“He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How” – this quotation of Nietzsche is repeated many times on the pages of this book by professor, psychiatrist, Auschwitz prisoner, Victor E. Frankl. “How to understand your Why to live” is the question that Victor E. Frankl explains how to answer for yourself.

The book and the author is so well known that I doubt I can add anything valuable to what have already been said by many people about this book. One may just check it on Amazon, for example. This is very powerful book that can open new horizons of understanding the meaning of life.

“Разработка хорошей модели предметной области для изощренной проблемы ре­ального бизнеса весьма трудна, но ее решение приносит громадное удовлетворение.”

“Бизнес-правила, которые нам сообщают, следует принимать такими, какие они есть, поскольку без серьезного полити­ческого вмешательства их не преодолеть. Мы вынуждены иметь дело со случайными на­борами странных условий, которые сочетаются между собой самым непредсказуемым образом. Определенно известно только одно: вся эта мешанина еще и изменяется во вре­мени. Разумеется, тому есть какие-то причины.”

И это действительно так

Most management really sucks. And it is not necessary about your boss or about management in your company. It is about management as a generic process: managing your time, people around you, your life in general.

Marc Stevens wrote a book that was an eyeopener for me.

Page by page presentations really suck, so the guys chose another more natural mind-mapping approach. I got an idea to express my view on software development as a whole thing as a mind-map presentation. It’s not complete yet, but may be I’ll complete it later.

Some music is like a good Cognac, becomes better as becomes older.

A Day At The Races

This album was released in 1975 (34 years ago). I listened to it 25 years later in 1995 when I was 10. I listened to it in 2009, some time ago.
This is not the music I would like to listen very often, but accordingly you won’t drink good Cognac every day.

If something special repeats too often it becomes common and loses its peculiarity.

In Rock

I return to this album from time to time. I bought it 15 years ago. It has some special affect on me. It’s like a masterpiece that will always remain perfect.

This is a composition of NeGruzoviki project (translated as NotTrucks).

Translation is mine and I guess it is not very nice. It’s rather difficult to translate slang from russian into english and it’s difficult to keep the author’s style of speaking. So, any kind of comments and notes about mistakes are welcome.

My acquaintance hasn’t used subway for 4 years already,
he got a car,
he oils English Castrol and changes tires,
he doesn’t remember the color of subway ticket and how to pass quickly from green to gray line,
he follows traffic lane marking, looks rear-view mirror,
tries to find out how to drive to Bering street, make a u-turn, return to home.
In his conception, offense is an easy and familiar process.
During each evening some excess may be left unnoticed, it’s not very interesting with him,
and probably we will find a moment and a place and make a decision to break off relation.

My another acquaintance is a producer of a group.
You might have heard them, they have DJ, guitar, drum sets,
a couple of videos on boob tube, two dozens of clients: powerful people, noticed in some kinds of fraud, swindle or corruption,
and a big number of other consumers of their production: they use subway, upload it to their iPod and do not see all the picture: that according to one very strange theory they will grow up in a healthy, able-bodied but cynical nation. However, they will be listening this composition happily.

Another acquaintance is a straight-ager, but drinks: hard and a lot, talks profusely, jokes, being sometimes repulsive in company, during the night he violates taboos on tricky subjects. He is against The System and God, always chooses not conventional way. He is always in war with “major”. And believe me, nothing reveals that he is a straight-ager. Unless he drinks. Unless he drinks.

My acquaintance hasn’t used subway for 4 years already.
My another acquaintance is a producer of a group.
Another acquaintance is a straight-ager, but drinks.

My acquaintances are different people.
They are out of my round or relations, interests… Or may be we’d better apologize to the friend and nevertheless take a decision not to make the acquaintance.
And who needs to think about friendship, to think about friendship?

I love this song

Here is a translation I found somewhere in the internet.

- (angry voice) Stop clattering about!
- And did we really clattered?
- (everybody) Well, Andriusha beat silently
- On an iron pipe with a hammer.
- And I barely strumed on my lips.

- Keeping eight fifths measure
- Tania slamed the door of the shed,
- Sasha ran a stone over the glass,
- Kolia beat on the pot in the corner

- (everybody) WITH-A-BRICK!!!

- But not loud and rarely.
- (woman) Stop clattering about! – neighbour told us
- (everybody) But nobody even meant to clatter.
Vasia sang, one could not help singing.

- (Vasia) Pu-duuu. Pur-pu-bu pu ru-pu,
Pu-puburuburupupupupupupupu.

- So what, that he has rasping voice?
- (everybody) That is why we did bunched together.
- One clanked, one clattered, one buzzed
- So that he could sing and not be embarrassed.

- (everybody) SING, VASIA!!!

- (Vasia) Pu-duuu. Pu-pu-bu pu ru-pu,
Pu-puburuburupupupupupupupu.

- (everybody) SING, VASIA!!!

First of all, this book is free. You can read it online here.

I love this book because it contains a quintessence of right/proper/correct/efficient approaches to web development in modern environment.

In brief, it is a collection of small articles about all sides of software development, that can turn your idea of web development upside down. Especially if you are a freelancer or work for a big company (not startup).

It’s really worth reading by everybody. Even if you do not develop web apps.

That’s cool. That opens new perspectives to users and businesses. But that’s just buzz in most cases.

How can I use these benefits to run modern business? What this business would look like? What it can give to existing business models?

I’ve run into two great examples of using internet and social networking principles in Russian part of world wide web. They are: studentochka.ru and cheaptrip.ru.

I won’t get deep into details. If you are interested and do not know Russian language, I can answer your questions. Here I present a brief description of both.

Studentochka.ru

This startup is dedicated to writing papers, reports, essay for students (of schools and universities). Yes, there are a lot of students who do not want to do it by themselves. In my opinion this project is remarkable for how business is organized. They have a big staff of good, intelligent, reliable writers, located in different cities and working mostly from their homes. They have backup writers. They have managers who accept orders remotely and support communication. They have delivery men who deliver papers to particular customers. And as far as I understand (at least understood a year ago, when I ran into this project) this all works as a big distributed system. And they do deliver very good results.

Cheaptrip.ru

This startup specializes in hot tours all over the world. As the tour is hot, it is very cheap. As it is cheap, many people want to get it and such tours are sold very fast. Great opportunity to earn a lot of money, isn’t it? But it will work only if you have a constant never ending flow of clients… So, they went online.

They sell tours by email reservation and you can buy a tour sitting at home and pay for it in the airport before the flight. They have professional tour hunters who work not just to get salary, but because they love tour hunting. They say that working in cheaptrip is a dream of professional tour hunter, and I’m not surprised. They have volunteers among regular clients who also help to find hot tours worldwide. They had 2 weeks tour to Antarctica on 2010 New Year’s Eve for about 3000 USD. As far as I know they are getting a lot of popularity and I really wish them good luck.

One more interesting fact

As far as I know both projects were initiated and originally run by young Russian women.