Month: October 2021

The National Museum of Colombia

The main difference between all (10-15) international projects where I have worked over the last six years and 10-15 companies in Russia before that is that there has never been a visible public or personal conflict in the work environment. Of course, people are people, and everyone has their quirks and reasons to annoy others, but there is also a culture where it’s not considered proper to air such grievances outside of the immediate participants. This approach sometimes creates its own problems. For instance, an incompetent specialist or manager may remain in a project for a long time, and everyone simply endures it, leading to decreased productivity. Or they simply do not consider it their problem. As a result, a project planned for one year in Russia often takes two, whereas here it’s planned for two but takes three.

Overall, displaying negative emotions in the presence of those not involved is seen as a weakness of a manager or a specialist. If you think that employee B is messing up, it’s better to help rather than point out how bad employee B is. Whether you help quietly or publicly is a matter of self-promotion; for the outcome, it doesn’t matter. Besides the obvious benefits to the project or company, this employee B will grow and not forget (like in the joke about Pavlov, who was bitten by a dog, grew up, and forgot, but Pavlov grew up and didn’t forget).

Of course, not every project and not every company is like this. My experience simply cannot compare with the collective experience of the readers of this post. But 10-15 projects (=companies), into which I was thrown in various roles, seem sufficient for preliminary conclusions. In Russia, it is normal to point out flaws in the work of a person from a neighboring department, in the work where you are nobody, and he may be young and inexperienced, but a specialist. In Russia, it is normal to personalize criticism, attacking the person, not the quality of their work. This is not only in Russia but almost in any Asian country on local projects. This is such an observation.

Phew, I binge-watched the entire season of Squid Game. For me, it’s the best series lately. Kudos to the Koreans! The survival game idea has been exploited many times before (Cube, The Platform, The Hunger Games) but the series format really hit the spot here.

“The storm that Voland spoke about was already gathering on the horizon. A black cloud rose in the west and cut off the sun halfway. Then it covered it completely. It got cooler on the terrace. After a while, it grew dark. This darkness, coming from the west, enveloped the huge city.”

I once had a startup idea for a business messenger where sellers would subscribe to keywords and topics, and buyers could find sellers and request information. The information request went through pop-up forms with auto-fill based on previously entered form field values.

Interestingly, the concept of forms integrated within messengers has not yet appeared in the market. Could it really be inconvenient? Entering phone numbers, addresses, full names, car VINs, selecting times in a calendar, choosing from multiple offices on a map, passport details for tickets, and all such things.

I think the main barrier is the reluctance to deal with storing sensitive tagged data and the large number of older version messenger clients in users’ hands, where such forms would not be fully supported.

What about supporting old versions? Technically, one could replace forms with a bot that would simply ask questions sequentially, and a seller would just wait until the bot has processed everything. And this is just for old versions. In the new version, there would be a convenient pop-up form.

Completely lost their minds. It’s impossible to search for anything on Google Maps that contains the word Covid. Specifically, I need to get tested to return to the USA.

I eventually found a place, and am sitting right in front of the door at this very second.

What surprised me was how advanced the consultation system via WhatsApp is in Colombia. A large clinic, instead of or in addition to a voice call center, has a very responsive service via WhatsApp. Day and night.

Why isn’t there such a thing with mobile operators and online stores? Super convenient – you just send a message about what you need, and they immediately handle it and report back. Authentication is automatic – for simple requests, it’s assumed that messages from number X are written by the owner of number X. Unlike email, responses are expected within seconds to minutes, and you don’t have to sit and stare at an online chat to not miss a message – with WhatsApp, it pops up on your phone.

Kudos to WhatsApp for making services for businesses. It’s a pity it’s not the same in the USA yet. I heard that WhatsApp for business is long established in Russia. Is that true?

How wonderful it is when just two days before a business trip your laptop dies. The local Apple store needs three days to fix it. Of course, I did not leave it there. So now I am an active user of my phone. As for the MacBook, it’s already booked for a screen replacement upon my return.

The culprit was the camera cover. It’s super thin, but it was enough for a MacBook screen. Interestingly, it causes the whole screen to shut off, not just produce artifacts with which one could still live.

My Macs have never broken down before. We have seven of them, from various years of release. I’m taking it in for repairs on Tuesday. Such a bummer.

But a solution has been found!

When a kindergarten is just a kindergarten

In Bogota, there’s a prevalence of fitness clubs. Some of them are huge, and they really are packed with people. Some are specialized (“spinner center”). There are lots of shops that sell treadmills. Asked a colleague. Yes, very popular, he says. And for a long time. I think it’s because many consider running around the city unsafe, so there are special places for that. Well, good for them.

Now I know what a spherical bee in a vacuum is