Since my school years, I’ve wanted to start some kind of business. I tried myself in various roles while simultaneously working as an ordinary developer. Although I spent more than half of my 30 years in IT in GameDev, over these years, I also had the opportunity to work in other interesting fields: educational apps, enterprise software, the semiconductor industry, and a bit in banking and telecommunications.
At some point, I realized that not everything I did turned out great.
Initially, I was upset, realizing that I wasn’t as strong in creativity or in coming up with crazy ideas and inspiring people with them. This is precisely what a leader of the inspirational type excels at (Adizes, in his framework, refers to such people as entrepreneurs).
But then I reflected on what I had done well over these years and what truly resonated with me. And I realized that my strength lay elsewhere. So, I began to develop in that direction. Over time, the list became clearer: I am good at production, evaluating and building effective teams, working with people, negotiations, operations, and administrative tasks. In other words, I am a very good “right-hand man” to a CEO, who is usually the one generating ideas and acting as the driving force. I, on the other hand, am more inclined toward the pragmatic work of “making it all happen.” This role in many companies is often gathered under the COO title or split between the CPO and COO.
And when I understood this, my career and self-esteem took off. Yes, I’m not much of an idea generator. But without people like me, even the best ideas might never be realized.
It’s impossible to be the best at everything; you need to find your strengths, the ones that interest and energize you, and develop them. The key is not to get complacent, not to stop at what you’ve achieved, and to keep learning, always asking yourself, “Am I doing everything right, and could it be done better?” Of course, here you need to guard against two well-known pitfalls. The first is perfectionism (because things can always be improved, but sometimes you need to stop and release a good product rather than chase an unattainable ideal). The second is self-doubt (when you start thinking that you haven’t done enough and that someone else could have done it better. Maybe so, but that person isn’t here, and you’re the one leading the project).
So don’t be discouraged if something doesn’t work out. Find what drives you, what you’re valued for. It’s better to become strong in that than to try to excel at everything. Even Gaius Julius Caesar, who according to legend could multitask like no other, didn’t end up too well. 😉
Author: knari
It’s not so straightforward: an Olympiad
Smart people say that in today’s world, it’s crucial to verify all facts (there are even special fact-checking projects for this). The ongoing Olympics in Paris has already shown how important this advice is, as a huge number of stories have spread across social networks, leading to both condemnation and praise. But if you dig deeper, things are not quite as they seem. To illustrate this, I decided to break down three well-known “fakes,” as we’ll call them.
The first of these was so convincing that even I, succumbing to the general hysteria, immediately jumped to condemnation without checking whether what was being said was true. For that, I apologize—I was wrong.
Read moreSongs: Mark Bernes – “Where Does the Motherland Begin?”
Despite all the triumphalism that has been built around Victory Day in recent decades, there are things I continue to love. One of them is the wartime songs by Mark Bernes. One of my favorites is “Where Does the Homeland Begin,” which plays over the credits of the four-part film “The Shield and the Sword” about the Russian intelligence officer Alexander Belov / Johann Weiss.
Incidentally, the film itself is also one of my favorite war movies. Yes, in some ways it can be considered propaganda, and not all episodes made sense to me even as a child, but I still love it madly and rewatch it every few years. The book on which it is based, on the one hand, reveals the characters better, but on the other hand, it’s quite heavy and tedious. The film turned out much better. And it was the first film in which the very young Oleg Yankovsky starred, by the way.
In modern Russia, one of Mark Bernes’ songs, “Do the Russians Want War,” has been banned. This says much more about the memory of real history than all the showy veterans and parades.
And the song “Where Does the Homeland Begin” remains one of the best to this day and is constantly playing on my playlist.
Here is that song in the closing scenes of the first episode of the film:
LinkedIn: Tips for Managing a Professional Profile
I frequently hire employees, so I decided to share my experience on what I pay attention to. LinkedIn is the de facto leading global resource where people publish their CVs. Therefore, I will review resume formatting based on this resource.
There are countless guides and courses on how to properly format your LinkedIn page to get noticed and hired. I can’t say that there is only one right way. Instead, I’ll describe how I look at the profiles of people who catch my interest or potential candidates.
Let me emphasize that this is my personal opinion, based on three pillars:
- Personal experience in hiring
- Common sense
- Advice from fellow recruiters, especially Tatsiana Malinouskaya, arguably the best recruiter I’ve ever worked with
So, let’s go step by step. Any profile consists of several sections, so let’s briefly discuss each.
Read moreSongs: Rabfak ‘God Save the Tsar’
Usually, in my blog, I write about songs that I like for some reason, songs that I recommend. The song “God Save the Tsar” by the band “Rabfak” is not exactly a masterpiece, and I won’t be listening to it repeatedly. But it correlates so much with my feelings about everything happening with the rock scene and the so-called “fighters against the regime” from back in the day.
Book: Evgeny CheshirKo “Diary of a Domovoi”
I happened to see the book “Diary of a Domovoi” in someone’s feed, filled with a lot of praise, and it had even been reissued several times under the slogan “a new discovery of Runet.” And just at that time, I was in the mood for something light and non-demanding.
So imagine my surprise when, even before I started reading, a couple of days later, my wife suddenly began quoting from the same book. Apparently, she came across it at the same time from one of our friends. How could I resist picking it up and reading it myself?
The particular edition I chose is one of the most comprehensive, arranged in the order recommended by the author himself on his LiveJournal.
“Diary of a Domovoi” began as notes by the author from the perspective of a Domovoi, who suddenly decided to meticulously record what he did every day in the house he was entrusted with, along with all its inhabitants. And there are more and more of them over time.
At first, the Domovoi lives only with the Mistress and the cat, with whom he seems to have a friendly relationship, although he constantly tries to get the cat into trouble (fortunately, the cat is not particularly bright). Then, a small dog and the Mistress’s lover join the household. The Mistress’s mother also makes an appearance. After the entire family moves into a separate house, some local residents show up, including a priest, a partisan ghost, equally ghostly fascists, and residents of the protected forest.
Read moreSongs: Logovo “Neznaika on the Moon”
YouTube suggested a music video by the band “Logovo,” a band I knew nothing about. Even searching didn’t reveal much.
However, the video had a strange effect on me. It was made using images created by neural networks. The song itself isn’t exactly captivating from the first notes, and the lyrics seem to be about Neznaika, but not quite. After clicking the link, I listened to the song all the way through, and I liked it more than I didn’t. I admit that the image of Neznaika played a significant role—he’s portrayed in such a heartfelt way that it really warmed me, especially since he looks a lot like my younger son.
I listened to it and then forgot about it. But then the video popped up in my feed again, I listened again, and then set it aside. And again.
Today, I realized that there’s something about this song that keeps drawing me back. So I decided to share it, and I’m also curious to hear what others think about the song.
My Kids in Music Videos
A former colleague of mine quoted a song by the band “Lyapis Trubetskoy” yesterday, which suddenly reminded me that my daughters had a tiny involvement in the band’s next album.
Back in 2006, when my wife’s younger sister, Olya, was studying to become a TV director, she had to shoot a music video for a coursework project. She decided to create a video for the song “New Time” by the band/artist “Mara.” For the lead role, she chose her niece—my eldest daughter Sasha, who was 5 years old at the time.
Read moreBook: Boris Akunin “The Destruction and Resurrection of the Empire”
Originally, when planning his series on the history of the Russian state, Boris Akunin intended to stop at 1917, with the fall of the Romanov dynasty, as he believed that beyond this point, it was no longer the history of the Russian state but of an entirely different country.
However, some time after completing the series, he unexpectedly announced the release of the 10th volume covering the Lenin-Stalin era. Moreover, this volume became the first that was not published in Russia, as when the book was almost ready for print, Boris Akunin was declared a terrorist in Russia, closing off access to publishing in his homeland. So the book was printed abroad.
While the revolution and the last tsar always felt distant to me, despite having lived during the Soviet Union, the events of the Soviet state itself were always closer. I studied this history in school and believed that I lived in the best country in the world. Therefore, I was very eager to see how Boris Akunin would recount this period.
Read moreBook: Igor Mozheiko “West Wind — Fair Weather”
We often reproach Americans for supposedly knowing nothing about World War II, for thinking they “won it,” when without the Soviet Union Hitler wouldn’t have been defeated. Of course, that’s all true. But it’s just as true that we ourselves know very little about their side of the war.
What can most of us name off the top of our heads? The Normandy landings (which have been chewed over from every angle in movies and in dozens of games)… and then the meeting on the Elbe. Oh right — we might have heard something about Pearl Harbor, and that they fought the Japanese a little bit over there, and that the evil Americans dropped two nuclear bombs, and that was that.
As executive producers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg decided to tell more of the war through American eyes. First, in 2001, they released Band of Brothers about combat in Europe. And nine years later, in 2010, they followed with The Pacific about a part of the war we barely know at all — because the Soviet Union didn’t take part in it, and so it simply wasn’t something people talked about. (And I very much recommend both series if you haven’t seen them.)
Read moreSupport me
If you would like to support me and my blog financially, I would be grateful:
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Contacts
Support me
If you would like to support me and my blog financially, I would be grateful:
- PayPal: paypal.me/gluknotes
- Revolut: revolut.me/knari
- Via credit card or Apple Pay through Ko-fi.com:
Contacts