Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev.

Somehow, a ten-story banner and GitHub don’t quite mix in my head. Couldn’t just walk by

Guess what connects these three items? Instead of an answer, write a hint from which I would understand that you know the answer, but it would be even more difficult for others 😉

The first costs $60.

Facebook recommends the first one to me, and I found the others on Amazon in the same category.

By the way, starting with iOS 16.4, which was recently released, swipe-input (“QuickPath”) is now supported for both Ukrainian and Russian keyboards. Previously, the only real option was Google gboard, which had its fair share of problems. Even so, I see that the iOS swipe is not perfect either. I’m testing it now, and it seems there are still some glitches for the Russian language. I can’t understand why, with such progress in the world of LLMs, swipe-keyboard screens (any) still can’t confidently put words into the correct form.

Reading Structures by J.E.Gordon. The soft cuticle of a pregnant locust is presented as the most elastic material, being 30 times more elastic than rubber. He also notes in the text that it is significantly more rigid in male individuals and virgin locusts. By the way, as I googled, graphene foam is more elastic than this locust cuticle according to some data by 200 times, and according to others, even by 80000 times (see comment). It is not in the table because the book is from 1978, and graphene was obtained only recently.

The government services, without a single punctuation mark, informed me that by writing a dictation, I would test my knowledge of Russian military history. Idiots! Dictation only tests knowledge of spelling and punctuation. Although in wartime, the number pi can reach four, and a right angle can reach the boiling temperature of water.

Well, at least it’s audible

Nathalie Stutzmann conducts Mozart, Mendelssohn, Beethoven

I have been working in the USA for over seven years now. And I can’t help but compare the people and projects to what it was like in Russia. The first and most important thing — nobody ever fights, at least not publicly. That is, 100% of work meetings are conducted in the most gentle and friendly manner.

Yes, the efficiency varies. As it does everywhere. Sometimes people chat for two hours and then disperse, unclear why they gathered in the first place. That happens sometimes. But as for someone saying something unpleasant about someone else publicly — I’ve never encountered it. It happens in “smoking areas,” yes. In meetings – no.

If someone clearly messes up, it is customary to package it in a shit sandwich. That is, start with something good, end with something good, and in between — highlight the problem. Again, ideally one-on-one. Or better yet, make it so that everyone at the meeting understands anyway, and simply “highlight” the topic, which then “magically” elicits a response, public (like a firing) or not (such as being denied a bonus). Maybe. Or maybe not.

I am currently at a client’s office, where I have been working for many years. It is one of the top 3 automakers. For the purpose of project planning, about 100 people flew in from various parts of the country. Managers, developers, analysts. From a variety of cultures. What unites everyone is the project. I’ve been at such planning meetings maybe the fifth or sixth time now.

So, there is friendliness just everywhere. Not just smiles, but genuine joy for each other. It’s a special kind of vibe. And I remember our planning meetings at Svyaznoy, Enter, Mail.Ru. With all due respect to the professionalism of the guys there, friendliness and respect for others often took a back seat (or perhaps even third place) to important work issues. And yes, there they often argued emotionally, and sometimes even yelled at each other.

Emotional escalations are very rare in the USA. Emotions are generally supposed to be hidden — it’s unprofessional. And not just at work. Seeing a couple publicly kissing on the street may take a couple of years of searching in our places. They even don’t walk holding hands 😉 Maybe New York is different. But many places are like this. At work, if you write an email, it just has to be polite. I think I’ve never seen impolite demand letters. I don’t even write “rude form,” because that’s simply unthinkable. Also, generally considered a poor gesture is “raising the temperature,” for instance, through escalation, unless there are really important reasons.

In Russia, it was normal for two quarreling employees to go to a manager, each badmouthing the other, for the boss to decide who was right. In the end, they often ended up arguing with the manager as well.

In the USA, it is preferred to discuss the problem, not the person who created it. This is a very good rule.

A slight digression on a side note: spaces, both office and otherwise, are always well-designed in the USA. There’s simply no important or unimportant. For example, a fire escape will look just as good as a regular one. There might be an unpainted wall, but certainly no rusty pipes. Many offices are extremely comfortable. After the pandemic, not everyone is always at the office, but life is returning there. Parking lots are perfect. For example, in a typical parking lot, you can drive almost any direction where there appears to be an exit — there will definitely be one. And where there doesn’t seem to be one — there won’t. But at the same time, there’s almost always no frills. It was surprising at first, now I’m used to it.

Returning to the projects. Of course, everything is now built on Agile. There are usually no projects with tight deadlines. There’s a direction, and there’s some expectation of progress from month to month. It is anticipated that if progress is within the expected delta, the result will be achieved on time. Some manager of course signs off under this deadline. If something “along the way” happens, and it’s necessary to review the scope, the delta will still be the right size, just maybe slightly off in a direction that was not originally calculated. Well, it happens. Because of this, there’s no need to rush things. And if the manager is a good manager, he will reschedule himself, having gathered arguments and facts.

(Disclaimer: All of the above is just my personal experience working on several major accounts as a solution architect. These international companies, their names and brands are known to anyone, companies are 50-100 years old, with 5-10 billion annual revenue in the USA and employee numbers from 2000 (significantly more globally) to 15000 in the USA (significantly more globally). In startups, things may be different)

I have to work under inhumane conditions. The call caught me three minutes away from the office. Now I don’t want to go any further

No outlets 😦

How good Rask.ai is at translating videos from Russian to English! It preserves the intonation and timbre of the voice!

It is free for up-to-one-minute videos. Each translation requires a new registration since the trial version doesn’t allow you to translate more than one video. However, it does not check the validity of the email, so you can use anything@anything.com as a login (while it has not been used before by you or someone else). The 1-minute limit is not easy to overcome without paying, but it costs just $9

Little life hack: when your iPhone alarm goes off in the morning from another corner of the room, you can silence it by saying “Hey, Siri!”