll probably try hard to make it count and make a maximum of it. Or maybe restriction allows us to have more unclaimed free time that we can spend on our own, reflecting on who we really are and what is really important to us? No matter what was Goethe primary reason for writing the phrase mentioned above I think we should try to take his advice to heart. Let us see if we can limit ourselves in our world driven by consumption. Are we even able anymore to listen to one song per day, do one physical exercise, read one story/essay, eat one nutritional (and tasty) meal? How would such change reshape our personalities and tastes? What skills would we acquire? Would we be less anxious or more? What would we do with our newly acquired free time? How would we spend it? Learn a new language, meet our friends, walk more and think more, do some community work, learn to play some instrument, invent a new game? I don't know, but it definitely puts you in control, it makes you design your life. Are we up to the challenge, are we capable of doing this? It's clear nowadays that abundance of food leads to obesity, diabetes and other health issues. Those changes are physical and easy to see. But what about the abundance of media, technology, entertainment? What impact huge quantities of those things have on us: on our bodies, minds, souls, consciousness, attention, etc? Are we even aware of changes in those areas? [#abundance](/tags/abundance) [#moderation](/tags/moderation) [#consumption](/tags/consumption) [#consumerism](/tags/consumerism) --- ## /writings/on-crying # On crying Crying is important. It's a way to release emotions and tension that builds up. It's good to do it on your own. It makes you feel more alive afterward. However, crying has a social function too. It's good to cry in front of another person. People mostly do not relate to each other through achievements or strength. We relate through sadness, fragility, weakness, melancholy, etc. Seeing someone crying is one of the ultimate connecting experiences. Those are the moments of total relation between two human beings. We see each other fully. We tend to realize the humanness and fragility of another person. And we see ourselves in them too. We understand how something touched them, and it reminded us of something that moves us. So it's all beautiful, of course. But there is another side to it. I had a lot of problems crying for quite some years through my late teens and most of my twenties. I realized is that a lot depends on who is near you at the moment. I feel very safe crying when I see that another person is secure herself/himself. That means that I trust to be near the person who not only cries himself but also can recover from it. So it doesn't look like the cry of prolonged depression but rather than a fluid tool that a person has at her disposal. When someone can cry and then be happy in few hours and be full of energy - that is the moment you stop perceiving crying as a weakness and the moment you trust that another person knows her tools. You never want to learn tools incorrectly. The consequences are hard. Eg, if you don't know how to transition between different emotional states and stuck in one emotion for days or weeks - crying will not help you much. It will be destructive. Learn how to let go of all the feelings. Live them, but do not feel attached. And you will be okay. When you are in the right spot yourself. When person close to you in the right spot. All things are effortless and easy. Learn the basics first. [#crying](/tags/crying) [#tools](/tags/tools) --- ## /writings/on-obsession-with-numbers # On obsession with numbers We live in a world obsessed with numbers. They are everywhere, from Google Analytics, which is installed on the [majority of popular sites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics#Popularity), to numbers of followers, likes, tweets etc. Do we really need to use and rely on the numbers in all the places and situations? Let's dive deeper and discuss few examples. While reading a book on Amazon Kindle it would highlight some of the most popular phrases bookmarked by other readers. I personally noticed that whenever I see such highlighted section I'd bookmark it too in the most of the cases (maybe ~80%). Only recently I realized this behavior of mine. It's an interesting use case and seems like a very dangerous side-effect because my actions are mostly automatic. I might like or agree with highlighted phrase not because it has value, but because there is a social proof for it. Whenever I encounter such section I would probably spend less time and energy thinking about it, forming my own opinion, because I would rely on conclusions of other people. The second reason why this may be dangerous is that it gives Amazon the *possibility* to manipulate peoples' opinions. All Amazon needs to do is to highlight some sections of the book. I'm not suggesting that Amazon is doing this or going to do, all I'm saying that the possibility is there. It's a similar, although more subtle, situation with Google that has the power to manipulate public opinion, influence elections etc. Let's move on to Google Analytics. In theory, it's a tool that helps site owners to 1) collect data about visitors, 2) make sense of the data and improve content on the site. But is it really that simple? First of all, it's not only that site owner has access to the data but Google itself has such access. Putting so much data and trust into one company doesn't seem like a wise and reliable long-term solution. Anyway, assume you've got your data. Let's say you run online blog/magazine or video hosting site. What are you going to do? You will find the most popular content (the one that attracts more views/interactions) and then you: will try to promote it more. E.g. you would put top 10 most popular articles/videos/songs on your home page at the very top will try to create more of the similar content The main problem here is that there is no direct relation between quality (or value) of the content and it's popularity. Some Ph.D. work on physics is much more valuable to the society than the most viral action video, pop song, funny picture etc. So what are you going to do? If you blindly rely on analytics and few basic metrics then you are going to change/create your content in a way that maximizes your numbers, simply because you can't track the quality of the content by Google Analytics and such metrics don't exist right now in those tools. There is a high chance that metrics suggested by Google Analytics would become your master and would drive future decisions about your product. There is a great talk by Joe Edelman who explores our obsession with maximizing numbers. He gives an example of YouTube. YouTube has no information on your personal goals while you interact with it. YouTube doesn't know that you want to learn to play guitar right now at this moment, but what YouTube knows is the most popular content slightly related to you. So if at any point of time you watched a music video, funny video or comedy on YouTube you will have similar recommendations while you will try to focus on learning how to play a guitar. Why do we have a number of views below every YouTube video, or a number of retweets and likes for each post? Why do we need to know how many people liked a post on Facebook, or our photo on Instagram? If I want to watch a video why should I care how many other people watched it? Wouldn't it influence my opinion about it? Why can't we leave it up to the every user to decide for themselves if the content is worth something? People should be able to formulate their own opinions. Otherwise, it becomes a dogma when 1 billion views for pop song validates its worthiness. The same goes for creators. I'm not sure having all those numbers available to the creator can influence her work positively. When you create something worthy it's not always possible for people to appreciate it at the moment. There are multiple examples of how now-famous artists died unknown and poor. Or how their work were heavily criticized by contemporaries (e.g. Huxley's Brave New World). Metrics are all about the current moment. They are not focused on the big picture or big idea, there is no notion of perspective in them. I'd argue that works of Shakespeare, Hemingway, Mozart would be totally different if they used tools available to us and cared about numbers. Because art is about expressing oneself and one's ideas and not about the anticipation of a public opinion. Moreover, to express a new idea you need to be free of numbers, and should not be influenced by public opinion. I'll give you one more example that might be relevant. Paul Graham's website doesn't have any number of views, visitors or Google Analytics snippet installed. And that makes sense because a lot of his essays you can read years later. As Neil Postman expressed in Amusing Ourselves to Death, in the modern times we are focused on the current moment which is dictated by our mediums. And our mediums are all about feeds nowadays. And feeds are about numbers. How many new items do you have today in your feed, how many unread items are there and so on. But again, those numbers are mostly focused on entertainment, not on a value that content provides. So numbers usually promote something entertaining. It's a way to keep something in a feed. Another problem is that those numbers are becoming a part of the content itself. The published book would include appraisals by famous people or newspapers. The movie title would include credentials of the director and references to her other successes. We would know how many copies an album sold. We would remember how much money particular Hollywood movie gathered. So this information is a part of the movie/album/book now. Another challenge with numbers is that they can be manipulated. You can buy views, you can make your content popular by spending money and promoting it. So if you have enough money, you can make something mediocre to become very important in the context of the current culture. Why do we need to have a system that can be gamed that easily with enough resources? Why do we need to have a system that prioritizes described distribution of the resources? Instead of spending time on value creation we are spending it on marketing in the bad sense of the word. And final problem with the new mediums and our reliance on numbers is that they discriminate old content. Mozart doesn't have online identity, he has no Instagram, no Twitter, and he doesn't have authentic music videos on YouTube and can't even remotely be compared to Kanye West in the context of the current way of thinking (centered around numbers). The extreme rise in the quantity of information and content in the last century led to the abundance of it. We feel lost now because there is a huge amount of books, songs, movies, articles etc. The time is a limited resources, and we need to be careful while choosing what to consume next. How was this problem solved? It was solved with the help of the top/hot lists. We have top lists for everything now: Billboard Top 100, 40 before 40, Forbes 500, top stories on Medium, trending songs on Soundcloud, most popular tweets and Twitter Moments, most liked Facebook posts. This sounds like a noble approach - help us to navigate through all this information. But at what cost? It creates a mass culture. It makes people have similar tastes, opinions, fears, beliefs. It makes us lazy and dependent on some external entity. So, giving all the information above, what can we do now? There are few simple ideas I was thinking about. Some include changes in your behavior: just keep in mind that not everything should be made easier for us. Easy things make us lazy and laziness leads to degradation. be mindful of your personal goals and reflect if some site/app helps you to achieve them or just distracts you. to cope with the abundance of information and content there is a simple solution - just ignore it. Opt out. This idea was hinted by Alain de Botton when he said that the most important things happened not yesterday or today. In fact, they probably happened decades and centuries ago. Pay attention to timeless things. Some are technological ideas: remove Google Analytics and other similar tools (that is how I run this site). decouple numbers from content. E.g. don't show how many views/or comments your blog has. maybe have browser extension that cleans up sites and removes comments, numbers of views, suggestions etc. explore new ways of consuming content. Maybe as consumers we need more control on the content representation? Maybe browsers should be split into simpler tools? --- ## /writings/on-reading # On reading In this post I'll present my own relationships with reading, how it evolved over years, current challenges I'm facing with it and will think about possible solutions. Here we go. ### Reading: first years Before the school (up to 7 years) I was a very slow reader, I struggled a lot and my mom struggled to teach me. This problem continued well into the first half of the first year of school. My reading speed was one of the worst in the class. I vaguely remember what happened but I think during the winter break I picked up a popular Soviet children adventure book *The Adventures of Dunno*. I liked it a lot. I read it very slowly but after finishing I was hooked (and my reading speed improved dramatically) and continued with two other books from the series. Dunno/Neznaika, in my opinion, was like Harry Potter for Soviet and some post-Soviet kids like myself. I might have read at that time few more books in the same genre, like Gianni Rodari's *Cipollino* and some others. The point is that by the end of my first school year I enjoyed reading a lot and my reading speed was one of the best in my class. I think it is important to give a context to these first years. I grew up in a small western town in post-Soviet Ukraine. What was good about that world is that we didn't have much of now traditional media entertainment. We had only three TV channels, they didn't work during the day (so when I was back from school, there were not only no cartoons to watch but also no TV at all). Every weekday evening we didn't have electricity for two hours. So basically your TV entertainment was reduced to a tiny fraction of the time: we might watch either news or one TV show or one movie. We didn't have many cartoons either, it was usually 5–10 minutes cartoon during the evening program for the kids and one hour of some Disney cartoons on Saturday mornings. That was it. Now imagine Ukrainian winter in the 90s. You can't go much outside (because of the weather) and the days are extremely short (it's getting dark around 4PM). So you are spending a lot of time inventing your own entertainment. Reading was usually the top choice. I also had few old video games on the Nintendo-like console. I would spend summers in a village with my grandparents. My usual schedule was following: help grandma to look after chickens before the lunch (it is very boring activity so a book is a savior in that situation) and then play soccer in the evening when it's not that hot anymore. That is it. The rest of the time you have nothing to do. Once again you need to find your own entertainment, for me, it was cycling and reading. Reading was my favorite activity. So during elementary school years, evenings without electricity, winters with short days and summers I read a lot. If was mostly adventure books. I would pick up some books from local library. During this time I read about adventures of Hercules, *The Wonderfull Wizard of Oz*, *The Wonderful Adventures of Nils*, *Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn*, *Timur and His Squad*, I've read also some fantasy back then and I've read more children adventurous literature of the Soviet era. Those were my first years reading. I think this stage was mostly about adventures (I read some others more serious books at the time, but I think they were rarer at this period). For me, it lasted from 1993 till 1997-98. I would call it a "Harry Potter" stage. However, I have never read or watched Harry Potter because the first book was published in 1997 and it came few years later to Ukraine. By that time I was mostly done with this genre. ### Middle school During this stage, I read most of the things we were reading for the school program but sometimes on my own schedule. A lot of works I read before the program because again I had a lot of free time on my hands and some I discovered outside of school (e.g. at my parent's or grandparents' library). In this period I read mostly classics of French, Ukrainian, and Russian literature (XVIII and XIX centuries), I read also some science fiction for the first time and I read a decent amount of books about WWII, about partisans, about resistance. I read also other historian adventures about cossack, pirates etc. Occasionally I would pick up some random books like Viktor Suvorov's explanations of Soviet and world history of the XX century. The main theme during this stage was history (which I enjoyed a lot) and some adventures but by real people. ### First transition During my high school years I moved to the big city, it was the beginning of 00s years, the country was very different. We had a lot of TV channels, radio stations, cinemas. There were a lot of things one could do after school. The environment changed dramatically. I also lost some personal interest in books. I still read most of the works for the school program, but it was rare that I would find a book that I would read with the joy for few hours per day. Basically, my taste and interests changed but I wasn't able to find a replacement yet. School program was of no help. We read usually something I wasn't interested that much at the moment. Topics were unappealing to me. I don't remember exactly when and what happened but I think at the end of my high school during my university years I discovered books by Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque. I read at least 5 of books from each of them in those few years. It was the literature of XX's century, it was more familiar, easier to grasp and relate to. I think in retrospective it was also interesting to me because those books were about Lost Generation of Western Europeans who lived through and after the big shock of WWI. And it seems to me know that theme is very appropriate to Ukraine I know. The collapse of Soviet Union probably had a similar effect on its former citizens like that to Europeans who witnessed WWI. Country collapsed. People didn't know what to do in life anymore, they didn't know what the world and life are becoming, some of their became were obsolete, other values were constantly attacked by the new order. I lived in Ukraine among the lost generation. Imagine growing up in one world for 30 years and then that world would disappear in one day. Not everyone was able to successfully adapt to this world. This transition is still in progress 25 years later. I'm not sure I realized these parallels reading Hemingway and Remarque back then, but it probably doesn't matter. I was magnetized by those authors anyway. ### Second transition Around 2010 several things happened. First, I've read enough of Hemingway and Remarque and I didn't know what to read next. Second, I left Ukraine and my access to physical books in Ukrainian and Russian languages was limited. At that time I was reading technical books in English but I have never read a full fiction book in my non-native language. Next few years was period of struggle with both finding books I would want to read and starting reading books in English. Only around 2014, I was comfortable enough with reading books in English. And only in 2016 I discovered many books that I was excited to read. In January 2016 I listened to 4 podcasts (2 with Naval Ravikant and 2 with Derek Sivers) on Tim Ferriss show that provided me with 1) some ideas how I can change my reading habits 2) list of books that were interesting to me. ### Ideas Here is the list of tips from Naval that I tried and that worked for me: do not be afraid to quit book if you don't like it. Close it and start another one. Maybe you would be able to come back to it some time later (in a month, year, decade) or maybe it's just not your book. Don't feel guilty about not finishing it. start several books simultaneously. Pick up 2-5 books at the same time and see which one you like the most and continue with it. Come back to other books later. This one works great with the first tip. always have several books available to be started. Either maintain library at home with some pipeline of books or if you use Kindle buy several books even if you are not going to start them next week. Maintain pipeline. Tip 1 and 2 depend on this. Derek Sivers shared his great idea of keeping down notes of books he has read. I thought that idea was great but too difficult and time-consuming. But we will come back to this idea later. From my personal experience changing styles of books you are reading also helps. E.x. if you are reading 3 books in a row about spirituality that might become boring. Mix and match books, read a fiction book and then non-fiction, change topics etc. It happened to me at least once during the year one book reminded me so much of the previous one that I just stopped reading it (however I plan to come back to it later). ### New problems This year (2016) is already one of the best in terms of reading for me personally. I don't think I've read that much since middle school. However 10 months after starting reading again I noticed several new problems. I've read several books that I was super excited after finishing. Books like* Sapiens*, *Bruce Lee Striking Thoughts*, Bertrand Russell's Best, *Ill Fares the Land* and few others impressed me a lot, they presented some new ideas I didn't know, some wisdom, approaches etc. They triggered a lot of thought. I was very enthusiastic after each of them but the problem is few month later I couldn't remember a single idea of any of those books. I don't know what I liked about *Sapiens*, I don't remember what Bruce Lee's insight I liked. The only thing I remember is whether I liked the book or not. I remember my feelings about the book, not the ideas presented in it. I recently finished reading two books that go well together: *Brave New World* by Aldous Huxley and *Amusing Ourselves to Death* by Neil Postman. This is truly the most powerful pair of books I've read in years. After finishing those two books, I've got scared that in 3 months I would forget what I liked about them and what were the ideas of those books. And I don't want to forget. Those books contain ideas of high importance. The same is true about books I enumerated above. So what should I do? ### New solutions I started thinking in the last couple of days about the problem of forgetting. And I think there are at least several points to be made here. Most of the worthy books were written not for entertainment. That stands true for both fiction and non-fiction. Everything worthy requires time, commitment and effort. It seems that effort just to read a book is not enough. In a school for every worthy book, there was dedicated time for at least several lessons. During this time, you would have discussions about the book, discussion about the context in which the book was written (historical time and author biography), you would write some essay with critique about the book, you would have to test comprehension. You would basically think about the book and repeat its message in different mediums on the different days. This reminds me of Spaced Repetition technique. You are repeating what you've learned over the period of time and you combine mediums too. At the end, a lot of information about the book is engraved in your brain. It would be much harder to forget those ideas, because you not only read them but discussed them, argued about them, wrote about them etc. Alain de Botton once presented the idea of the importance of repetition. He argued that the brilliance of traditional religions is in the constant repetition of the truths and values. E.g. you go to church and listen to the same stories every week. I think that is what we are missing now. We should concentrate on the quality of knowledge/information/ideas/wisdom we consume. It seems that fiction is much easier to remember than non-fiction. Fiction is more visual and easy to grasp. I can recall a plot of a lot of fiction books I've read. As I said I can't do that for non-fiction. The reason for that I think lies in the nature of non-fiction books. Non-fiction books are about ideas. Ideas are abstract concepts. They are not always directly tied to reality. In order to remember such book later, you need to understand it very well. In order to understand non-fiction book you've need to build mental model of this book in your head. Non-fiction authors have a mental model of the world in their heads when they write a book. Your goal is to rebuild that model in your head, to make it physical. Non-fiction sounds a little like programming. The code is an abstract expression of author ideas about the world. Your goal is to grasp it now and make it possible to recall in the future. Thinking about this difference between fiction and non-fiction I realized the brilliance of Alain de Botton's *The Course of Love*. It's written like a novel (fiction) but it has quotes of his main ideas in each chapter (non-fictional ideas in a non-fictional style). Those quotes are important there because sometimes it's not always easy for you to formulate idea nicely even after reading the story. I wonder if there are other books like that? That is an interesting approach for modern journalists, philosophers to take: pick your serious topic and present it in a fictional way but express and highlight your main ideas directly. Another good idea is to read books in pairs. I mentioned before *Brave New World* and *Amusing Ourselves to Death*. These two books work great together. It's much more difficult to extract true value of *Brave New World* by itself. E.g. for me world described by Huxley was scaring but I couldn't formulate all the reasons why it was that way. Postman in *Amusing Ourselves to Death *gives you good explanations why. He gives also real examples from moderns times that you can grasp more easily. So it seems that there are possible solutions to the problem of forgetting. It seems that sometimes we can make a process of remembering easier. But I don't think that this is the main takeaway. I think the best thing we can do is to invest more time and effort into reading. Personally I plan to alter my approach to reading in the following way: use a physical notebook and keep notes while reading a book (we are back to the Derek Sivers advice from above). This will slow down the process a lot and will shift focus from reading as entertainment to reading as something more serious (this was one of the important questions by Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death, should education be entertaining? It wasn't before). after finishing book manually digitize your notes by typing them. pick up some question and write an essay about the book (not a short review). find a book club where you can discuss your book and discuss it with people. Giving 1 min summary of a book for people who never read it might be very useful for you. Theoretically, there can be also the technological solution for this problem. It might be something like an online non-traditional book club that would be similar to a school classroom I described above. You will become part of the classroom with other people who are reading the same book right now and willing to join. The classroom would include several discussion sessions and writing essays and tests. However, I'm not super optimistic about such technological solution at this point of time. There are a lot of open questions. Is learning more social or individual activity (does the answer depend on a type of personality)? Is it better to have a solution that satisfies fewer requirements but offline (think book club) or online one that is theoretically more feature-complete? So I'm sticking with my experimental ideas presented above. At the end, I would definitely read fewer books but hopefully, I would understand and remember each of them better. --- ## /writings/on-side-effects-of-technology # On side effects of technology Every technology, solution, and tool is about tradeoffs. I yet to come up with any example that brought only positive change to the world and our lives. Opposite examples are too easy: dynamite, cars, TV, Internet, phones etc. Let's consider a tool like Yelp and focus on problems such technological solution created. Yelp influenced how we pick a restaurant or cafe. Right now you go to yelp.com, enter your query and you have a new place to visit. Sounds incredible, isn't it? What can be wrong with that?! I'd argue that such flow creates a major problem influencing our lives and our happiness. If you've picked a restaurant through Yelp you would mostly know what to expect from it. You know its ratings, reviews, best dishes, you saw photos of the food, you know what to expect from service, how the place looks inside. You formed your expectations of a place. In some sense you already experienced a portion of your emotions, if your imagination is vivid enough you probably lived through part of your intended experience. I'd go further and suggest that after you actually visited restaurant you wouldn't be able to fully experience a place because: you've already spent part of your emotional budget selecting the place. you've eliminated the factor of surprise. Because your expectations were set before, you have only a small margin for the surprise. If you don't have expectations possibilities are much higher because your satisfaction/happiness level depends on a baseline. If you use Yelp you basically anchored your emotion to a particular level. risk and reward. Using Yelp eliminates risk, however, it also eliminates reward. If you found few places wondering around some neighborhood you need to pick one and by picking one you are taking the risk. You might end up in a really terrible place, or amazing, or just "ok". Anyway, the potential emotional swing is much higher this way. Yes, you may end up in a disappointing place, but why are we so afraid of it? Aldous Huxley in a Brave New World describes the society that focuses only on "happiness" and avoids any deviations as a plague. Aren't both happy and unhappy moments are integral parts of our life? Can one exist without another? Can you even experience happiness/satisfaction without occasionally feeling unhappy/unsatisfied? Why are we afraid of negative emotions? Why we are not learning this skill? It's important to know how to handle bad situations, anxieties, worries, conflicts and not just avoid them. What I'm arguing here is that Yelp not just eliminates some inconveniences from our lives. But it also eliminates to some extent two very important notions: surprise and risk. Life without surprise seems not only boring but what is worse predetermined. Giving existing google and yelp data it would be possible to pre-calculate all your restaurants till the end of your life. In this case, it's just about the food, but this can be extended to other areas of life as well. I'm not arguing here that technological change is bad and we should stop it by all possible means. At the end of the day the change, as [Kevin Kelly](http://kk.org/books/the-inevitable/) put it, is inevitable. What I'm advocating here is awareness. Awareness (of both positive and negative effects of the technology) creates freedom and possibility for every individual to independently evaluate technology based on its true merits. Awareness is knowledge and knowledge brings freedom. After all aren't we trying to build a society of free and knowledgeable individuals? P.S. Case for restaurant selection and using Yelp might sound too primitive. Exactly the same analysis can be applied to picking up travel destination, choosing a movie to see or a book to read or a person to go on a date with. P.P.S. Idea of surprise is not just some abstract concept. It is what worked for me personally. E.x. my favorite restaurants are the ones I found randomly passing by. The same works for travel. The best trips were the ones I didn't plan in advance. [#side-effects](/tags/side-effects) [#technology](/tags/technology) --- ## /writings/on-space-exploration # On space exploration A lot of people get excited about advances in the space exploration in recent years. SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA missions are all over the news. Discussing the space is fashionable again, space companies get a lot of highly-motivated engineers who want to work for them. All this is obviously not bad, but, in my opinion, space exploration is not the most difficult problem humanity faces, and definitely not the most important one. Let me make a strong claim. In my opinion, working on space exploration right now causes more harm than provides benefits. It requires a lot of resources (human, financial, maybe energy), and we take them away from other more important areas by using these resources on space programs. I have heard a lot of reasons why we need to work on space: * we (humans) are explorers, and that is just what we do. To me it seems not enough to answer why we need to do it now. * we can scientifically prove that religions are wrong. To me it seems that this was already done some time ago. World religions have been in decline for the last 500 years. * we need to prove that we are not the only one civilization in the Universe. This requires two questions: 1) why do we need to have 100% scientific proof of it; 2) what will change of we have one? Can't we already assume with a very high probability that other civilizations exist given the size of the universe? * we need to colonize another planet in case something happens to ours. This point seems valid to me. But this brings me to the initial point that space exploration is not a high priority task. What are the chances that humanity would disappear in the next 100 years because of some asteroid hit the Earth vs humanity would disappear because of terminal nuclear war or climate change - issues we are responsible for. It seems to me that latter is way more probable outcome and we should allocate our resources and work on these problems. In a nutshell, we need to make sure that this planet is in a good shape and all humans can live here for at least couple of centuries (if not millenniums) more. Another point that I was making is that space exploration is not the most difficult problem we are facing. Why would I say that? There is a saying in which you compare simpler problems to a rocket science. "It is not a rocket science", they say. But to me it looks like rocket science isn’t the most difficult problem. It is resource-incentive, though - the more resources you put, the more results you get. At this point it scales pretty well linearly. In my opinion, it is moderately easy, because it is a "pure science". Scientific questions are well understood and are well isolated from complexities of other systems. Rocket science lives on the intersection of other "pure sciences", like physics, astronomy, math etc. In my opinion the most difficult problems are those that require different bodies of knowledge to solve them, and such problems truly exist in a complex, highly tangled and interconnected systems. One example of such problem is, of course, global warming. There is no pure technological or "scientific" solution to it. The real solution requires political, economic, cultural, and technological changes. Same is true for poverty, peace, inequality, education, unemployment etc. Those are the problems that are truly difficult and which are very hard to solve at the modern, that is, global scale. Those are the areas where we need research, human, financial and other resources. To my mind space exploration is easy because it deals with data. What do missions do? They collect photos, samples of minerals - that is raw data. It is easy to work with data. True knowledge and wisdom are not required for it. It's like playing a game at the beginners level, while there are 5 extra (exponentially more complex) levels. My final question is why do we need to make colonies now? We don't have a proper answer how to run them yet, what political, economic and social system to setup there? I assume we don't want to copy the model of the Western world with wild capitalism and extreme spending on defense. Why then bother going to Mars, unless we want to make interplanetary wars a reality very soon. I think we should try to design new better systems here first. New planet settlement sounds great if we could have a healthy and happy society over there. But to build it there we first need to try to do it here, or at least try to develop ideas first. Philosophy, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, ecology are not the rocket sciences. They are much more difficult because they do not work or exist in isolation. They exist in the complexity of our everyday life and of our societies. Truly difficult problems are here. And are we up to the real challenge? P.S. I wrote this essay before I read Joseph Campbell's essay "The Moon Walk - the Outward Journey". I'm not incorporating any changes to my essay yet based on his work. I do like his view of the importance of space exploration to humanity. In his mind, space exploration would allow us to have new Myths, that we so deeply in need of. However, I still have to think about his opinion. It made sense to me, but he lived in a very different time from our own. He lived in a time of first trips to space, constant improvement, enrichment of middle class, huge positive social changes after the WWII. We live in a time when the level of optimism about future is quite different from that of 50 years ago. --- ## /writings/overcoming-my-prejudices # Overcoming my prejudices November 2017. I'm in the JFK airport, boarding a plane to Ukraine. My place is in the last row; I notice my neighbor well in advance. She is senior American woman in her late 70s. "Why I never get young and nice people as my neighbors on the plane so I can talk to them and make friends" - is the thought that pops into my head. Not very nice of me, I already made my judgments about a person I never met. Of course, what happened next is precisely the thing you would expect from the universe. Simple lesson, straight to the point. It was the best conversation on the plane I ever had. My neighbor shared the beautiful story of her life, her life in Italy and Tunis and then back to the US. I learned about her life choices, about her generation and her granddaughter's one. I learned about the 60s, how airplanes stayed pretty much the same. She was very curious about my life and my beliefs. She felt very genuine, warm, wise - she was humane. I made a mistake of judging a person without knowing her and luckily was immediately corrected. You'd think I learn my lesson. Far from it. One week later. I'm in Kyiv. I want to get a manicure in the beauty salon. I have an appointment. I enter the room expecting to see a good-looking woman, of my age. I want to know what Ukrainian women of my generation think about. And of course, since I'm in the beauty salon, I expect everyone to be good-looking. Shame on me for such thoughts. My master shows up. She is in her late forties, slightly overweight women. I'm disappointed (shame on me again), my expectations failed me. But universe wouldn't give up on me and provide me the same lesson again. The woman was the best person I've met on that trip. She surprised me in so many different aspects. She got her first education in shipbuilding and worked at the factory; then she got a degree in economics. Eventually, she realized that she didn't like it and started doing nails for people. She worked at the beauty salon, and she loved her job a lot (very uncommon for a lot of Ukrainians that I know and who are older than 30). At her free time, she painted. And her dream was to open small gallery to support and promote young Ukrainian artists. She was very optimistic, despite living through hard times. She was well-read and wise. She was very interested in sharing her thoughts and lessons and hearing mine. She was about doing what she liked, loving her family, helping people and enjoying her life. She felt complete and whole to me. One hour later we felt like good friends. She gave me a bit more belief in people, future, and my country, and I think I gave that to her too. Where all these thoughts and judgments come from? Why I'm so close-minded at times, and why do I have those stupid beliefs and expectations? What are the reasons for it? Is it just me? How do I fix it? Hopefully, I learned my lesson, and maybe I'll be a wiser person. At least in more situations than before. --- ## /writings/people-i-am-afraid-of # People I am afraid of There are two types of people that I am afraid of: people who have one dimension of their personality or skill set and want or already have power people who are "successful" in one field but don't have feedback loops There is an intersection between those two categories which we should be aware of. Let me explain whom I consider being such people categories and why I am afraid of them. In the last couple of years, I've met a decent amount of people that lead me to write this post. For me, those were usually "entrepreneurs" (from various countries) that had one single goal (become rich and powerful). Usually, they also do some projects that bring either ~0 value to people and societies or in some cases creates harm (e.x. products that play on weaknesses of people, products that make people worth and not better human beings). I call these people one-dimensional humans. There is nothing more to their personality than I outlined in the single paragraph above. They have a single goal, they are not aware of more complex systems we live in, they don't have appropriate knowledge (or education) and interest in the humanitarian sciences. The real danger comes not from the fact that those people are one-dimensional (because there are a lot of people like that, but they are not dangerous but useful to the societies) but from the fact that those types of people have a high chance for "success" in the Western societies. And this "success" means money and power. So the real problem arises when people with no real perspective, with a narrow operational mindset, get power. Such situation puts the rest of the society in danger, because of the extremely poor choices such people are making. My dream for us is to consider such individuals not as "successes" but as failures of the society. They are products of our past mistakes. Such people shouldn't be celebrated in any way, and they should be kept as far as possible from power. Those people can be brilliant in their one thing, but they are usually sneaky and easily recognizable within few minutes of the conversation. Another highly related group of people that I noticed recently are "smart" opinionated people with no feedback loops. I like when a person is opinionated, I think it's a good trait, it means to me that person thought about that particular problem. What I don't like when a person has an opinion but has basically no mechanism to change that opinion through communication with another person. Those people can look smart but to be honest, I wouldn't call any person without feedback mechanism smart (hence the quotes "smart" above). Again, there is no real danger until such person achieves some "success" and gets some money and some power. After that happens real problems arise. Recently I saw a lot of people who *have all the answers* to all the problems). I noticed a lot of arrogance and unwillingness to listen, to explain, to discuss, to communicate and to find solutions together. Journalists are "experts" on every topic, politicians are "experts," regular people are "experts," "entrepreneurs" are experts on the politics, peace, economy, happiness, etc. The list goes on and on. A lot of people right now have opinions that hard to change. Are we living in the meritocratic society? If the answer is "yes," then, in my opinion, we need to change the merits we evaluate "success" on. In the long run (for humanity) it's a better decision to not put people described in this essay on top. People with limited perspective and people with no ability to improve their own point of view causing us a lot of harm. Let's evaluate people not by the size of their bank account or how much power they have, let's celebrate people who contribute the most to the society now and in the long term in proportion to their original resources. As I said some people become rich and powerful creating the negative impact on the societies, nature, and humanity. And some people are just working hard, making the difference every day in their local communities. Let's celebrate the second group of people and let's be aware of the first one. Let's not become like them and let's fix the problem that put such people in charge. --- ## /writings/phoneless # Phoneless I often get asked why I don't have a smartphone. Interestingly, it's not that easy to answer this question in one sentence. There are multiple reasons, and they change over time. I got my first and only smartphone in January 2012 when I first came to the US. I used it every day: checked the news, emails, Twitter and navigated using Google Maps. In June 2012, I left Bay Area and started traveling around Balkans, South and Central America. Suddenly, having that phone became a chore. I think it was locked and I couldn't use it properly in different countries. But that wasn't a point. Frankly, I don't think I needed it that much. So I didn't have smartphone ever since summer of 2012 (I've got a regular basic phone without the Internet in July 2015 for work). I don't think it was conscious decision back in 2012, however not getting a smartphone ever since was a conscious one since I thought about it a lot in the next years. I remember in 2012 I noticed that I lost my ability to listen to a person for more than 3-5 minutes. I wasn't able to concentrate on one topic and one person. While listening to the person, I was thinking about something completely different in the background. That was awkward and embarrassing.I wasn't able to follow up with questions to continue a conversation. If you are not interested in what person is saying to you, I doubt she will be interested in listening to you. That was the new issue to me that appeared while I was using a smartphone and was online all the time. I didn't like those changes in my mind and my personality.I do believe that technology should assist us in becoming better versions of ourselves, and opposite direction is not appropriate. The Internet is the source of knowledge but also the source of distraction. I do feel that our generation is probably the most consumerist of all of them. It became too easy to consume news, shows, movies, music videos, stuck in different forums, chats, etc. We often made fun of our parents who constantly consume TV with stupid shows and one-sided news. But I think newer generations are worst in this respect. Everyone is connected to the Internet 24 hours every day. Nowadays consumption happens not only during newspapers reads and evening news shows, but it also happens every 10 minutes when we refresh our facebook/twitter feeds, check our instagrams and snapchats. I think that consumption is the biggest enemy of production and creativity. It's like a path of the least resistance. It's very tempting to consume something, and it's much harder to create. The most worrying thing for me is the constant consumption of thoughts and opinions. I feel if you delegate function to get thoughts and opinions to the somebody/something you lose the ability to create them yourself. Our brains need practice! If you are working in any creative field getting into "the flow" is your ultimate goal. It's something almost mythical that you can achieve only rarely and something you don't understand until you experience it. In my opinion, one of the preconditions for getting into the flow is getting long spans of time without interactions. E.g. you can't be in the flow if someone would come to your table every 5 minutes while you working. For doing creative work we want quiet spaces. But I don't think it's possible to avoid interruptions if you connected to your phone, your smartwatch, etc. You are bombarded by new emails, private message, public chat messages, notifications from apps, etc. I don't think most of us have even 30 straight quite minutes during our work days. I also think that having 24-hours access to the Internet raises our anxiety levels. Our parents watch this depressing local and international news and worry a lot about things they cannot influence. We however are also worried about news. But those are news about our Facebook friends and some events that are happening now. And we have strong fears and anxieties to miss these events. The problem is that we not worried to miss something once per week or per day, but every 10 minutes. We want to know about those events in the real-time. So basically every minute of our life we are anxious about some issues. Not a great place to be. I strongly recommend watching Alain de Bottom talks on news and anxiety. Personally, it was much harder for me to be at the moment when I had a smartphone. It was extremely difficult to have a meaningful conversation. It was hard to keep any conversation with someone at all because any second me or person I was talking with would pull up a phone and check something. Camera in our mobile devices has another weird side-effect on our comprehension of the world. If you have a camera always with you, then you'll try to use it. Suddenly everyone became a photographer. Instead of just enjoying the beauty of the nature or vivid energy of some music band people would take photos or videos. Instead of looking at the world through the open eyes they start looking into it through the phone screen. Some people enjoy photography, and I understand when they are taking photos, but not all of us are photographers, right? I'm not against smartphones or other Internet-connected devices. They provide us with some useful functionality. Everyone has their reasons for having a phone. My goal is to understand the trade-offs - what I'm personally getting and losing owning a smartphone. And my only wish is that everyone was able to evaluate personal trade-offs themselves and made an educated decision. For me, the decision was down to evaluating whether constant interruptions and higher anxiety were worth the convenience of getting access to Maps and Wikipedia all the time. As a software engineer, I'm connected to the Internet probably 14 hours every day. I consume large amounts of information during those hours. Not having a smartphone gives me the ability to be offline for the short periods when I'm commuting, or doing shopping or walking, or having a meal in the restaurant. I think we should strive for the balance and to have some time for ourselves. It can be scary at the beginning and maybe even boring. But that is the only way to know who you are and who you want to be. Permanent consumption prevents us not only from creating products but from knowing and improving ourselves. P.S. I've got my first smartphone in years on October 1, 2018. That was a good run, but for the variety of reasons the experiment is over. At least for now. --- ## /writings/post-modernism # Post-modernism I can't define what "post-modernism" is, however I realized that I can try to describe it, that is, describe life and trends of post-modern world. Music of post-modern world is music without *meaning*, which means usually without words at all. It can be said about art probably too. Movies of post-modern world are mostly *fantasy* and futuristic action movies. Movies about existing reality and present times and present problems are not popular. Virtual Reality will become more and more popular for the same reasons as fantasy movies. *No dream*. John Lennon famously sang "The dream is over". That might be true in the context of individual but it's also true in the context of society. Society in the post-modern world has no shared communal dream (myth, narrative). Political discourse either doesn't exist or exists in the form of the *comedy*. The most popular and famous political critics are comedians. This trend is true for various countries, from USA to Ukraine. *Trivialization* of everything: politics, environment, sex, media. *HyperNormalization* - majority people have same clothing (few brands and few styles), same phone (two providers), listen to the same music (few artists), watch same movies (made in the same place), have same opinions by their own choice. Adam Curtis made a great [documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation) about this topic. *Facelessness* - belief that everything is run by systems, not humans. E.g. market, or EU establishment, corporations - it's believed that there are no people behind it. The rise of *profanity*. It's in media, television, offices, streets. *Growing inequality* - rich people getting richer across different countries from USA to Brazil. *No alternative* - general belief in the existing system, understanding its flaws but refusal to believe in any alternatives. There is some belief that life is still getting better and that there is still some progress (at least small one). We an example have *wishful thinking *here on the global scale. *Abundance of information* - everyone can access information on the very complicated matters almost instantly. However, that changes nothing. Knowledge and wisdom is still as inaccessible as they were. All the available information provides no tips, no hope, no ideas. *Communal schizophrenia*, by which I mean that we live in a world that doesn't seem real, but more like "Alice in Wonderland". E.g. Christian conservative parties promote anti-Christian values, liberal politicians deploy drone attacks. Laws and legal acts get beautiful names that actually do opposite thing. Continuing *globalization* - archetypes of issues and politicians that we have in one country are very similar to the other countries. *Unseriousness* - people are not keen to talk on serious topics in larger groups (either politics, mental health or other topic). You are supposed to look happy and talk on fun topics in a group. When serious discussion, unpleasant news are brought up in a group - people look scared. *Aging* - aging seems like a scary thing for a lot of people. They will continue search for looking younger. 20-35 years range is where majority of population is trying to visually remain as long as possible. *Growing conservatism* on both right and left, and general tendency for even bigger consolidation of right and left. Protest becoming more *commoditized*. It's more about symbols and merchandise (t-shirts, hats etc) than substance and content. --- ## /writings/private-public-vision # Private. Public. Vision [Apple Vision Pro](https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/) is out. Casey Neistat made his [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvkgmyfMPks) on it. The last couple of days I was reflecting on this incredible pieced of technology. But it was more about changes in the society. Let's go back in time a bit. I grew up in Ukraine in '90s. Back then we had our public lives and private lives. And they were completely different things. There were only few times when those worlds would overlap. First one - socially acceptable - was taking a nightly train to another city. People would find their cabin and would start changing into home closes for the night. Think pajamas and flip flops. In '90s that was unheard of. You never knew what people wear in their homes and the train was the only place where did you get a pick into their private lives and environments. Second one - not socially acceptable - was taking a bath in a river, lake or a sea. Imagine: summer, beach. Everyone is swimming. And then one weird person would bring shampoo from home and would start washing their hair amongst people who just there for fun. Usually one single person did that and that always looked weird. It felt that they broke a social contract - taking a bath in private. Now, let's speed up to 2020. Spring of 2020. Everything changed with COVID. People are working from home now. They are in their pajamas and crocks (see how Crocks grew in [popularity](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2014-01-08%202024-02-08&q=crocks&hl=en) in the past 10 years) - which are an equivalent of flip flops of my childhood on the trains. Everyone is on Zoom. Which essentially meant that private life and environment (home with all corresponding attributes - attire, pets, children) was exposed to the public using camera. At this time you would also notice how different online videos became. In 2007 [Justin Kan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Kan) made [Justin.tv](http://Justin.tv) - he recorded himself 24-7. In 2020 many people started doing similar things. People would record TikToks from anywhere - from the bedroom, bathroom - etc. Private lives became public for everyone to see. And now let's think about flying experience. When you watch old films you see that everyone is dressed up on the plane. It's not the case anymore. Planes and airports became exactly like trains from my childhood - so many people are wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts. It's all about comfort now. In 2013 Google release [Google Glass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass). It was a similar concept to Apple Vision Pro, but time was different. 10 years ago private life was still private. In 2024 it's not. So it's all changed in the past 10 years. With an acceleration. Let's go back to Casey's video. In it he wears Apple Vision Pro outdoors in New York City. Most notably on the subways and in the Times Square. If I want to define what public place is there are not many better examples than New York Subway and the Times Square. Those were stereotypical public places where people would do public things. But not anymore. In the video Casey brought his private experience to the subway and the most famous square in the world. He just laid down in the Times Square completely unphazed and watched things he would normally watch at home. So that is a new state of the things. It's not bad or good. It is what it is. In the past 30 years life changed a lot. But last 4-5 years this change really accelerated: Fashion is different: crocks, sweatshirts, hoodies and sweatpants. Our connection to work is different: we can reply to emails during our "private" time now. We post images and videos of what we do with our iPhones and Vision Pros while sitting on the toilet. What we share online is different. It became popular to share online personal struggles with mental health or relationships. People would "announce" now that they have a depression or anxiety or public attacks. Enjoy the ride. --- ## /writings/problem-with-writing # Problem with writing Writing is cool for many different reasons. However, I found that it has one negative side effect for me. Let me explain. Usually writing is the last step of the following process: Observe something - can be outside world or can be my feelings Take time to think about it and reflect. Maybe even process things intellectually or emotionally. Once everything is clear in my mind I’m ready to write it down. After I write stuff I usually don’t think about the topic anymore. I *release *it, because it does’t interest me anymore. And here is the issue. When I talk to people the best conversations are usually about personal experiences: personal stories, observations, reflections and thoughts. I like telling my stories and I like listening to the stories from other people. However, once I’ve told the story few times I lose interest in it. I don’t like retelling the same story multiple times even to different group of people. 2-3 times is usually enough. After that the story becomes boring. It’s like me watching the same film. It doesn’t have the same emotional intensity. On top of that, if I tell the same story I gain this awareness of me telling the story. So I don’t relive it anymore in the purest sense. I become an observer where I can see myself saying things and seeing reactions from people. It becomes like a standup act. And I don’t like that one bit. I know some people love this, they love perfecting the form - improve the story itself. But it doesn’t interest me. Form is always secondary to me. I love the rawness of moments, of the emotions. I like the moments when the idea or thought or emotion are born. They don’t need to be perfected. “Aliveness” is what I’m looking for. So that happens with live conversations. But writing has the same problem with me. Once I wrote about the topic I don’t really want to discuss it anymore. There is nothing I can add to it. It’s done and dusted for me. Which is a bit sad. I wonder if this will ever change. But the good news is that life is fascinating. With every year I have more stories and more reflections and more observations. I have more things to share with people and I have more things that I need to learn from others. [#writing](/tags/writing) [#reflection](/tags/reflection) --- ## /writings/quest-for-novelty # Quest for Novelty I believe that technology and more specifically the desire for new products creates the quest for novelty. Novelty in itself is not good or bad. However it plays extremely important role in moving societies forward. Feels like partly because of this quest and desire for novelty America became one of the most liberal and progressive countries. Think about gay and trans rights and things like that (of course it’s almost impossible to make any statement about the US because it’s a gigantic country and there are many points I can make that would contradict my initial statement). To me America is on the forefront of the social progress. The opposite to the quest for novelty is the feeling of nostalgia. Consider russian federation where big chunk of culture is build on the references to the past (to WWII, to Soviet times, and even to the times of some emperor 300 years ago). Nostalgia is about the past and novelty is about the future. If your culture is about nostalgia it soon makes society looking backwards instead of looking forward. American society is dominated by the quest for novelty while russian is dominated by the quest for nostalgia. How often do we hear the critique of the American society and all the problems it has? Very often. Yet, still many people want to come to America and build the life. One of the reasons for that is optimism embedded in the American mythos and the idea that you can build a better future there. Optimism is an important thing to have in society. It’s ok to have issues but it’s paramount to have understanding that tomorrow can be better and issues can be fixed. America has its nostalgia too. Country music, big parts of country wanting traditional life. But to me it is just a subset of the society, it’s not a dominant part. In fact this split in America makes my point. In America you can see the past and you can see the future. And you can make a choice what you like. And many young people are making that choice over and over again. Why it’s important to think about it? So that we can ask ourselves in what society do we want to live. Do I want to live in the society that just obsessed with new gadgets and constant changes? Probably - no. But I do want to live in the society that has more to it than just reminiscing about the past. Novelty is about optimism and nostalgia is mostly about pessimism. And most importantly novelty is about agency. Because it’s about the future. And future is changeable. It’s up to us to define it and make it. While the past is mostly immutable and leaves you no outlet for action. [#America](/tags/America) --- ## /writings/reduction # Reduction We reduce people around us. How often do we forget *all* the good things about someone and focus on their "faults" at worst or few "positive" things at best? When we forget to acknowledge good things about other people we create problems for ourselves and other people. What kind of problems, you ask? When you tell someone for long period (your child, your friend, your partner) that they are good at this *one* thing they might start to doubt their wholeness - they might doubt that they have other "good" traits or even doubt that they are able to have them in the future. When parents tell to their kid that she is good at e.g. "math" it will be engraved in the child's mind. The kid might never have courage or desire to approach art, or literature, or sport. If you tell someone they are "this", that also might mean to them that they are not "that" and can never be anything except "this". So such reduction, affects *your* perception of another person, it might affect *self-perception* of that person, and it will damage your relationships too. If you tell another person that she is "serious," you deny the existence of "funny" side. In such case, that person might never be "funny" with *you*. In theory, we are all independent adult creatures, in practice, it is not like that at all. Let's be careful with each other. Let's try to not project our insecurities on other people. Let's be explicit about all (even tiny) things we appreciate in each other. And also let's be conscious and mindful of those good things. Maybe our kind words can change someone's life. Maybe we will bring a smile on someone face, or a tear of sadness followed by a tear of relief and happiness. Perhaps we will lift someone out of depression or difficult stage of life. Let's not make assumptions about other people. Let's not think that our compliment will have no negative side-effects even if we said it with good intentions. Let's be kind and gentle with each other. And let's be attentive. Let's acknowledge each other wholeness. --- ## /writings/running-into-famous-people # Running into famous people Right after I've decided to start traveling outside of Ukraine I began to meet very famous and relatively famous people. Everything begins when I was getting my foreign passport back in Ukraine... **Marko Devic** To travel outside of Ukraine, every Ukrainian needs to get special foreign passport. I was getting mine in the city of Kharkov. At the same time, Serbian football player from the local club was getting his Ukrainian passport to be eligible to play for Ukrainian national team. The name of the player was [Marko Devic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marko_Devi%C4%87). He ended up playing 35 games for Ukrainian national football team scoring 7 goals. **Leonid Kuchma** My first trip out of Ukraine was to the Czech republic in 2008. I was visiting the beautiful town of Karlovy Vary together with a bunch of Ukrainian students. We were promenading the street and suddenly I saw former Ukrainian president [Leonid Kuchma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Kuchma) walking with 2 bodyguards. He wasn't a popular figure in Ukraine at the time, but we still ended up talking to him and taking some photos. **Stefan Jovetic** In 2010 I've moved to the beautiful and tiny country of Montenegro. This country has only 600,000 people and "everyone knows everyone" there. E.x. my former colleague was a nephew of [Predrag Mijatovic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predrag_Mijatovi%C4%87) - ex-player for Real Madrid. While walking in the downtown of Podgorica I've met [Stefan Jovetic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevan_Joveti%C4%87) who had injury at the time and was back to the country and was hanging out with his friends. **Michel Platini** [Michel Platini](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Platini) was head of UEFA and he used to come to Montenegro to visit [Dejan Savicevic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dejan_Savi%C4%87evi%C4%87) the head of Montenegrin football federation. One day they were sitting together in the cafe near me drinking coffee and discussing football affairs. **Angela Merkel** I first went to Berlin in Nov 2011. During this visit, I saw [Angela_Merkel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel) in the big shopping center in the downtown of Berlin. She just passed me in the fragrance section followed by few bodyguards. **Jerko Leko** In summer 2012 I went to Croatia. I managed to meet [Jerko Leko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerko_Leko) twice(!) on the streets of Zagreb. I liked him a lot as a player and made sure to tell him that. **Clive Owen** Another strange thing happened during my 3 months stay in New York in 2013. [Steven Soderbergh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Soderbergh) was shooting The Knick series starring [Clive Owen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Owen) right on my street in Brooklyn. The funny thing is that I meet Clive Owen later in the bar in Manhattan. What are the chances that you can meet the same person in NYC in 3 months? **Anna Wintour** While sitting on the doorsteps of some building in Manhattan and eating my lunch I saw [Anna Wintour](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wintour) passing by. Some girl tried to get an autograph, but Anna was too busy. **Jake Gyllenhaal** I saw [Jake Gyllenhaal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Gyllenhaal) in the men fashion store somewhere near Broadway and Houston. I was told by the shop assistant that Jake was visiting this store quite often. **Conclusion** Personally I was never obsessed with meeting famous people and celebrities, but I still decided to write this list cause it makes a good story and I'm starting to forget all the people I've see over the years. To be continued.... --- ## /writings/secret # Secret Two years ago I stumbled upon this women's secret. In a lot of cultures women, tend to spend a lot of time going to the beauty salons and doing shopping. These activities serve multiple purposes. An important one is, of course, socialization with other women. However, what I realized that attending a beauty salon and shopping is the act of self-care. It works like this. Most of us have a lot of duties and busy days. We don't have a lot of time for ourselves. So going to the beauty salon and doing your nails is the ultimate act of self-care. Of course, you can do your nails at home, and it also works, because you are looking after yourself, and spending some time on your body. However, when you pay to do this for you at that moment you are saying to yourself “I'm worth it. I care for myself. I'm important and I deserve it." This is very important because it changes how you see yourself. It might sound a bit narcissistic. Like, why do you need to spend so much time on yourself? But I like how bell hooks defined that there is *healthy narcissism*, which is about self-acceptance and self-worth and *pathological narcissism*, which is all about the satisfaction of desires. Men used to do it too by going to the barbershops to get a hair cut and trim the beard. This is a good tradition. Get a massage, do your nails, get nice a haircut - take care of yourself. Because if you are not able to take care of yourself - you don't matter much to yourself. And you should matter. Good things grow from the sense of self-worthiness. --- ## /writings/seinfeld # Seinfeld After five years break, I finally watched a TV-series. A friend of mine convinced me to watch *Seinfeld*. I did it. In less than two months, I watched all nine seasons. Ok, maybe “convinced me” is a wrong phrase here. We went on a trip together and once we checked into our AirBnB he just put it on TV to play in the background and I was hooked. I *loved* the first few seasons. I was mesmerized by how life in New York in the late eighties through most of the nineties looked so similar to the life I live today in 2020 in the United States. The life of characters was the same life I’m living now. Even the topics of the conversations were similar: recycling, climate change, dating, yoga, mindfulness, work, purpose, etc. This is still so unimaginable. I was born in the late eighties and grew up in the soon to become post-Soviet independent Ukraine. My life was *so* much different from the one lived by the show characters: almost no TV, helping my relatives to grow our food for the winter. I described my childhood briefly [here](https://podviaznikov.com/on_reading/), but I think it’s not that rich in the details to fully grasp the differences between two worlds: USA and Ukraine in let’s say 1993. So I loved the first seasons of the show because I was constantly reflecting on my life, USA, Ukraine, and how some topics were quite mainstream in the States seemingly forever. I also liked the characters. They seemed to be a bit awkward, a bit flawed. But they were young, going through their late 20s, early 30s. I watched season after season, and my frustration grew with each new episode. The problem is that characters didn’t evolve. They messed up a lot of times, they have been mean to people, got punished but didn’t change. That upset me a lot. I can’t cheer for such people. I will support everyone who has flaws (all of us). But I cannot support you if you refuse to learn and change. So that was my main concern with the series. It upset me. It shuttered my faith in people a bit. And I don’t like that. I prefer to believe in people, in change. I don’t want to make bigger conclusions based on the TV-series, but I have a hunch that Seinfeld influenced a lot of people. It showed that being a jerk is fine, that caring only for yourself is fine. Most people who are fans of the show are thankfully not that. But I feel that some people did internalize the wrong lessons. Seinfeld is a parody of what life and relationships shouldn’t be. [#Seinfeld](/tags/Seinfeld) [#culture](/tags/culture) [#change](/tags/change) --- ## /writings/self-assessment # Self assessment Aug 2022, I’m sitting in the Blue Bottle (that is already where it went wrong, since you not supposed to go to Blue Bottle outside of the Bay Area) coffeeshop in Lower Manhattan. In front of me (it’s a huge shared table) sits a guy. He starts hitting on a girl close to him. The girl seems to be from Ukraine. The guy is American, shooting some films. They have some cringe conversation about life and war in Ukraine and so on. And both of them have ridiculous opinions and they just want to impress each other. Both of them somehow believe that the situation and war in Ukraine are not so “straightforward”. Both of them like some old school conspiracies and like to feel “unconventional”. And then the girl says this phrase “I try to be very open minded about the war.” And this is the moment that hits me. Whenever people say stupid stuff they say they are being “open minded”. Because “open mindedness” is positive label. But it sounds so ridiculous in that context that I cannot even explain it in writing. If you have stupid opinions - you have stupid opinions. That is it. It’s not open mindedness. But back to her phrase. She self assessed herself as “open minded” person and she was quick to say that to the guy. It reminded me of another situation that I had that happened a year before. One of my friends referred to himself “the “most empathetic person.” I almost died inside from laughter at that moment. Because that friend is almost universally considered “the least empathetic person“ by the people I know. This one was especially funny because back in 2019 I documented in my list of [beliefs](https://podviaznikov.com/beliefs) how I do not believe in such absolute statements like “I’m an empathetic person”. At this moment in life I believe that many people fail with self assessment. It is just an heuristic but when people make self assessment that they share publicly it’s a red flag and usually the opposite is true. I also stopped believing many people who do meditation. I’m yet to meet people who truly mastered themselves. But I’ve met many people who just bottle things inside and do meditation to cover up things and do virtue signaling. And when they enter some difficult situation it all flows out of them - insecurities, tension, aggression, fear. Don’t talk about who you are. Let other people say who you are. And let your actions speak on your behalf. --- ## /writings/senseless-smells # Senseless smells On my recent trip to Ukraine I discovered how my senses can be constantly bombarded with new stimuli. Stimuli distract us, take us from inside ourselves into the outer world. Sometimes they also bring memories, make us more aware of surroundings. **cigarettes** I can smell them on the streets. Either from people I don't know or whom I hug. **toilet air purifiers** Being in a restaurant I would go to a bathroom and have a flashback from the past. Still the same, highly chemical, direct, powerful, non-organic, unpleasant smell. Smell that is forever associated in my mind with Ukrainian toilets. **petroleum** I am in the taxi, making my way through the traffic. I open the window in the car. Smell of the petroleum. In my face. It's everywhere. It comes inside my car. Everyone still has this old non-environmental friendly car. It's a smell of a poor country I grow up 20 years ago. **laundry detergent** I am staying at the city for a few days. I want to do my laundry. I buy local detergent. My clothes are clean now. But there is a problem. They smell now. They covered with unpleasant, not natural artificial smell. I try to get rid of this smell by rinsing my stuff over and over again. It's impossible. It's stuck. Same scent as 2 decades ago. Now I'm bound to wear it for the rest of my stay. I wear my memories now on me. **beer** Ukrainian beer is different. Bad taste, bad smell. I inhale it, it brought me back in time. I remember now again why I don't like it and didn't miss it. Scents are everywhere. They have a power to bring us back in time. For the better or worse. They can make us nostalgic or happy for a moment. But important part is that they cannot make us present in a sense. They make us feel something but also to reflect on our tastes, our values and even lives. They are tools of time travel, they trigger in us contact with something important, but if they are unpleasant they took us out from the flow, from this particular moment. --- ## /writings/serbia # Serbia May 3, 2023. I am on the plane from Warsaw to Podgorica. It has been almost 11 years since my last visit to Montenegro - country where I lived from Aug 2010 till Dec 2011. Also it has been 9 years since my last visit to Balkans in general. In May 2014 I was in Macedonia where I took quick decision to move to the United States. I hold many nice memories about this region. I remember many nice people that I have met. But today I want to tell you small less pleasant story. It’s about nationalism and stereotypes. I will try not to make any conclusions. It is just one story. When you are in Balkans it’s hard to escape the topic of Balkans wars. I recommend you to watch [BBC documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Yugoslavia) on this topic. Every country experienced these wars in a very different way. Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia - each had their own story. I am not going to describe it here. The elephant in the room is ofc Serbia. When you travel in other countries you may hear some sad stories of broken families and of people surviving siege and so on. But when the discussion touches Serbia you quickly learn that they have former generals who became war criminals who never have been prosecuted and just hide in small Serbian villages. For a while you cannot comprehend that. How is that possible? It’s one thing to commit crimes and another not to prosecute people who did them. So back to 2011. I live in Podgorica and decide to spend a weekend in Belgrade. I don’t need visa to visit Serbia and it is not going to be my first time there. I buy overnight bus ticked and reserve hostel for one night. At the middle of the night bus reaches the borders. All the passports are collected. After 5 minutes bus driver comes to me and asks me to go talk to the officers. Those are guys with kalashnikovs in the uniform. They ask me where am I going. I tell them I want to spend a weekend in Belgrade and I have my hostel reservation. I show confirmation for the payment I made to the hostel's confirmation printed from my email. They tell me that this document is not enough - that I need to get “formal invitation from the hostel" printed on actual paper. I told them that in all other countries my confirmation and receipt is usually enough. Officer tells me with the smile “this is not other country, this is Serbia”, he takes his feast and makes double tap on his heart while saying “Serbia”. It looks a bit surreal and I am just smiling - he and his friends are smiling, it’s clear it will not be possible to change their mind. It’s a middle of the night and they clearly enjoy making my life more difficult. Bus driver gets nervous (everything lasted like 5 minutes), he tells me take my things from the bus. Luckily at the exact same time there was stopped bus that was going the other way. I took my backpack and boarded bus back to Podgorica. This was the only time in my life when I wasn’t allowed to enter some country. It was surreal experience not because of the result but because of the words and emotions of the border officers. In those people I can definitely see how some soldiers would take extra pleasure torturing people 20 years ago somewhere in Bosnia. To reject someone is fine, to reject someone and derive pleasure from it - it’s a bit psychotic. That is the story. I have more on Serbia and Balkans. I will write it next time. --- ## /writings/slavic-hospitality # Slavic hospitality One of my favorite restaurants in the New York City is a place close to East Village that serves Balkan food. It is called *Kafana*. I've spent 1.5 years living and working in Montenegro, traveled to most of the countries in the region multiple times. That region is my second home. That is why *Kafana* is a place I always try to attend while in NYC. I like reading their menu, I love hearing Serbian or Croatian language at that place. During one of my previous visits, I finally became aware of the following phenomena. I was sitting in *Kafana* and observing new guests coming. Owner - middle-aged man from Balkans - would be very grumpy, not smiling to his foreign guests. You'll get the vibe that they are not welcomed, and he actually doesn't care if they are here or not. Or you might think that he is in a bad mood today. But then suddenly came a group of people who he knew. Everything changed, he was welcoming, laughing, spending time with them at their table, sharing news, etc. He transformed in the most welcoming and happy person who really wants to feed these people and talk to them. At that moment I realized - this is just generalization - that is how Slavic hospitality looks like. You are grumpy and unwelcoming and uncaring towards strangers, and you are the most welcoming person towards *people you know*. Since I became aware of this idea, it became more comfortable for me to travel to Eastern Europe myself. I see the same thing happening in Ukraine over and over again. As I said, my explanation is just a generalization, this thing happens not in all the cases. From my Ukrainian experience, I can say that maybe in 50% of coffee shops I might experience grumpiness, but this number shrinks rapidly every year. People in the coffee shops and restaurants are becoming more and more welcoming and smiling. And this is the change I definitely welcome. --- ## /writings/soviet-union-2_0 # Soviet Union 2.0 The modern globalized world looks surprisingly similar to the Soviet Union in 1970-1980s. That might sound very contrarian, but I will try to explain what I mean using few examples. The Soviet Union was pretty much *monocultural* country. I mean that in two senses. Firstly, it was Russian-language dominated culture. The rest of the nations and cultures were slowly moving into using the Russian language and melting with the Russian culture. I believe that the same is happening right now on the global scale. Afterward, it's the whole premise of globalization. All the countries and cultures are melting into the Western civilization and English as a language becomes more and more dominant. Secondly, all the concepts of the shared culture were produced in few cultural centers and distributed in a centralized manner. The same is happening right now. We watch movies produced just in few places (mostly Hollywood).We listen to the music produced by few producers. The culture is mostly English-speaking nowadays, and people across continents can relate to each other because of the same content they consume. In the Soviet Union, all the *shops* looked the same across the country. E.x. all the malls looked similar and were selling same goods, restaurants and cafes looked the same and had a similar menu, press kiosks looked the same and were selling the same newspapers and magazines across the country. The same thing is happening right now. You can find starbucks, mccdonalds, h&ms, zaras in the majority of the countries on this planet. You fly into some country, arrive at the airport that looks like any other airport and has all the same shops that sell the same brands and labels. Downtowns across different cities look the same with the same cinemas (that have same movies), same boutiques and mass-market clothing brands and same restaurants. The modern globalized world has *limited political variety*. You may say that it's not true and that Soviet Union had only one party. But I would argue that there was always the opposition to the Communist Party. There were dissidents who provided another view/perspective. That is quite similar to the majority of the Western countries that had two parties for decades now. Two main parties that always win the election is not variety. Such setup doesn't provide plurality and ability to explain and solve problems in such a complex world we live in. *Belief*. In the Soviet Union, there was a belief in planned, centrally controlled economy. Similar belief exists in the modern world, where everything can be explained and solved by the free market. Both systems believe in the human-made idea and bet heavily on it without any questioning. *Normalization*. The Soviet Union tried to make everyone to be the same. People had similar clothing, similar haircuts, same education, same holidays. The same is happening now. People have same phones, play same games, watch same movies, get same news, wear few clothing labels and even have same haircuts (decided by what is particularly popular at this very moment). With all the theoretical variety capitalism provides, the system still produces very similar human beings (it might be two big groups in some rare cases, but that is still not a wide variety). *No belief in the future*. In the Soviet Union, by the late 1970s, no one believed in the achievement of Communism that was promised in the 1960s. The dream became unreal and people saw that it's not achievable. I think, our modern world stuck with the same problem now. What is our current dream as a society or as a species? Do we have some common goal or story? *Useless media*. Media was useless and untrustworthy in the Soviet Union, especially regarding international matters. However, the same is true regarding mainstream media in the modern world. You can't trust media because they represent private economic and political interests. *Inequality*. The Soviet Union had two classes of people: the ruling class - "nomenklatura", and the working class - ordinary people. The difference in quality of life between those two classes was incredible. However, in the modern world this problem even more visible. The elites are getting disproportionally better off every day. *National inequality*. The Soviet Union had the title nation, few "second-sort" nations and the rest was "third-sort" nations. The same is true for the globalized world. Some countries that are getting better in the existing system and countries that get exploited. The *decline of spirituality*. The Soviet Union from the very beginning was against organized religion. However that also led to the decline of spirituality which is very different thing from the religion. The same thing is happening now everywhere. *Addictions*. The Soviet Union used to have epidemic of alcoholism (which state even tried to fight in the 1980s with the alcohol ban). But in the modern countries, we have epidemic of obesity and entertainment (in the form of television, Internet, games, etc). Both have the same reasons. Such epidemics happen when there is some disconnect between a human being and the world. And the result is the same: damaged body, mind, and soul. *Architecture*. The Soviet Union is famous for its tasteless architecture style and buildings that look all the same. However, I do believe that it's true with modern architecture as well. As I mentioned before all airports look the same, skyscrapers are ugly and look the same, same is true for residential buildings. Probably 90% of new buildings are tasteless. *Street look*. In the Soviet Union, a lot of propaganda posters were outside on the buildings and streets. They had no taste and no real value. Modern cities of today are covered with ads, which is a very similar thing - sell us ideas we didn't ask for. *Imaginary enemies*. In the Soviet Union, there was the idea of "enemies," that at that time were outsiders and some groups of people inside the country. Those "enemies" allowed the country to live in the constant threat. Same is true about the modern world. There are constant threats from "terrorist", new viruses, some "aggressive" nations, etc. *Food*. There wasn't a wide variety of food in the Soviet Union. Even fruits and vegetables didn't vary that much (which can be explained by geography). However, I feel that the same is true with food in modern chains. All apples or bananas look and taste the same. *Dogma*. In the Soviet Union, it was dangerous to "think" and to talk about ideas. In the modern society, it's not prohibited, but people don't do it anyway. People are afraid to explore ideas, they would rather stick to something they heard before, or they would be in a defensive mode to "protect" their preconceived ideas. Exploration mode is very rare these days. *Incarceration*. The Soviet Union was famous for having prisons and putting large numbers of people there. However the same applies to some modern Western countries. Now almost 1% of US population is in the prisons. *Antidemocracy*. Elections in the Soviet Union didn't depend on the popular vote in reality. People did vote, but results were predefined, because only one party were eligible for election. A lot of modern countries have same problems, the results of elections are also predetermined. They usually depend on the amount of funding for the political campaign. So formally, people do vote (as in the Soviet Union), but in reality, the results are known in advance. *Power centers*. In the Soviet Union power belonged to the people who were not elected and got the mandate from the population. In the modern Western countries that it is also true. The real power belongs to the bankers, financiers, heads of corporations - people who didn't participate in any elections. In my opinion, the lack of variability was one of the major critics of the Soviet Union. However, I can say the same thing about the modern world. Sure, you can have variety, if you have enough financial resources, but the same was true in the Soviet Union, where the ruling class could get anything they wanted. I tried to draw some analogies between the Soviet Union 30-40 years ago and the modern world. Maybe I made some factual mistakes, maybe my analogies are too stretched out, but it's up to you to decide. Anyway, I think it's a useful exercise to think what did happen to the world in the last 30-40 years, what changes were positive and what were negative. --- ## /writings/the-age-of-constructive-conversation # The Age of Constructive Conversation A couple of weeks ago I was ill at home. As I had some spare time, I spent some of it reading Twitter. That was the week of few sexual scandals. One involved American comic Aziz Ansari and another one involved Woody Allen. I couldn't read too much of the comments because it was too depressing. But the general feeling I've got that audience split into two camps: the difference was only whose side each party supported. Later I had the same type of conversation replicated in the offline setting. Few things disturb me in what I've noticed: As I said, there are always *two* camps. And discussed issue used for polarization and delaminating line of the conflict. The discussion is mostly emotional and not rational. It's usually about expressing emotions and fears, but not understanding what happened. The discussion is mostly about individual people and blame. The blame would be assigned to the discussed individuals, and no effort would be made to identify underlying structural real reasons for the discussed situation. The discussion is usually about past and not the future. I've heard a lot of arguments about why some person was wrong. But I never heard ideas or what *to do* about the issue. What actions each one and all of us should take to solve the problem. There are different functions that conversation perform. Informational exchange, emotional exchange, probing of what our peers think and into our "normality." What lacks nowadays is the function of knowledge seeking. Engaging in the conversation to not exchange information but to seek knowledge and to generate it. Wouldn't it be great if we approach conversation willing to learn something new, change our opinions, find underlying reasons for issues, find underlying relationships between different notions and at the end generate some ideas how to solve the problem. Let's go back to the Aziz-Grace story. Do we need really to blame *one person* in the story? Let's assume that you took an easy route and decided that the only person who made a mistake is Aziz. You can spend all your energy (which would be mostly hatred - negative type of energy) explaining why he is wrong. However, even with simple analysis, you might see that both parties had a bad experience (to a different degree of course, but this situation is not a win-lose situation, both parties were losers). A bit later, you realized, that *both parties* had opportunities to stop the escalation of the situation into the problem and *both parties* failed at that. For a conflict between individuals to happen there should be two people involved. That is a simple insight that gives some hint about how to solve the given problem. A bit later, you might realize, that this story is not about Aziz and Grace at all and that this situation happens in all type of relationships (and not exclusively romantic one). From the higher level of view, it seems to be a problem of communication between two individuals in general. Then you might think who is *really* guilty in this situation. Was this result of the pure failure of Aziz, or Grace, or both? But aren't they also the products of their societies and their culture. Kahlil Gibran wrote in The Prophet: > > Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. > But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, > So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also. > And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, > So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all. > And most importantly you might start thinking how to solve this problem for the majority of people. You want to maximize impact.If you did recognize, that both parties are losers here, if you did recognize, that both suffered, if you did recognize that this failure was also systematic and cultural failure more than an individual one. Then you might come up with a list of ideas/directions to work on: how about teaching kids of both sexes to communicate their boundaries better (and maybe even adults). how about teaching some skills of emotional intelligence, like body language. how about improving how we teach sexual education. how about making pop culture Hollywood movies on such topics, showing what is appropriate and what is not. Why do we have so many movies focusing on having sex on the first date, but no movies that show us how to communicate "no". And when you realize, that the problem is systematic and that you are part of the problem you become more empathetic. And empathy is positive energy. The same goes for the producing list of ideas. You've created something new here. Congratulation, you switched from the negative hatred to productive and positive creation. I worked at the company called Runnable for almost three years. Sometimes we had some significant incidents with our software when our customers wouldn't be able to use our service. In this case, we had following procedures in place. First, fix immediate problem and unblock customers. Only after that call a post-mortem meeting where you try to analyze what happened on a broader level. That meeting was never about whose personal mistake caused the outage. We had blame-free culture, where we did recognize that outage is never the fault of one individual. Someone might indeed push the wrong code. But that code was also reviewed by some else, and tested by tests (that were also reviewed) and several people. So in some sense, the fault was usually in the process we had. And we tried to identify as a team what went wrong and came up with several action items that we could fix immediately. I wish, we used similar procedures discussing our larger societal problems. Acknowledge the problem, identify several root causes, create action items to fix them. --- ## /writings/the-age-of-oligarchy # The Age of Oligarchy America circa 2025 reminds me of post-Soviet countries during the 1990s. Here are what looks very familiar to me as someone who was growing up in Ukraine 30 years ago (side note, all those things do not apply to Ukraine anymore, many problems were solved): - rise of oligarchs - people who got rich quickly because of new changing circumstances (in Ukraine it was move to capitalism and in America it was tech boom that produced tons of billionaires in a short amount of time) and decided to stop focusing only on the business but to impact politics using media - huge mass of people who lack basic reasoning tools to deal with a new reality (in Ukraine it took a decade for people to learn about media, how it works, who owns it etc, people who had grown up in the Soviet state and were not ready for it; in America it's even more intense because America famously has poor public education and people lack basic skills, so it does remind me of the post-Soviet population) Fascinating and scary thing is that while post-Soviet countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine spent decades moving forward (with tons of work and tons of personal sacrifices), America seems to move completely backwards: we now see rich new money billionaires controlling social media platforms and old school newspapers, we see billionaires influencing elections, we see rich people in power publicly accusing each other of pedophilia. We see people in government giving government contracts to their buddies and supporters. We see public with no skills to understand what is going on (famously America didn't even know what "oligarchy" means), no desire to sacrifice anything for the greater good and no civic society institutions (America is famous for private donations and very good at it, but that is where civic duty nowadays stops). I'm not 100% sure what is coming yet, but I do see The Age of Oligarchy. And I do wish to be wrong here. Because it's going to be unpleasant for all of us. It is hard to undo corruption and breaking down of social contracts. --- ## /writings/the-best-game # The Best Game In January 2013 I was staying for a month in São Paulo, Brazil. It was during my "digital nomad" stage of life where I traveled slowly and lightly. While in the city, I decided to join YMCA and play football with local guys. I played every morning from 6.30-7.30AM five days per week. It was the best football experience of my life. I'll try to decompose this a bit to understand what made it great. I'm playing football for well over twenty years now. Quite often you are together on the team with the guy who thinks he is much better than everyone else and he would try to dribble past all the opponents and score goal all by himself. That would work one or two times per game, but that strategy is not reliable if the opposing team is any good. The well-organized side has much higher chances to beat a group of individuals who play all by themselves, even if individually each player on that team is better. Brazilians played like a unit. A lot of them could easily beat opponents. But that is now what they chose. They understood the game on a deeper level. They knew that it's about collaboration. Scoring a goal because of the team effort is also remarkably fulfilling because it connects you with your team-mates.Suddenly everyone becomes very important to the team. Everyone has a role to play and responsibility towards teammates. And if you make people *responsible* for something - they would strive. They would try to improve; they would try to do their best and not let their team-mates down. They will be on their toes each minute, and they will try to play even better tomorrow. Usually, if less skillful people make one or two mistakes, no one would pass a ball to them until the end of the game. It is a terrible strategy that I saw too often during my life. When you make a mistake, and no one believes in you, then you lose confidence, and you lose motivation, and you more likely to make more mistakes. You lose sense and meaning of the game and the time. The best way to overcome that is by passing to the person who just made a mistake. They will feel trusted. And also since you involve them in the game they can improve their skills and make fewer mistakes. If you don't play with them - they would never become better. So the good teams have mechanisms for developing *all the players*, not just the best ones. In just a couple of weeks playing with those guys, I became much better player than I ever was. In addition to having more amount fun than ever. What I learned from this is that: Ego is a problem. People who play by themselves usually have a massive ego, and it's not fun to have them around. Trust and responsibility are essential. Believe in your teammates and make them responsible for something. It's a win-win. Victory as a result of collaboration (or team work) is much more satisfactory than any individual achievement. There are different ways to play a game (or live life for that matter), not all of them are equal. If fun and happiness are distributed - everyone wins. --- ## /writings/the-bravest-of-men # The Bravest of Men Feb 28, 2022. 5th day of the big war in Ukraine (or full scale Russian invasion if you will). I’m getting on the plane from JFK to Warsaw. I see two guys in the military uniform enter the plane while talking Ukrainian. I take my sit. One of the guys - Serhii - takes the seat next to me. We start talking. Everything in his story reminds me of myself. We almost of the same age. He is 33. He works as software engineer in the Washington, DC. His family is from the small town near Kyiv called Vorzel (on Feb 28, you didn’t want to hear that anyone lives close to Kyiv, Bucha, Vorzel, Hostomel, Borodianka - those were the places that were attacked). He is also DJing for the fun. He has modern haircut and before the war he was planning on saving money and moving to Hawaii and just do surfing. He has no military background. When the war started he just went to the store, bought what he could (he didn’t even have bullet proof vest, so I gave him one of the bullet proof vests that I got with me from the US), quit his job and got one way ticket to Poland with the goal to get into Ukraine. Close to us there are two more folks. One is American journalist from NYC. He is going to Ukraine too. He asks Serhii many questions. Then we meet 35 yo Georgian guy who lives in Washington, DC. He has two kids. He is also going to Ukraine. I cannot believe what I’m hearing. The realization of bravery of those guys overwhelms me. I never saw anything like that in my life. Georgian guy is more prepared. He is shooting instructor here in the US. His goal is to come to Kyiv and train Ukrainians at the shooting ranges. He says that his father was fighting Russian army in Georgia in 1990s. He says he couldn’t stay in the US seeing Russian state is doing it again. He wants to help to stop them. We start descent to the Warsaw Airport. Flight attendant makes her announcement. Serhii gets up and ask her if he can use intercom and do his own announcement. She lets him do it. He makes announcement in English and Ukrainian saying that if there are more guys going to Ukraine they should all see him after we land. This was like a scene from the film. He says “Slava Ukraini” at the end of his announcement. People clap. After landing few Ukrainian guys go straight to Ukraine. I stay with Serhii, Georgian guy and new Ukrainian guy joined us. His name is Yevhen. He also settled in the US by now. His whole family is in the US. Except grandma. She is in Bucha. He is coming to fetch her. In 5 days since the war started he fully prepared himself - military form, radio equipment, bulletproof vest, drone - he got it all. He is determined to cross 500 km from the Western border of Ukraine to Kyiv region. His brother is also going to join him soon. So I’m standing at the airport with those 3 bravest men I ever saw in my life. They discuss logistics. 3 of them want to go to the Kyiv region. They are serious but sometimes they crack jokes and the logistic discussion is very casual. It sounds very familiar. I have a flashback to my times in California. I was going camping with my friends and they were standing around the car casually discussing our rote and plan and itinerary and where we are going to stop. This is exactly the same conversation. Except those guys are going to war. The war they might not ever return from. They are so full of life, full of determination. Also everything seems simple to them. They are doing the only thing that they were supposed to do in that moment of time. They are not lost. They are where they should be. --- ## /writings/this-is-america # This is America I grew up in a culture full of hatred toward America. I will write a separate post on this topic one day, but not today. Because today I don't want to write about hatred. I want to write about what I *love* in the US, about the things that make this place unique and different. Last weekend I took a trip to Los Angeles with my friends. I observed a few brilliant parts of American culture and American life. And for me, *those* are the parts that define America for me. America, like any other place, has problems. And it's fine. What makes this place unique is its unique best parts. They offer tons of hope about the future. It shows how life can be. The States are about hope and dreams. So what did I see? I was at the beach with my friends. There were a bunch of non-profits that were using surfing as the therapy. One of the organizations - [Best Day](https://bestdayfoundation.org/) - worked with special kids. It looked like this. Five adult instructors would take care of one special kid. They would put him on board with special seat; and they would surf, smile to the kid, hold his hand, hug him. They would talk to his mom. I was so touched by all of this. I cried there on the beach, observing love, and humanity. If I were a kid right now, I would want to grow up in the US. There is no other country that I know that knows how to deal with kids. Of course, you can have a terrible experience here, but you can have an experience that is so much ahead of many other places. And I want to focus on this. Not on the problems, but the best parts. If I were special kid now, I would want to be in the US. America is the most inclusive and advanced country in that regard. You would be fully integrated into society. It tears me up when I see not only infrastructure, but groups of teenagers getting food together. And when special kids are fully-integrated, laughing, making jokes etc. But it's not only about special kids. In the US, there are lots of people who know how to interact with kids. I cry when I observe even the simplest situations, because those are the things that I never had myself. Americans have the idea that every kid is unique in a way. They make you believe in yourself. Adults will help you. They recognize how stressful and scary it can be to be a kid in a lot of situations. They will walk you through all the difficult experiences. They will make sure that every *kid* knows that instructor/adult is there for them. Kids can be awkward, make mistakes. But adults will be supportive, they will be there for the kids. They will smile. They will celebrate even the smallest action (including just showing up). When I was at the beach, I saw a lot of touches, hugs, high-fives, lots of smiles, lots of support. It's an experience that is very hard to put into words. It's like the adults *know* how kids feel and what they need. And they try to provide that. When I talked to the instructors, I realized that they are fully aware of kids' needs. Everything they told me, made sense to me as I also once was a kid. And then I saw they do exactly what they told me in real life and even more. They were like these magicians - saying the right things and doing them. It still feels surreal to me and gives me shivers. So what else did I see?I heard so many times that America is a very individualistic society. And then I went to play soccer with my friend. It happens to be a Friday night in LA, and our soccer field was inside the Culver City High School. I couldn't believe what I saw. This high school (as any other high school in this country) had a stadium. There was a football game. The stadium was full of people - kids, teachers, parents, locals. Friday night in Los Angeles - people could be anywhere they want. But they were *there*. All together. Kids, teachers, parents. As a community. Watching the game, enjoying live music and dances, fireworks. Everything in the local school, every week. In America, people do show up. They show up for their kids, and they show up for their communities. It's unimaginable to me. In America, if you have kids - you would come and see them playing whatever sports they do. You can also volunteer to be the coach of your kids' team. People *do care* here. I never saw anything like that frankly. Those are just two things. There are many more that I love here. But even those two are enough to make me *love* America. --- ## /writings/tools-thinking-and-people # Tools, thinking and people September 2007. I'm still a student but got my first job as junior software engineer working 30 hours a week after my classes. As a junior person I was assigned a mentor. His name is Vitalik. He is kind and extremely smart. He is well respected and works on important projects. I got lucky, he was a catch and other people got matched with way less brilliant engineers. I sit next to Vitalik. He is older, but we can chat casually and I can ask him questions. I work on my project and hit some problem, I turn my head and ask him if he knows the solution. He replied. I did it again 5 minutes later with another question. He turned to me (very slightly irritated - I can see his frustration, but I admire him, because I don't have as much patience as him). He says to me: > You cannot come to me with a question as a first stop. You try to solve it yourself by thinking, then you google and do research online. After trying for 15 minutes you can come to me and say, "I have this issue, here are the things I tried, but hit those specific problems. Can you help me?" This stuck for me for the past 19 years. When I interact with younger people, I try to do the same thing Vitalik taught me all those years ago, explain and try to help. But I do get frustrated interacting with older colleagues that do not follow same rules. Fast forward to 2026. I open Slack and I see messages from engineers who are past 30. They post a question on Slack and tag specific people. They do it without trying anything personally first. And wowadays, you can get better and faster answer by typing exact same question in your Claude Code! Type a question -> discuss -> think. Then if something is still unclear do post to Slack and do ask people. If you ask someone a question directly without doing any prep work you show that you are being lazy, have no agency to solve the issue and also don't respect other people's time. You are just passing problem you have to other people. Pinging someone on Slack, so that that person stop what they are doing and then go and find answer to your question is such an irresponsible use of time and resources. Please do type your question in your AI tool of choice first, think about it and be mindful of people's time. --- ## /writings/traveling-and-diversity # Traveling and Diversity One of the best parts of traveling for me was meeting people from different cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, professions. In this post, through my various hosts I've met between 2012-2015, I'll try to reflect on the diversity of people and lives. In June 2012, I was staying in Zagreb in a beautiful apartment owned and decorated by two extremely talented local architects. I've met their friends who were also architects, and I believe to this day Croatia has the highest ratio of architects per country that I know. This couple was unbelievable, they told me about architecture in Zagreb, about Serbian-Croatian war in the 1990s, about sailing and Croatian islands, about differences between coastal Croatia and northern parts of the country. I've learned about local coffee traditions, discussed Croatian football, pastries, local food markets, Croatian language, trips to Italy, Venetian Biennale, and many more. In Sarajevo, I've stayed in the apartment owned by the famous local radio journalist. He was in the city during the Siege of Sarajevo. He traveled a lot, been and worked in many different countries. What I liked the most was the love he had for his country, his city, his religion, and culture. When I came to Rio, I've stayed in the place rented out by Irish couple who moved to Brazil and was working in the travel industry. They were renting out their apartment while making 2-weeks tourist trips to the Bahia. I came to São Paulo at the end of 2012. I've stayed at the apartment with a fantastic view on Praça Roosevelt. The place was rented out by the Brazilian designer who moved years ago to Amsterdam. The place was small but gorgeous. I think it remains an apartment with the best interior design I ever saw. I never saw the owner in person but I feel I was able to connect and understand a lot about our host through the design. In January 2013, I arrived in Mexico City from Brazil. I've stayed in the family home with a family of 3 people: grandma, our host and her kid. It was a huge surprise for me to discover that the family moved here a lot of years ago from Brazil! I still don't know how common it is for people to leave Brazil and come to Mexico or the Netherlands. But two of my hosts did just that. In El Salvador, I've stayed in a small family house that belonged to the super kind and friendly person. Single Salvadorian young mom, with lovely boy, was working as a graphic designer (making designs for the drug's packaging) in the local company. I've met her family: mother and brother were respected doctors in the local hospital. I've visited this hospital and spent one day shopping together on the local market and next day relaxing together on the seaside. In Tegucigalpa, I've stayed in a tiny hotel with ten rooms. I got acquainted with the hotel owner who was working on the site with all tourist rentals for Honduras. My hosts in Leon Nicaragua were a couple in the late 30s from France. They visited this beautiful country years ago, liked the place and moved to run their small mini-hotel. I've stayed in Panama with well-off young Colombian couple who left their home country and moved their family business to Panama. Guy had Belgian roots and girl was from the Arabic family in Cartagena. Brother of my host became a quite famous comedian using Vine to post his short funny videos about Latin culture. In Ecuador, I've stayed with the Ecuadorian/Catalan guy. It was very tough for him to identify himself with one of the ethnicities. At the time he was remodeling his mom's home in the Quito's downtown to become a small hotel. He told me about the diversity of Ecuador, his travel to India, and dreams to learn shamans' craft. In Washington, I stayed with a young American couple who were working for White house and dreamed of improving their country. In Istanbul, I've rented a place together with a local fashion photographer. What I remember about him was his frustration with local government (which is a very common topic among the majority of countries I visited). In Macedonia, I've rented a place from the local couple (wife was a manager in the local branch of big bank and husband was taking care of the house, kids and Airbnb property). I mostly interacted with a husband who was officially unemployed by his own choice (which is still uncommon today for some reason). This allowed us to have multiple interesting discussions. I wanted to analyze diversity that travel can provide: ethnicities, cultures, food, languages, etc. It allows you to learn about different professions, hear different opinions, views, conclusions. There are a lot of opportunities just in travel, you can find friends, you can find jobs, you can find connections. If you experienced all of this you can create something new. You can become a fusion of different cultures, ideas and form or create something unique on top of that. --- ## /writings/ukraine-july-2015 # Ukraine: July 2015 ### Intro 5 years ago I left Ukraine. What is interesting that after 5 years outside of my home country I can't answer a question "So how is life in Ukraine?" anymore. I mean I'm following news and can tell you what is happening. But it became much harder (it requires more thinking) for me to explain what are young Ukrainians up to. What are the problems, what are the challenges, what are the trends and what will happen next? 5 years ago I was part of the up-and-coming generation that was going to define Ukrainian future. I knew what my peers were thinking, doing, dreaming, etc (and to be honest I wasn't impressed). But right now there is an even younger generation of people in the early 20s, and they definitely have some differences (as any generation) with the previous generation. I don't have good connections and knowledge about these younger Ukrainians. If I come to Ukraine now, I wouldn't exactly know what to expect. I have some ideas about my expectations, and you can read them below. ### Events A lot of things happened in Ukraine in the past 5 years. First we had Victor Yanukovych regime, then we had the Revolution of Dignity connected with tragedy but huge hopes. Now we have a war against Russia. Currently my country has a lot of problems: war, corruption, slow speed of reforms, economic crises etc. But I see 2 signs of future success of Ukraine. I have a good feeling about my home country. Bear with me to know why. ### Music & art When I was younger, we had a handful of the good Ukrainian music bands. To become successful, they needed some money/connections to appear on popular radio stations and TV-channel rotations. Now we live in the Internet age. To deliver your art (music, movies, etc) you don't need money or connections. All you need to do is your work of art and Internet. If you are a music band, you can release your music independently on the Soundcloud. You can keep in touch with fans on Twitter, you can organize events on Facebook. This is a completely new thing that is happening globally and also in Ukraine. Basically, there is a general trend right now which I would call "without their permission" (see [Alexis Ohanian's book](http://withouttheirpermission.com/)). You don't need to ask anyone for "permission" if you want to start a company, political party or music band. All you need to focus on is your idea and execution. And if you are able to create something worthy people would pay attention to it. In a way "without their permission" phrase can be applied to the whole country. Ukraine used to be for quite a few centuries Russian colony. As a colony, we were looking towards Moscow and "asking permission" what to do, what to think. We don't need to do it anymore. We can define our country, our ideals, our goals and directions ourselves. I definitely like it. It enables people around the world to make a difference, do what they love and feel that they are working on something important. Priorities changed. If you are an artist, you don't need to be globally successful to be able to pay your bills. What you can do is be successful in a small niche. Previously it was difficult to deliver your work to that niche because of the geographic restrictions. That is not the case anymore. If you're a band from Ukraine making music in some specific genre/style, your fans/listeners no longer need to be in the same city, or even country, they can be around the world. In the last 50 years for a lot of Ukrainian artists' success meant going to Moscow (which was a center of the bigger market for Soviet and post-Soviet countries). The focus changed completely recently. Currently, a lot of young Ukrainian bands do high-quality music oriented on the Western and global market. This is the thing that excites me the most. I feel that culture/art and music is an extremely important indicator of change. It shows where country and society want really to go. Alain de Botton said that art balances us, it tries to compensate for what we are missing in our lives. And that is an important observation. Because producing high-quality western-like music shows that the new generation of Ukrainians wants to be better integrated with the Western world and there is high demand for quality too. It also shows that artists are not afraid to try anymore. An artist in some way also sends a right message to the rest of the society: if I am not afraid to try and do what we love - you can and should too. ### New class In the 90s, most of the population in Ukraine became suddenly extremely poor after the collapse of Soviet Union. Early days of capitalism in my country were pretty wild. Some people became rich quickly. Most people who achieved high status and "success" were not good people. The majority earned their money doing some illegal things. Most of our rich people also became corrupt politicians, they don't have proper education and more importantly good moral values by any means. What even worth that several generations didn't have good roles models. "Bad guys" had better chances of success, which created negative dynamics in the society and probably some hopelessness. In the last 10 years in Ukraine, we started to have some tiny layer of middle-class people that were able to earn enough money for the comfortable living. It's hugely important to have these people. Because the truth is after some income level more money doesn't bring you more happiness. See [WSJ article](http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/09/07/the-perfect-salary-for-happiness-75000-a-year/) which says: > > It turns out there is a specific dollar number, or income plateau, after which more money has no measurable effect on day-to-day contentment. > I hope that people who reach this level/income plateau would fill the need to do something else to be happier. There are not a lot of more fulfilling things than giving back to the community: through donations, volunteering work, building social enterprises or even building regular enterprises to help fellow citizens to live a decent life. Also, some good role models (for future generations) are emerging. We started to have good, socially active artists, we started to value intellectuals, it's becoming fashionable again to be smart and kind. ### Conclusion You can be pessimistic or optimistic about Ukrainian future. It's hard to predict what would happen next. There are great potential and a lot of opportunities, some are described in [Ukraine is open for U video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdSQuanI8Z8). But I think that reforms from our government are not as important as two things I talked about above. There is a big demand among progressive young people for living (and building) modern Western state. There are artists who can show to the rest of us what we want and need and there is middle-class that would be able to execute these changes. None of these people is going to ask for the permissions from our government or from other countries. And that is the most significant fundamental change that happened. People did realize that they are in charge of everything and there is a way to achieve what they want. --- ## /writings/ukraine-may-2019 # Ukraine: May 2019 On May 10 2019, I attended The Future of Ukrainian Democracy after Elections conference at Stanford. It was a small event, but a decent amount of public figures participated: Francis Fukuyama, Mustafa Nayyem, Steven Pifer, Oleksandr Saienko, Hanna Hopko, Sevgil Musaeva, Myroslava Gongadze, Artur Geraysmov, Oleksandr Danchenko, Maksym Nefiodov, Michael Carpenter, Michael McFaul, Oleksiy Ryabchyn. So the list included a lot of active Ukrainian MPs, some members of government, journalist, former US State Department officials. It was the first time in my life that I observed so many high-profile figures from such a close distance. The one significant conclusion after the event was following: Ukrainian MPs were the least impressive people in the whole crowd including the audience. It was bizarre to observe them on stage, during the breaks and the afterparty. Here is the list of the things that surprised me: Inability to answer questions. MPs were able to talk a lot without answering a basic simple question. Constant complains. MPs rhetoric was very unbalanced. It was almost constant complaining about some problems and mistakes by other people. The conference started with the simple question "What are the good things that happened in Ukraine in the last 5 years?" None of them were able to answer that, they started to enumerate problems immediately. It felt like they were campaigning. It felt like MPs were getting ready for the next election. Campaigning and simple conversation are very different things Arguing and fighting - some of the MPs were arguing with each other on stage. That was inappropriate for that time and place. Non-seriousness and secrecy - some of the MPs were always laughing on stage (but in a very weird way), some were very secretive I didn't get a good idea about intellectual capabilities of MPs due to the reasons stated above. However I had feeling that most of them were a bit conservative and outdated. Scary thing is that those MPs belong to the "new generation" of Ukrainian politicians. I didn't see lot of progressive global ideas. Before the event ended, I was shocked to see how one of the most famous MP was asking if he can start drinking wine before the reception. He just went for the bottle himself before the event even finished. After the reception, some of the MPs went to the afterparty. It was interesting to observe them in a more relaxed environment. One had debates with wine behind the table, another was telling to Myroslava Gongadze a lot of exciting but a bit crazy stories on every topic possible. In general, I became a bit tired and upset after observing MPs. I do not have high hopes for the upcoming parliamentary elections, because even this "progressive" and "new politicians" are uninspiring to me. However, I'm still very optimistic about the Ukrainian future. In the last months (during my trip to Ukraine) and even during this event I've met a lot of smart and active Ukrainians. So I do stand by the [statement](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-november-2017) I made 4 years ago: > I think that reforms from our government are not as important as two things I talked about above. There is a big demand among progressive young people for living (and building) modern Western state. There are artists who can show to the rest of us what we want and need and there is middle-class that would be able to execute these changes. None of these people is going to ask for the permissions from our government or from other countries. I've met a lot of people who are intellectually curious, energetic and more than capable to push the country forward. They might not always be in the parliament or government yet. --- ## /writings/ukraine-november-2017 # Ukraine: November 2017 In July 2015 I wrote a [post about Ukraine](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-july-2015) that defined two things that made me optimistic about Ukrainian future. At that time for me, it was mostly theoretical exercise and even to some extent an example of wishful thinking. In Nov 2017 after almost 4 years I visited Ukraine. What I saw *shocked* me. I was overwhelmed with emotions, thoughts, ideas. What exactly did I see? Downtowns of big cities (Kyiv and Kharkiv) looked completely different. They were full of modern coffee shops, cafes, restaurants. They were filled with people (both locals and foreigners). Those places were modern in all senses: * beautiful design - interior and brand - with attention to details. * young, good-looking, English-speaking, *polite* and *helpful* personal. This is a significant point, it wasn't like that before at all. Only 30 years ago our service industry was full of angry, bitter ladies working for state-owned enterprises * modern menu. Ok, when I saw browny, merengue, marshmallows on the menu in Kharkiv - I was both impressed but also started to really think about the speed of globalization. That menu was no different from the one I see in San Francisco * tourist-ready. As I said, personnel could speak English, all the menus had English translations. Those coffee shops and cafes are examples of small businesses. As I argued in 2015, people are not afraid to start their own ventures. Small businesses are remarkably important. In my opinion, they drive change. They emerge from the bottom and not from the top. That is why I don't care which political party wins elections as long as people continue to take the initiative, start businesses and be active in all other spheres of communal and social life. The best part that those small businesses look very modern (in the sense that I described above). By doing it the right way, they set an example for everyone else. The ones that would come after will build on this experience. In 2015 I wrote, "we started to value intellectuals, it's becoming fashionable again to be smart and kind." This thing happened! I'm so excited about it. When I left Ukraine in 2010, it was still cool to be “cool” (in the sense of “bad boys”). While in Kyiv I saw a tremendous amount of small new libraries or coffee shops/libraries. Young people started to reading good modern books. I've met two software engineers, and how surprised I was when we realized that 3 of us read the same books (e.g., Peter Thiel's “Zero to One”). And I've got many good book recommendations. At the same time, Kyiv is filled with trivia and quiz nights. I visited one music trivia Wednesday night. There were like 20 teams with 6 people each trying to beat each other in the knowledge of music bands.I was told that events of such type are happening almost every night. And there are music, history, sport trivia nights, etc. In Ukraine 2010, it was cool to drink alcohol and gather with friends at one's apartment. Now it seems to be cool to do yoga, attend workshops, read books, visit jazz concerts, etc. Street fashion changed too! I've met British girl in Kyiv who lived there for 9 months, and she was complaining that Kyiv is even *too* hipster-ish for her. I'd take it as a good sign at this point in time. *Following the leaders*. What I also noticed that people started looking abroad for ideas. Coffee shops with Western design are good examples of this point. There is no need to reinvent everything. Take what is working somewhere and use it. I saw the same in conversation with software engineers. They told me how their companies tried to improve themselves by studying books on hiring and managing at Google and other big US companies. I also noticed how deeply *technology penetrated* into society. Middle-aged Ukrainians are using Uber, asking about Bitcoin, buying drones, shopping online and using same-day delivery services. For me, I practically saw no difference between creative class in San Francisco, Hong Kong, London, and Kyiv. Forgetting about globalization issue, in general, I consider it to be a good thing for Ukraine at this particular moment in time. --- ## /writings/ukrainian-vs-russian # Ukrainian-vs-Russian ### Intro After leaving Ukraine 4 years ago I was often asked by people whether Ukrainian and Russian languages are the same? Initially I didn’t have good intuition to answer that question since I’m (as lot of Ukrainians) bi-lingual - I can speak, think, read, write in both languages. Then I realized that it’s a very difficult question if you ask Ukrainians. But it’s much easier if you ask Russians. Most Russians wouldn’t be able to even understand Ukrainian without big effort. Lots of words would be unfamiliar, pronunciation would be different etc. ### Political context Many things happened in Ukraine in the last year (since November 2013). Before, we were taught through media and education that Russians are the “closest” nation to Ukraine - "they are our brothers" - and Ukrainian is the closest language to Russian. It smells like Russian propaganda to me now. They definitely had an interest to spread such information, but was that information true? I started to have serious doubts. Especially after living in the Balkans region for two years of my life, visiting Poland and Czech Republic I started to notice many similarities between those languages and Ukrainian. ### Investigation So I had some questions and some doubts over the years about my previous beliefs. I decided to write simple program that will calculate programmatically how close are Ukrainian and Russian languages. I started with the simplest approach: * find dictionary with Ukrainian and Russian words * transliterate those words to neutral alphabet (I transliterated to English) * find how many words are would be the same from two dictionaries I initially decided to use pronunciation as the rule for transliteration. That was important because Ukrainian letter "е" written the same way as Russian "е" but they sound very different. In fact Russian "е" would be replaced with two sounds ("йе") in Ukrainian. My program was simple but I was still shocked with the result. I’ve used Ukrainian dictionary with **110180** words, Russian dictionary with **170335** words. And found that only **9193** (approximately **8.4%** of all Ukrainian words) have the same transliteration. Obviously after some improvements to the algorithms that number will go up. Also some changes might drive those numbers down. E.g. word "milk" spelled same way in both languages, but they are pronounced very different: "малако" in Russian and "молоко" in Ukrainian. But even at this point I doubt that Ukrainian and Russian languages are super similar (I mean Serbian and Croatian type of similarity). You can find [code](https://github.com/hashobject/ukr-vs-rus) on github. ### Next How research have to be improved: * [Levenshtein distance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance) between words may be calculated. It's interesting to find how many words are different with just one or two sounds. E.x. word "sun" - in Russian it's spelled "солнце", while in Ukrainian "сонце", but pronunciation of both words is the same (In Russian you just skip that additional "л" in the middle). * ideally, meaning of the word should be taken into account. Some words are spelled in both languages same way, but have different meaning. E.x. words "неделя" in Russian and "неділя" in Ukrainian - both of them sounds very similar, but Russian word means "week", while Ukrainian means "Sunday". * similar research can be done for other languages. E.x. how close are Ukrainian and Polish, Ukrainian and Croatian and in the future e.g. Spanish and Portuguese. Also comparison of dictionaries is not exclusive metric for comparing languages. If you want to improve research you can take grammar rules into account, maybe something else. It feels like a good topic for scientific research. If somebody did it I would like to read about results and see the code. ### Conclusion A lot of things can be accomplished using simple programming skills. We can get answers for questions that bugged us for years, we can destroy myths and find truths. There is another [research](http://elms.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/lexical-distance-among-languages-of-europe/) that shows that Ukrainian is much closer to Polish than to Russian. I don't have any formal prof for that but to be honest the result doesn't surprise me. My intuition about "distance" between two languages changed a lot. Eventually I would like to see open source tool kit that can programmatically calculate distance between any two languages. If you know someone who is working on that - let me know. --- ## /writings/unbridled-enthusiasm # Unbridled Enthusiasm Year 2004. It's my first year of university. I just started studying computer science and software engineering. I know nothing about the field. I only got my first computer 2 years ago. I was a geeky kid, but not a computer geeky one. Few months into my studies I'm sitting at the lecture. During the break I talk to my classmate about computers - I know very little since I didn't have them growing up and my family couldn't afford them. At the time I had some old PC with 128MB of RAM. And I really wanted 256MB of RAM and ultimate unthinkable dream was 512MB of RAM. I'm talking about this and my classmate told me that in 2020 people will have 20GB of RAM. I was bemused. I didn't really believe him. He was a smart guy, but he visited university like 2 times a month and also he wasn't the smartest. So I couldn't lend his words any credibility. But what he said stuck with me, because his number was 40 times higher than dream of 512MB that I had. But at the moment I looked at him like he was crazy. I'm pretty sure he just read in some journal about [Moore's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law) - which would really explain easy jump from 256MB to 20GB in 15 years. But I've never heard of such law at the time and I didn't understand exponential growth at all. You see at the time I had 128MB of RAM and I understood that they can be increased by 128MB or maybe 256MB per year. I didn't realize they can double! I only had computer for 2 years. Anyway, fast forward 10 years and I live in San Francisco. During some meetup I met a guy who was talking into my ear that Bitcoin will cost 20K in 2020 or so. At the time it was probably around 300 USD. So now you see he basically saying to me the same thing that my classmate told me 10 years before. Something will go from 200-300 and increase 40-100 times in 6 years. I wasn't as skeptical as I was before. I still looked at him like he was crazy a bit, but my whole understanding and intuition about numbers changed. Now, let's fast forward 6 more years. I was still in San Francisco. It was the pandemic and I was riding a bike with my friend during weekend. He spent several hours talking into my ear about GPT and how it will change everything. Nothing clicked for me, I was skeptical, bored and annoyed with his enthusiasm. July 2024 Anthropic makes Claude so powerful that it can write code as good as me or better. The future is clear. Everything clicks and I connect the dots with conversation that happened 4 years ago. Now few years later the opposite happens to me. I'm fully converted fan of agentic programming(claude code and so on). I meet random people or my coworkers and happy to talk to them about modern AI and tech. And sometimes we click and sometimes I get "the stare". I immediately recognize it - what have I done? - why did I tell them about what AI can do for me, it's obvious they didn't try the tool and I look like a crazy man to them. The very same look I gave my classmate 20+ years ago I'm getting now. We live in isolated timelines. Everyone has their own reality. It's hard to bridge it. I usually try to understand what people know to make sure I'm not talking about something they don't know about. But sometimes my guard sleeps or sometimes I'm too excited and cannot moderate myself. The thing that I found as a strong signal is the emotionality of the delivery. Eg unbridled enthusiasm from any person is a strong signal to me that maybe I should pay attention to that thing. This person is so excited about the thing and they want to talk about it to me for 2 hours? Maybe I need to look at it? But the opposite emotions are also true. Eg if someone is disturbed or crying - that is a strong signal too. Happened several times in my career, when I left a startup I loved extremely disturbed and sad because of terrible character of one of the founders. One year later that founder was out and the one who remained talked to me how he missed those signals and even when he saw them tried to ignore. So the things that were clear and visible to me at one time, became visible to other person some months later. PS It's 2026 and I have 48GB of RAM on my laptop. --- ## /writings/what-do-i-want # What do I Want? “What do you want to have for lunch today?” This question often paralyzes me when asked by my coworkers. I usually don’t know. I don’t have specific desire for food at the time that question is asked. Or rather I’m not aware of the desire. 5 years ago I went to the therapy. We explored this topic a bit there. Here is the story from my childhood. I’m 11 yo. Every Sunday my parents will take me and my younger brother to the market. It’s a thing they did. It was partly a chore time (my parents needed to buy some things) but also our family time. At the end of that trip to the market my parents would usually get some treat for me and my brother. One Sunday, my dad asks us what do we want to get as a treat. I say I want a bun with jam. We’re finishing with the trip to market, dad goes away and returns with our treats. He holds two packs of potato chips. I told him I don’t want potato chips and I want my bun. You see since we left our home I visualized having this bun. I had this strong desire and was anticipating eating my treat. My dad becomes angry. He throws my bag of chips into the trash can and starts screaming in front of everyone how ungrateful I’m. I’m confused and lost and scared. I go home in silence. Probably I did something wrong? What was that about? So many questions. But I’m 11. I cannot process it. 20 years later I’m sitting at my therapy talking about this situation. I can connect the dots now. That situation looks ridiculous to me at this moment of my life. And I see how that situation (and other related ones) shut down in me some capacity not only to vocalize my desires but to produce them. Reflecting on that situation makes me sad. But I also realize that it’s ok, I can nurture that lacking desire-generation function. If I’m patient it will come back. I just need to be gentle with myself and listen to myself more carefully. If there is even some tiny signal - I need to notice it and follow up and satisfy my inner child. And that is what I’m trying to do for the past 5 years. Listen to myself. I still cannot produce wants and desires on a whim, but I do have way better understanding of what I want and what I don’t want. I plan way less now. It might be confusing to some of my closed ones. But planning is easy for me. I can always do that. I try not to plan, because I want to give some time and space for myself. And instead of making some plan I try to be spontaneous, but not for the sake of spontaneity, not at all. I’m like a fisherman who patiently waits for the fish. But instead of the fish I just wait for the small desire/dream/wish/want to appear. And then I can follow up on it. That is how I try to structure my life nowadays. #reflection #childhood --- ## /writings/what-is-coming # What is Coming it feels like the old era of technology is coming to an end. computers (and phones) used to be mostly tools where we did our work. user interfaces was all about clicks and buttons. last 20 years software was like Adobe Photoshop(or Figma) or GMail - you needed to click around, press some buttons, type few things or draw, find context menus etc. most of it coming rapidly to the end. user interfaces are going to be timeline/conversation based. the medium is less important (text or audio is not a dramatic change here). but going from wide screens where we did things to the conversational timelines where we tell computers what to do is a huge change. before we would write a blog post or draw an image. now we will tell computer to do that for us. we will state what we want and will get that. implications are so profound that it's hard to imagine how things will look in few years. computers used to be a tool to help us and speed up our main work. now we will have like a swarm of background virtual assistants. we will tell them what we want and they will make it happen: do research on some topic (what is a good kinder garden for my child and how to get there), find and buy guitar produced in Poland, research and make a best personal plan for getting in shape for a marathon etc. i don't want to write that more on this topic. if you saw what is happening- you already know it, if you didn't experience yet the magic of the latest tech - it sounds like a crazy talk. new operating system is coming. before it was "operating system for our work" and now we will see "operating system for our lives". --- ## /writings/words # Words I like words. I usually pay attention to what other people are saying. Sometimes it would be *easier* if I didn't. But easier doesn't mean better of course. I know three different languages. And I know bits from few more. I like to reflect on the nature of words. I had a personal example of language misuse that haunted me for at least a year. Once my ex-partner called me an *evil* person. It was said in clear mind and repeated a lot of times during different occurrences afterwards. That shocked me profoundly. I did know what *evil* means. I started to question myself a lot. Don't I know something about myself? Am I lying to myself? Do other people see something in me that I can't see? It was a lot of soul-searching. I started to pay attention to all the references of *good* and *evil* in the literature. I grew up with these concepts. They were everywhere: fairy tails, cartoons, myths, films. I shivered every time I remembered this accusation. It was the opposite of what I believed in and valued. Wikipedia gives this definition of *evil*: > Evil, in a general sense, is the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, though in everyday usage is often used more narrowly to denote profound wickedness. For me, the simplest definition of *evil* is "premeditated act of doing something wrong." And I was reading through definitions and reflecting time and time again. One day I confronted my ex-partner and explained what *evil *means according to other people. I asked if knowing this definition her accusation still holds true. She switched it to another term. Which ironically was also incorrect, but that is for another story. I was a bit relieved after this. But I still didn't understand how did that happen in the first place. Why was I called *that* initially? What was the thing person *really* wanted to say? In the last year, I believe I found answers to both of these questions. The problem was that all that communication happened in the Ukrainian language. In Ukrainian, the noun "evil" is "зло". And the adjective "evil" is "злий". So I was called *злий* meaning *evil person*. However, the problem that *angry* in Ukrainian is also *злий*. Ukrainian language simply doesn't have a separate word for *angry*. So *feeling angry* in Ukrainian is *being evil*. Those are two different things! Ukrainian language doesn't have a separate word for one of the emotions or feelings (however we define it nowadays). What is even more disturbing that "злий" word (meaning angry) has a very negative spin to it in my native language. When you have something that has negative connotation you want to get rid of it and dissociate yourself from it. Which is the wrong way to view anger altogether. It has its own function and is quite important. And if you reflect on your anger you would understand a lot about yourself. Anyway, it was an Aha moment when I realized that all that happened just because Ukrainian language lacked one word in it. Two lessons that I learned from this situation. ==Listen== to people, but make sure that you and they understand some basic words in the same way. A lot of miscommunication happens because people understand things differently. Read common definitions. That is precisely why we have vocabularies - to establish common meanings. Cross check words from different languages. Cross check definitions. Some words are extremely outdated. We can create new words if needed too. Without past baggage. An environment in which we operate matters. Culture and language which surround us set defaults and context. #language #words --- ## /beliefs # Beliefs I believe that it is *beneficial* to keep one’s set of beliefs to a minimum. So that is in fact my first belief:) Here is my list. With dates. I’ll hope to revisit them from time to time: Most problems/situations in life have no *ideal* solution. However, there are always multiple *solutions* with different tradeoffs. Any of the top solutions is fine. 2019-09-06. I do not believe in absolute statements. E.g. when someone says “I’m an empathetic person.” I think about those from two angles: 1) there are no absolutes, just sliders 2) those statements are context dependent. E.g. person can be empathetic in one situation, and complete opposite in other. 2019-09-06 Actions over words. Words people say do not matter much, what they do matter a lot. You are what you do, not what you say. *2019-09-06* Communication is a *proxy* for care. If the person doesn’t communicate, they don’t care. *2019-09-07* I don’t believe people who “care” about *big things* like climate, poverty, hunger, nature etc. I tend to notice that those people can’t care for their closest people or even for themselves. If I see that you can care about 1) yourself and 2) closest people, only then I would believe that you care about global issues. *2019-09-08* ![|240](attachments/9AC58CC1-520B-4E19-815A-F1FA591FC22D_1_105_c-17e24b3d.jpeg) --- ## /contact # Contact In general I’m located in Miami (however I’m on the road very often these days). If you are in Miami/NYC/Warsaw and want to meet for coffee, tea or a walk, just reach out to me. - email:  - twitter: [podviaznikov](https://twitter.com/podviaznikov) - github: [podviaznikov](https://github.com/podviaznikov) --- ## /domains # q List of the domains I currently own. If you are interested in any of them - send me an email. | **Domain** | **Description** | |---|---| | [https://bigpie.io](https://bigpie.io) | Not active. Only have an idea in my mind. | | [https://gazettebox.com](https://gazettebox.com) | Idea for the newsletter reader. Prototype is done. | | [https://borges.ai](https://borges.ai) | Used to be the serviced to track your books. | | [https://bubbleboi.com](https://bubbleboi.com) | In development. Journaling app based on iMessage. | | [https://convertfile.io](https://convertfile.io) | Active. | | [https://cyclic.cc](https://cyclic.cc) | Not active. Had an idea for cycling app. | | [https://dataframes.io](https://dataframes.io) | Not currently active. Was a tool to work with public data | | [https://goosta.me](https://goosta.me) | Not active. Used to be a prototype for a dating app. | | [https://hashobject.com](https://hashobject.com) | Not active. Used to be my small studio. | | [https://jarkeeper.com](https://jarkeeper.com) | Not active. Used to be a tool to track dependencies for Clojure projects. | | [https://kiwi.page](https://kiwi.page) | Not active. Small tool to publish Apple Notes online. | | [https://kundera.io](https://kundera.io) | Not active. Only have an idea in my mind. | | [https://montaigne.io](https://montaigne.io) | Active. | | [https://neviglas.com](https://neviglas.com) | Active. | | [https://newsletter.new](https://newsletter.new) | Active. Redirects to recuremail.com | | [https://perun.io](https://perun.io) | Site for an open source project I made long time ago. | | [https://podviaznikov.com](https://podviaznikov.com) | My personal site. | | [https://public.photos](https://public.photos) | Active. Check it out. | | [https://recur.email](https://recur.email) | Active. Check it out. | | [https://recurrent.email](https://recurrent.email) | Went with recur.email. | | [https://recurrentemail.com](https://recurrentemail.com) | Went with recur.email. | | [https://repetitive.io](https://repetitive.io) | Active. | | [https://ukrainian.house](https://ukrainian.house) | Active. Check it out. | | [https://intermarium.io](https://intermarium.io) | Not active. | | [https://public.me](https://public.me) | Active. | | [https://alto.computer](https://alto.computer/) | Active. | | [https://alto.so](https://alto.so) | Active. | | [https://recuremail.com](https://recuremail.com) | Active. | | [https://altocomputer.com](https://altocomputer.com) | Active. | | [https://nextetl.com](https://nextetl.com) | In development. | | [https://altobody.com](https://altobody.com/) | Active. | | [https://antiantihuman.com](https://antiantihuman.com) | New blog. | | [https://bluedotair.com](https://bluedotair.com/) | Small web site. | | [https://biggidea.com](https://biggidea.com/) | New tool. | | [https://altonote.com](https://altonote.com) | Publishing tool. | | [https://bigmission.com](https://bigmission.com/) | New thing. | | [https://altoindex.com](https://altoindex.com) | macOS application. | | [https://patronat.com](https://patronat.com/) | Site to show who you support. | | [https://deepcalc.com](https://deepcalc.com/) | Coming soon. | | [https://ultrathink.com](https://ultrathink.com/) | Coming soon. | | [https://tinysend.com](https://tinysend.com/) | Coming soon. | | [https://tinydot.com](https://tinydot.com/) | Modern web publishing. | | [https://original.me](https://original.me/) | Active. | | [https://wander.md](https://wander.md/) | Active. Markdown editor for macOS. | | [https://quantified.md](https://quantified.md/) | In development. | | [https://bloodwork.md](https://bloodwork.md/) | In development. | | [https://folder.dev](https://folder.dev/) | In development. | --- ## /inbox # inbox --- ## /organizations-to-support # Organizations to support Here is a list of organizations I support in some way: financially (through investment or donations) or via volunteering. - [Come Back Alive](https://savelife.in.ua/en) - [Prytula Foundation](https://prytulafoundation.org/en) - [Illuminate Foundation](https://illuminate.fund) - [Promprylad](http://promprylad.ua) - [Vydavnytstvo](http://vydavnytstvo.com) - [Pro.Svit](http://prosvitcenter.org/en) - [Family Milk Farms](https://smf.org.ua) - [Nova Ukraine](https://novaukraine.org) - [The Ukrainians](https://theukrainians.org) - [2075 Fund](https://2075fund.com/) - [The Fourth Law](https://thefourthlaw.ai) - [Odd Systems](https://oddsystems.io/en/) Pleases consider supporting them too. One day I hope to have all this orgs on my patronat [profile](https://patronat.com/anton). --- ## /tests # tests what is new --- ## /ukraine # Ukraine Ukraine is my home country. I haven’t lived there since Aug 2010. It’s been crazy 13 years abroad for me but way crazier times inside Ukraine. Over the years I thought and wrote quite a lot about my home country [https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-july-2015](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-july-2015) [https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-november-2017](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-november-2017) [https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-may-2019](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/ukraine-may-2019) [https://podviaznikov.com/writings/the-bravest-of-men](https://podviaznikov.com/writings/the-bravest-of-men) And there were many more [essays](https://podviaznikov.com/tags/Ukraine) that touched on the topic of Ukraine. If you are thinking how you can support Ukraine check out [organizations](https://podviaznikov.com/organizations-to-support) I support myself. If you want to invest your time or money, message me and I can help you navigate the space. ---