Author: knari

Maxim Dorofeev “Jedi Techniques: How to Tame Your Monkey, Empty Your Inbox, and Save Mental Fuel”

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Max Dorofeev’s training on the “empty inbox” technique has recently become very popular among many of my colleagues and in the IT sphere overall. Probably because many of us are familiar with the feeling of having too many emails, too many tasks, with everyone working at full speed, yet the workload only seems to increase. At some point, many realize that things can’t continue like this.

This leads to a frantic search for books on self-organization, time management, and various “silver bullet” methods that promise to solve everything.

Before writing his book, Max Dorofeev successfully toured with his training sessions and also conducted webinars on the same topic. I participated in one of them myself, but I was curious to see what he compiled under the cover of the book.

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Dina Rubina “The White Dove of Cordoba”

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I probably would have never picked up a book by Dina Rubina on my own. Nothing personal, it just didn’t seem interesting. But my wife read it and insisted that I absolutely had to read The White Dove of Cordoba—that I would definitely enjoy it.

The most interesting part is that, overall, I did like it. But as I read, my opinion of the book swung wildly between “really enjoying this” and “this feels like some kind of women’s fiction.” At first, the latter impression was winning out.

The narrative jumps between the present day and the story of the main character, Zakhar Cordovin, his family, childhood, and coming of age. And it’s the modern-day sections of the novel that are the least engaging—they felt the most “feminine” to me. I was especially annoyed by the courtship and sexual scenes. You can just tell that a woman is trying to convey a man’s feelings, and I kept wanting to skip those parts.

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Sun Tzu “The Art of War”

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The book is, of course, interesting, if only because it’s so frequently referenced. Many of the ideas are quite thought-provoking, especially in the context of warfare and strategy in general. However, more than half of the book consists of commentary and footnotes. And the main takeaway from these is that no one really knows what Sun Tzu actually meant. Everyone interprets it in their own way.

And that’s all I have to say about this treatise.

Kornei Chukovsky “Alive as Life”

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The book Alive as Life carries the subtitle “A Conversation about the Russian Language,” and indeed, its structure feels more like a conversation. It covers several topics, all of which are related in some way to the development of the Russian language.

It’s clear that the author had a deep love for his native language, cared for it passionately, and wanted future generations to preserve and enrich it. Perhaps that’s why he begins the book with a chapter discussing changes in the language—how the younger generation brings new elements, while the older generation resists these changes with all their might. Kornei Chukovsky wrote this 55 years ago, and it’s already evident how much the language has evolved since then.

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Maxim Ilyakhov, Lyudmila Sarycheva “Write, Shorten”

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Readers’ opinions on this book vary greatly: some give it the highest rating, while others feel frustrated and quit before reaching the halfway mark. Among my close friends, I’m the only one who finished it cover to cover, yet my overall rating for the book remains low.

The book contains quite a lot of very useful information for anyone who writes in Russian. Furthermore, this review itself is certainly an example that the authors would gladly edit! 😉

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Scott Rogers “Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design”

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Although I have worked in the video game industry for years, I never thought I was any kind of a game designer. But it is impossible to avoid all this knowledge after all these years, especially if you have a lot of great professionals around you. This is why you want to know more about a big part of your job and entire life.

One of my colleagues recommended me to read ‘Level Up!’ as one of the best ‘manuals’ of game design.

The book isn’t just a game design tutorial, it is a great handbook. The author explains every type of aspect of game creation, and give a lot of examples of how to document it and keep ideas.

One can say that it most likely too boring to read a step-by-step manual, but there is so much humour and dozens of great artwork, created by the author himself in a very ironic and even cartoonish style. This makes the book easy to read, almost like a comic graphic novel.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in game design. And if it is a part of your job then you have to have it, the book is like a Bible for every game designer (in the words of my colleagues, game designers).

Robert Sutton “The No Asshole Rule”

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The book is quite interesting. First, the author isn’t afraid to call things by their real names, without falling into political correctness. Second, through several examples, he shows why having assholes in a company is harmful.

The essence of the book is almost fully captured in its title: just don’t work with assholes. In the first few chapters, it seemed like there wouldn’t be much more than examples of why it’s bad to work with them. Yes, there’s a fair amount of fluff, but there are still valuable insights.

The author breaks down what makes a “certified asshole” in his view. This helps apply the criteria to anyone, making it easier to understand how bad a person can be for business and personal well-being.

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Grigory Belykh, Leonid Panteleev “The Republic of FeDoSh”

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It’s hard to believe that this book is almost a hundred years old! Yet, you don’t really feel that in the emotions of the characters. Sure, there’s a slight sense of “old-fashionedness,” that these are clearly not modern kids, but overall, you only remind yourself that it’s a century-old book.

To start from the beginning: I had wanted to read this book for a long time. My parents had traded scrap paper for it back in Soviet times, but I first saw the movie based on the book. I enjoyed the film. That’s when I decided that I should read the original. However, it took me almost twenty years to finally do it.

Even so, I was hesitant to begin. You know how some books seem to have their own right time? What you enjoyed 10-15 years ago might now, upon rereading, feel dull or even disappointing. That’s exactly what I was afraid of—that this book might resonate perfectly with teenagers but wouldn’t hit the same way in adulthood.

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Boris Akunin “The Week of the Three-Eyed”

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The novel The Week of the Three-Eyed is quite interesting and in some chapters reminds me of the works about Erast Fandorin, though only slightly. It’s an easy read but doesn’t evoke much excitement, especially considering that the fourth “historical” volume about the same period is far more gripping. It feels more like an addition to the historical narrative, and as a standalone book, it falls short even compared to the previous fictional parts of the series, not to mention the famous Fandorin cycle.

The play Kill the Viperling felt even more lackluster, more like a reflection on what Russia could have been without Peter the Great. Although, there’s still a big question of whether that was ever really possible.

Boris Akunin “Between Europe and Asia. The History of the Russian State. The Seventeenth Century”

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The entire series by Boris Akunin on the history of the Russian state is very easy and interesting to read. Perhaps, at times, he adds personal emotions, but I didn’t notice any major discrepancies. Especially when you consider that history is often shaped by the victors , and the emotional component actually benefits the text, making it more engaging to read.

The fourth volume covers the Time of Troubles (after Boris Godunov), the rise of the Romanov dynasty, the annexation of Ukraine, and ends right before the final ascension of Peter the Great (which will be the focus of the next volume).

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