It is generally accepted that the main source of inspiration for the Monument Valley series is the paintings of Maurits Escher. In fact, there are many more sources. Behind each level of the franchise's games is a piece of art, a photo, or even a music video.
David Fernández Huerta, art director of the game, spoke about the inspiration for Monument Valley 2's level designers on The Work behind The Work blog.
"Pointless composition", Olga Rozanova
We took a lot from the work of other artists and from the history of art. What we did can be compared to an artistic interpretation of something. Edit the content and make it your own.
Poster for the Modern Vampires of the City music album by Vampire Weekend, Rostam Batmanglizh
This is the record I have at home. While working on the level, I did not look at the poster, but the image was somewhere in my subcortex. We all carry these things with us.
Poster of the commune of Saint-Raphael, located on the Côte d'Azur, Tom Morel De Tanguy
Sometimes we steal stuff from vacations, like I did when I visited Pompeii a couple of years ago.
London National Theatre, Denys Lasdun
We often also drew on Bauhaus posters and brutalist architecture.
Stills from Nicki Minaj's video for the song Super Bass, directed by Sanaa Hamri
One of our artists, Lauren Cason, loves Nicki Minaj's videos.
Concept art for Walt Disney's Peter Pan by Mary Blair
This Peter Pan illustration is one of Lauren's favorite works and a major source of inspiration throughout her career.
Assorted Licorice
We want everyone on the team to be immersed in the art style of the game. Therefore, we print out a bunch of references and attach them to the boards, so that later, when working on a level, we can carry them with us throughout the office (we do not have workplaces assigned to employees).
The process usually goes from mockup to concept art and from sketches to the final version. The process is highly dependent on the artist. We try to combine different approaches, which means that everyone works a little differently.
We are always asked how these seemingly impossible levels work. Impossibility and optical illusions are the heart of Monument Valley. The secret is that the 3D objects are lined up in such a way that the path looks possible from the camera's point of view. When the character passes through certain parts of the path, he actually teleports from one point to another.
- How did you, a MGIMO graduate, a gold medalist, a professor's daughter, an academician's granddaughter, become a currency prostitute?
- I don't even know... Probably just lucky!
Joke from the nineties
I am sitting at a meeting of the board of directors of East European Microsoft and several Dutchmen, Americans, two Greeks, several Germans, Englishmen, two Czechs, a Hungarian, a Canadian, a Serb, Frenchmen, Italians, a Pole, Swiss are sitting in the room with me. And I'm the only one from Russia. Why are there so few of us in Europe, especially in leadership positions, despite the size of the market? Few exceptions, if found in global companies, are more common in companies with Russian roots. But in international companies, examples are very rare.
What prevents our people from building an international career? I will try to answer this question with some comments from my experience. I do not pretend to be objective and complete, this is 100% my subjective experience.
Side note: in connection with the growth of the euro and the dollar, more and more often one hears a desire to leave Russia as soon as possible for Europe and the States. Probably, it is worth writing a separate note about this in order to reveal in more detail the idea in which, after several years of living in Europe, I am 100% convinced: in Russia, not everything is so bad, but “abroad” not everything is so good. Moreover, the current exchange rate of the ruble brings the standard of living in Russia closer to the European one, taking into account the existing taxes here. It's just that under the old course it was much better than in Europe, which was not so noticeable from the inside. See note for details.
To understand the peculiarities of our business, it was very useful for me to look at us from the outside. . They say that in order to understand your native language, you need to learn a foreign language. I tend to agree with this. That is why international experience is so valued.
I have been in charge of tech evangelism at Microsoft for several years in the Central and Eastern Europe region, which includes Russia and 33 other countries. Working at the regional headquarters allowed me to look at business in Russia and the rules of doing business in Russia from the outside. Understand how the mentality differs in other countries. It was very helpful and interesting! I found some interesting misunderstandings between “us” and “them”, which is one of the reasons why there are so few “ours” “out there”. Here are some of them:
1. We consider ourselves absolutely unique. In our opinion, there is Russia and there is the rest of the world. Russia is unlike any other country in the world in anything and is one of a kind. We perceive any analogies between us and other countries as a misunderstanding at best, an insult at worst. How could we be compared with some kind of ... (any country out of 180). Of course, we have a lot of unique features. But they are no less than any other country in the world. And we are not unique at least in this. In fact, we have much more similarities than differences. Our desire to consider ourselves absolutely unique hinders us greatly, because it does not allow us to study and adopt someone else's experience (we consider it inapplicable to us!) development.
2. We tend to attribute all successes to ourselves, and all failures to external circumstances.. This is probably a property of human nature in general, but in our country it is expressed especially clearly. We are accustomed to pay a lot of attention to external circumstances instead of thinking about what could be done. For example, sometimes dialogues with the Russian team at various business reviews look very funny:
Russian team:
-We are in a very bad place.
Headquarters:
- Yes, we are aware, we read the news, we see the indicators.
they don't understand anything! We are really, really bad!(and aloud):
- We're really, really bad!
Headquarters (already accustomed to this approach):
- Yes, yes, we know and understand everything, we root for you with all our hearts! Let's talk, what do you do in this situation?
Russian team (to himself): still teasing! They don't understand that we're really, really bad!(and aloud):
- Yes, you don’t understand, everything is really, really bad here, sanctions, counter-sanctions, GDP, the dollar exchange rate, trouble, trouble!
Such a dialogue goes in cycles, the parties often do not hear each other. Although, in fact, everyone understands everything and really wants to discuss what can be done in the current conditions. There are things we can't influence, what's the point of talking about them? But there are things we can and should do. They must be discussed.
3. We really dislike feedback (feedback) and especially criticism. . This is also a property of human nature in general, but in my experience, “ours” have it especially. We accept criticism personally and stop being constructive when we hear it addressed to us.
4. We often treat a business review like an exam at an institute.. (Yes, yes, I know that in Russian it is necessary to write “review”, and not “review”, but somehow it’s closer to me). At the exam, your task is to show that you are good, know the material, are ready to answer the questions in the ticket and additional questions. Expectations for a business review are slightly different. The goal is not to test knowledge. Or, at least, it is not the main goal. The goal is to understand the problems, to understand what can be done differently, to develop a plan. “Reviewers” (another word that I cannot translate into Russian) sincerely want to help, give advice, offer new ideas. This categorically contradicts “our” approach. Therefore, we always try to present the results of the work better than they are (despite the “hardest external conditions”), to hide problems, not to talk about mistakes. And this is very disturbing. We should move as quickly as possible from evaluating ourselves as a leader to finding and discussing solutions to problems.
5. As a result, we really do not like to admit our mistakes.. We can't be self-critical. All the time we live according to the principle “you won't praise yourself” - “no one will praise you”, which finds some misunderstanding among modest Europeans. And, as a result, they try to help us by reminding us of our mistakes. But this causes an extremely negative reaction in us (see paragraph 3 above) and sometimes even aggression, since we perceive any criticism as a personal insult. We consider ourselves smarter than everyone else and do not know how to learn from others. But we love to reflect and engage in self-digging. (This is probably a good thing). At the same time, we do not allow anyone to help us in this process with a look from the outside. But if we admit our mistakes, then we have no equal in self-flagellation either. And often we consider ourselves both the best and the worst at the same time. How do we get it - the secret of the mysterious Russian soul.
6. We speak English badly. Unfortunately, when compared with other Europeans, this is true. At the same time, we ourselves believe that we speak very well! And it's a great distraction. After all, communication is the most important thing.
7. We love feats and don't really like to work quietly. I don't think it's necessary to comment here. It's not bad or good, it's just another reason for misunderstanding. As a result, we really don't like to plan. Perhaps we have been taught this by the unpredictability of our lives, when it is really pointless to plan, but at the same time it is very important to quickly respond to external circumstances. Another corollary of this is that we do not like to promise. And if we are forced to promise, to predict - then we will do our best to underestimate the plans in order to overfulfill them later. Not always realizing that the accuracy of the forecast is sometimes as important as exceeding the plan.
8. We perceive time differently. We like to reflect, but we don't like to plan (see above). At the same time, in Western culture they are very fond of planning, but they mostly discuss the past about results, not actions, rarely returning to plans. In general, they prefer to talk not about what they did, but about what they did. And about what we will do next. We prefer to talk about what we wanted to do (but it didn’t work out due to “incredibly complex external circumstances beyond our control” - of course). And it makes no sense to talk about the future, it is still unpredictable.
But the most important thing, I think, is our unwillingness and inability to study and adapt to another culture. Having your own features - not bad. Moreover, many of our features are our very strengths! For example, the same ability to perform feats, even every day. But the unwillingness to understand the characteristics of others and adapt to them (without losing our identity) severely limits us and prevents a large number of very bright heads from Russia from building a career in the west. This is perhaps the main conclusion from this note.
Yes, do not think that I am trying to say that all “ours” are like this, and I am different. No, I'm exactly the same. Unless I recognize the existence of these shortcomings and try to work on them and, at a minimum, take into account their presence in my work.
This is obviously a 100% subjective and incomplete list, I will continue to work on it and would be grateful for feedback and suggestions. Especially from those of my readers who work in senior positions in Europe and the States: Anton Antich, Gaidar Magdanurov, Dmitry Sotnikov, Yuriy Larichev, Pavel Ershov, Alexey Badaev, Yuriy Misnik, Alexey Reshtenko, Irina Kozlova, Nikolay Pryanishnikov, Dmitriy Nikonov, Eugene Chigirinsky (please don't be offended if I forgot someone).
Lesson 29
Let's ask the main question: what kind of commandments did Moses bring on the tablets and for whom were they written? Most people are sure that there were 10 commandments. Imagine how long and hard it was drummed into the people that few people know that there were actually many more. Open the colorful illustrated Children's Bible and you will see a picture of Moses holding the tablets with only the Ten Commandments. This lie is hammered into our children from childhood. Many schools have introduced a compulsory Bible study lesson. Not every adult can understand this "miraculous book", let alone children. They naively believe every word of the teacher, which they perceive as an axiom.
Such zombification leads to the fact that, growing up, these people no longer analyze the information embedded in them, but continue to blindly believe in what they were once driven into their heads. If you ask them the question: “Why is this so?”, They will answer: “Because.” This is where the whole dialogue ends. They will not be able to answer the question in detail, because they have not been taught to analyze, think and come to their own conclusions. Why, when studying the laws of chemistry or physics, students are given a detailed analysis of each law in the classroom: this is where it all started, this is followed by this, and this is followed by something, and from all of the above we summarize ... So why are biblical laws not analyzed in a similar way , but are presented as something indisputable, which cannot be subjected to either criticism or analysis? Until when are we going to let us fool around and morally deform our children?
Why should we live according to the Jewish commandments? Were our pagan laws any worse? Haven't our gods taught us ambition, self-confidence, honesty, loyalty, etc.? The Jews sacredly fulfill all the laws of their god, which were transmitted to them with Moses. Exodus, ch.34:27 "And the Lord said to Moses: write these words for yourself, for in these words I make a covenant with you and with Israel." Here are a few of the covenants that no one ever mentions:
Exodus, ch.34:11-16 “Keep what I command you now: behold, I drive out from your presence the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites; See that you do not enter into an alliance with the inhabitants of the land into which you enter, lest they become a snare among you. Destroy their altars, crush their pillars, cut down their sacred groves. For thou shalt not worship any god but the Lord; because His name is "zealot"; He is a jealous God. Do not enter into an alliance with the inhabitants of that land, so that when they fornicate after their gods and offer sacrifices to their gods, you will not be invited, and you would not taste their sacrifice. And do not take from their daughters wives for your sons, lest their daughters, fornicating after their gods, lead your sons into fornication after their gods.
Exodus, ch.23, 13-33 “Observe all that I have told you; and do not mention the name of other gods: let it not be heard from your mouth ... Do not worship their gods, and do not serve them, and do not imitate their deeds; but crush them, and destroy their pillars ... I will send My terror before you, and I will cause confusion to every people to whom you come, and I will turn the rear of all your enemies to you ... I will not drive them out of your presence in one year, so that the earth does not become empty, and the beasts of the field do not multiply against you: Little by little I will drive them away from you, until you multiply and take possession of this land. Make no alliance with them or with their gods. They must not dwell in your land, lest they lead you into sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will be your snare.”
In these commandments, the Judeo-Christian god clearly says that there are other Gods and their children who were before his appearance. He is very afraid of them, so he instructs his army to defeat them with cunning and deceit. His goal is obvious - to destroy all the gods, enslave people and take over the Earth.
Let's move away from the Bible a bit and read a few quotes from the Talmud (the holy book of the Jews) (16). Christians do not fully recognize the Talmud. However, an adapted version of Judaism - the Old Testament, which includes the Pentateuch of Moses (Torah), is the main part of the Bible.
- “Where it is written “Do not harm your neighbor”, it does not say “do not harm a goy”.
- "Just as a man is superior to an animal, the Jews are superior to all peoples on earth."
- "The life of the goyim, O Jew, is in your hands, especially their money."
- "Hypocrisy is permissible in the sense that a Jew should appear polite towards the wicked, let him show them respect and say:" I love you. This is permitted only if the Jew has need of the wicked or has reason to fear him; otherwise it is a sin.”
- “When pronouncing an oath, you can silently stipulate such conditions under which the oath will not be valid. The Talmud permits this to be done whenever any gentile authority requires a Jew to take an oath.”
- "A Jew does a good deed when he kills a freethinker, an unbeliever, who denies the teachings of Israel, as well as one who has become a goy."
The Christian Bible is not far from the Talmud. The same Jewish chauvinism. The same propaganda of the chauvinistic theory of God's chosen people. The same love for the Jews and contempt for other peoples - non-Jews (gentiles). The Bible is permeated with the Jewish God's prohibitions against intermarriage of Jews with other nations. The biblical god also considers only Jews for people, and other peoples for him, the same as animals.
The Bible in the Old Testament constantly promotes Jewish world domination and Jewish parasitism. Deuteronomy 11:23-25 “You (Jews) will take possession of nations that are greater and stronger than you; every place that your foot sets foot will be yours; no one can stand against you."
Deuteronomy 6:10-11 “Your God will bring you (the Jewish people) into the land that he swore ... to give you with large and good cities, which you did not build, and with houses hewn from stone, which you did not hew, with vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and you will eat and be satisfied.”
Here is the general human approach. Attitudes towards Jews and non-Jews are different. The Bible clearly shows who your neighbor is. It's just a Jew. So, when it is written “love your neighbor as yourself”, this does not mean at all to love all people on earth. This translated from Hebrew means: "Love the Jew the Jew."
Let's see how Jews treat Russians by looking at their handbook Catechism (rules of conduct) of a Jew in the USSR, 1958 edition (abridged):
Jews! Love each other, help each other. Our strength is in unity, it is the guarantee of our success, our salvation and prosperity. Unity is the goal, it is also a means to an end. Help each other, do not be afraid to pass for nationalists. Our nationalism is international and therefore eternal. True internationalism is only that which is connected with Jewishness by blood ties, everything else is a provocation and deceit.
Form your national cadres. Cadres decide everything. Prepare the Jewish youth to take over the baton of generations. Let every generation of non-Jews face our defense in depth. To do this, it is necessary to promote our young people to leadership positions as early as possible, proving their maturity and genius.
The world is cruel, there is no place for philanthropy in it. Every nation is the smith of its own happiness. It is not our business to take care of the Russian national cadres. If they don't think about themselves, why should we think about them? Do not follow the example of the Russians, who live contemplatively, hoping for a chance. Do not expect mercy from nature - our task is to take them.
Create your own collectives and push out the non-Jews with these collectives. Remember: all highly paid, influential, profitable positions are all our national income.
Russians are incapable of thinking deeply, analyzing and making deep generalizations. They are like pigs that live with their snouts on the ground, unaware that there is a sky. They perceive all phenomena too superficially, too concretely, they do not see the facts in their sequence, in their connections, they are not able to think, generalize and abstract. For them, every case is just a case, no matter how often it occurs.
Everything that they know and can do, we can and do know. What we know and feel, they do not need to know and feel. All they have is their limit. Everything we have is our means to more. Everything they have today is ours for their temporary use. To take from them what God bequeathed to us is our task.
The Russians are stubborn, but they do not have enough tenacity in achieving the goal. They are lazy, so they are always in a hurry. They try to solve all problems at once. They neglect the small for the sake of the big decisive victory. We profess the tactics of small victories, although not against big ones. A small victory is also a victory!
Russians are envious, they hate their brothers when they come out of the gray mass. Give them the opportunity to tear these nominees apart - they will tear them apart with pleasure. Always be arbitrators, take the pose of peacemakers, defend the "unfortunate" against whom the crowd takes up arms, but only so much as to pass for good objective. A little restraint, and you will take the place of the one you just torn to pieces.
Russians do not know how to ask, considering it a humiliation, while they themselves are already humiliated and poor. We say: "Every humiliation is good if it gives a benefit." There are no immoral things if they contribute to the establishment and prosperity of our people. The end illuminates the means.
Russians are stupid and rude. They call their stupidity and rudeness honesty, decency and principles. They call the inability to adapt and change their behavior depending on the situation, the lack of flexibility of the mind “be yourself”, “principledness”. The goyim are so stupid and rude that they don't even know how to lie.
Constantly remember the limits that the goyim set for themselves, their thinking is hardened within these limits. They are unable to marry them. This is their misfortune, this is our advantage. Speak and act in a way that their morality does not allow, as their concepts do not allow. Do what seems impossible to them, incredible. They will not believe that you are capable of words and deeds that they are not capable of.
Speak and act confidently, assertively and aggressively, discouragingly and overwhelmingly. More noise and verbal tinsel, more incomprehensible and scientific. Let them rack their brains in search of rational grains in our ideas, let them look for and find in them what is not there. Tomorrow we will give them new food for their primitive brains.
It doesn't matter what you say, it matters how you say it. Your self-confidence will be perceived as conviction, ambition - as the loftiness of the mind, the manner of teaching and correcting - as superiority. Twist their brains, inflate their nerves! Suppress the will of those who object to you. Compromise the upstarts and screamers, set the pride of the crowd on the skeptics. In conversations and disputes, use rhetorical devices that are on the verge of decency. The Russians cannot stand this for long. Avoiding scandals, they leave, making room for you ... They consider it a special chic to slam the door and leave. Give them this opportunity! Polite impudence is our motto!
Blame anti-Semitism on those who try to expose you. Label them anti-Semites, and you will see with what pleasure the rest of the goyim will pick up this version. In fact, all Russian anti-Semites, but as soon as you stick this label on one, he becomes defenseless, because everyone else throws him at us as a victim and destroys him with his own hands. And we'll brand the next victim.
Play on the compassion of the Russians. Pretend to be poor and unfortunate, arouse pity and sympathy for yourself, spread rumors about the people - the eternal sufferer, about persecution in the past and discrimination in the present. The tactics of the "poor Jew" have been tested for thousands of years! Let the Russians have less of you, they will still help us to have more. Russians love to be benefactors and patrons. Take from them what they can give: even a tuft of wool from a black sheep!
Keep each other informed of anything that could harm or benefit us. Information is the holy of holies! Money, personnel and information are the three pillars on which our well-being is based! It is a sacred duty, the duty of every Jew, to inform another Jew of what the goyim intend to do. Today you helped me, tomorrow I will help you - this is our strength.
God bequeathed to us to own the world - we own it. Our job is to keep the world in our hands. Keep in your hands the means of propaganda and information: print, radio, television, cinema. We must continue to infiltrate the apparatus of party and state administration. Form public opinion around any issue, taking into account our national interests. No social process should be left to chance. If he does not benefit us, put him on the brakes or direct him against our enemies - the goyim. Any undertaking must be led by us in order to lead it in the right direction.
In any team, take power into your own hands and manage it in our interests. We must carry out the administrative and creative part of the production process. Let the goyim provide the rough, material and technical base of our creativity. Let them keep our premises clean and guard the fruits of our labors. Let them be no higher than a janitor or cleaner.
Do not allow Russians to work! As an exception, goyim of non-Russian origin can be allowed. And do not be afraid to pass for nationalists: the illusion of internationalism will be provided by the presence of persons of mixed nationality with an admixture of Jewish blood, or, at worst, representatives of national minorities. If you have a vacancy, take only a Jew. If you cannot do this, liquidate the position. If you can't do either one or the other, take an Asian. If there is none, take a Pole, a Ukrainian, or, at worst, a Belarusian - these have their own scores with the Russians. After a little processing, they will become your allies.
Do not openly destroy the monuments of Russian antiquity, but do not restore them either. Years will pass, and they themselves will collapse. And hooligans and "lovers of antiquity" will pull them apart brick by brick. A people without history is like a child without parents, and everything that is needed can be molded from it.
Keep under relentless control every step of influential and promising Russians. If you can't block young and promising Russians, make them manageable. Attract them to your companies, create a dense ring of Jewish environment around them, deprive them of contacts and acquaintances other than you. Force them to marry Jewish women and only then open the green light for them. By helping such Russians, you contribute to the cause of our Jewish community. From now on, their salary is our national income. For the sake of their children, they will lose their "civil rights", feelings and mind, in any case, they will not be able to be anti-Semites. Cohabitation with a Jewish woman is one way to bring talented Russians into our sphere of influence and our interests.
Be vigilant, the Spanish Inquisition and German fascism must not be repeated. Nip in the bud any attempts to oppose us to society, destroy anti-Jewish tendencies at the very beginning, in whatever form they may arise. Fascism is not an accidental phenomenon, it arises when we underestimate the desire of the local people to be the master of their land. Fascism is latently maturing in all peoples. Fortunately for us, different nations come to him at different times and under different names.
Buy, steal and destroy, do not allow for reprinting works that reveal our tactics and strategy, representing the Jews in a bad light. The peoples of the goyim should not remember and know the actual causes of Jewish pogroms and persecution. On these issues, they should know only our interpretation.
Pay special attention to the recalcitrant, stubborn, who do not want to bow their heads before our superiority, do not want to work for us and oppose our practices and policies. Don't let small anti-Semites grow into big rioters! Let them wither in the bud with their stubborn idea of national dignity. Expose them, compromise them, take up arms against them with all available means. As long as they are alone, they will not be able to resist our collectivism, against our onslaught. Appeal to the public and the administration, drag them to the police, if possible - to the court. If you are older, accuse you of violating respect for your elders, if you are the same age, accuse you of violating the principles of brotherhood and, of course, internationalism. The effectiveness of these techniques has been tested by many generations. The key is to blame. Let them make excuses. The one who makes excuses is already half to blame!
Either our order, or complete disorganization. Where they want to do without us, there must be chaos! Make sure that the disorder continues until the exhausted goyim, in despair, ask us to take power into our own hands and provide them with a quiet life. The goyim must work under our guidance and benefit us. Anyone who does not benefit us must be expelled. Outside of our interests there is no public benefit! He who is not with us is against us! An eye for an eye! Tooth for a tooth! So Moses taught, so our ancestors lived. This is how we will live. Revenge is a sacred feeling, it educates character, affirms a person. Throw out of yourself the feeling of humility and humility towards the goyim.
Leave the slogan of Christian mercy, humility, humiliation and self-denial to the stupid goyim - they deserve just this. Preach among the goyim, inculcate Christian "virtues", but remain firm yourself. Be irreconcilable in your soul to our enemies! If you forgive them a small offense today, tomorrow they will inflict a big one on you. Do not get used to insults yourself and discourage others from fixing it for you.
Let the goyim persuade each other to be careful, moderate and flexible towards you. Let them carefully restrain our onslaught. We must act decisively and quickly, always presenting them with a fait accompli. Never let up on pressure. The tougher the resistance of the goyim, the greater our costs, the higher should be our income and our savings. Our current profit should compensate for possible losses in future pogroms that occur from time to time in every country. Let the goyim today pay for the fact that somewhere they will take part of their back.
We must always be ready to get away from anger and hatred, to go where we will be accepted in the hope of reviving the economy with our capital. Periodic change of countries in search of more favorable conditions for existence is part of our strategy. This is the symbol of the "eternal Jew". But we must leave, if necessary, not poor and sick, but healthy and rich. Money is our legs. We are shifting our center of gravity to where our money, our capital has previously been transferred. Having strengthened materially in the countries of dispersion, having collected our tribute from them, from time to time we gather on the land of our ancestors in order to strengthen our spirit, our strength, our symbols, our faith in unity.
We are going to part ways again. And so in all ages.
I must say that at the moment not all Jews are servants of the System. But the highest Jewish caste was able to turn this moment to its advantage. She easily gives the "traitors" to be torn to pieces, using them as cannon fodder, and then shouts out loud about how cruelly the representatives of the Jewish nation are treated, appealing for pity and mercy. Unfortunately, many representatives of other nationalities have long been on the other side of the barricades. In this regard, it is difficult to figure out who is who - who is one's own among strangers, and who is a stranger among one's own. But it's really not as difficult as it seems. Their distinguishing features are deceit, cowardice, intrigue, betrayal, greed, dishonor, etc. We must learn to distinguish. Do not judge by the words of a man, but judge by his deeds.
The war that the servants of the System are waging against us is invisible to the eye (especially to those who do not want to see it). They crawl into our House like snakes, quietly and insinuatingly. But the trouble is that we do not want to pay attention to it (after all, nothing terrible has happened so far). Isn't it scary to see them everywhere: in politics, in leading positions in the media, in big business, and so on.
How long can you hide your head like an ostrich in the sand. Isn't it time to pick it up and look around. They treat you like pigs, as nonentities, and you obediently bow your heads before them. We, the strong and mighty Russian people, have turned into miserable slaves of this supposedly “God-chosen race.” But who are they that we must meekly give ourselves and all our property to them. It turns out that they are right - we are stupid, cowardly and envious. We must be able to admit our mistakes and correct them.
You also need to remember your strengths. Russian people have always been distinguished by courage, honesty, justice. These cowardly and deceitful representatives of the System despise us, but they are afraid of us. They are afraid of our honesty and openness, responsiveness and kindness. We are real, unlike them. This is our weapon and advantage. We must be ourselves, we must rise from our knees, straighten our backs and fight back. If we do not do this, then there will come (in the near future) the moment when this congregation of snakes will inflict a deadly bite and it will be too late. Let's not let this happen!
“It's great to celebrate success, but it's more important to listen to the lessons that failure teaches us.” (Bill Gates)
2. Don't Miss Opportunities
"If someone offers you an amazing opportunity, but you're not sure you can do it, say yes - you'll find out how to do it later!" (Richard Branson).
3. Focus your efforts on yourself
“We are really competing with ourselves. We have no control over what other people do.” (Pete Cashmore)
4. Make an effort to make it happen
"It's not about dreams, it's about doing" (Mark Cuban).
5. Never give up
“It's not a failure. I just found 10,000 ways that will never work.” (Thomas Edison)
6. Don't be afraid to mess things up
“Show me a man who has never made a mistake, and I will show you a man who does nothing” (William Rosenberg).
7. Let your dreams be free
“Think big and don't listen to people who tell you it's impossible. Life is too short to dream of small things.” (Tim Ferris)
8. Take responsibility
“Either you control your day, or it controls you” (Jim Rohn).
9. Remember that no goal is too big.
“Whatever you think about, think big” (Tony Shay).
10. Dream big
“The one who is crazy enough to think that he can change the world is the one who changes it” (Steve Jobs).
11. Know what you can and cannot do
“Whether you think you can or you think you cannot do something, you are right in both cases” (Henry Ford).
12. Do not rush to give up
“All dreams can come true if you have the courage to follow them” (Walt Disney).
13. Always try
“I know that if I fail, I won’t regret it. The only thing to regret is that you didn’t even try” (Jeff Bezos).
14. Winning isn't everything
“I don't believe in failure. It's not a failure if you've enjoyed the process." (Oprah Winfrey)
15. Fight your fears
“If you can overcome the feeling of fear and take risks, then amazing things can happen to you” (Marissa Meyer).
16. Set your own goals and dreams
“Define what you mean by success, achieve it on your own terms, and build a life you can be proud of” (Anne Sweeney).
17. Don't let anyone stand in your way
“The question is not who is going to let me, but who can stop me” (Ayn Rand).
18. Don't let others get in your head.
“Don't let others define who you are. Only you can do it.” (Virginia Rometty)
19. There is always a glimmer of hope to look ahead.
“Today was cruel. Tomorrow will be even more cruel. But the day after tomorrow everything will be fine” (Jack Ma).
20. Take control of whatever you want
“Create your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs” (Farrah Grey).
21. Don't give up when it comes to your dreams.
“When you stop dreaming, you stop living” (Malcolm Forbes).
22. Ignore the Skeptics
“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” (Howard Schultz)
23. You will never know unless you try.
“You miss 100% success if you don’t try” (Wayne Gretzky).
24. Don't waste time on fear
"I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid I never tried" (Jay Z).
25. You are the master of your own universe
“I am not a product of circumstances. I am what my decisions have made me.” —Stephen Covey
“You need to see things in the present, even if they are in the future” (Larry Ellison).
27. You know what's best for you
"Always trust your instincts" (Estee Lauder).
28. Don't be afraid to be the first to do something.
“Nothing is possible until someone does it” (Bruce Wayne).
29. Always work on your dreams
"It's always hard to work on something you don't think about in your heart" (Paul Graham).
30. Don't talk - act
“The way to do something is to stop talking and start taking action” (Walt Disney).
31. Always count on more
"Never be afraid to give up the good for the great" (John D. Rockefeller).
32. Don't be afraid to ask for help or advice
“In life, you will get what you have the courage to ask for” (Nancy D. Solomon).
33. Success sometimes comes with failure.
“I've had over 9,000 bad shots in my career. I lost almost 300 games. 26 times I was sure that I would win, but I lost. I have failed over and over and that is why I am successful.” (Michael Jordan)
34. Don't be afraid of hard work
“The only place where success comes before hard work is in the dictionary” (Vidal Sassoon).
35. Believe in the power of your spirit
“When the going gets tough, go ahead” (Joseph P. Kennedy).
36. Failures along the way are inevitable
“Don't worry about failures. You only have one right way.” (Drew Houston)
37. Never give up
“Our biggest weakness is that we give up. The surest way to succeed is to try one more time.” (Thomas Edison)
38. Let failure make you stronger.
“Failure beats the losers and inspires the winners.” (Robert Kiyosaki)
39. No goal is too big for you.
“The key to everything is high expectations” (Robert Kiyosaki).
40. If you choose to give up on your dreams, that's your choice.
“Only our choices show that we really matter much more than our abilities” (JK Rowling).
41. Don't Give Up on Hope
“Success often goes to those who know that luck is inevitable” (Coco Chanel).
42. Remember to never give up
“You can never leave. Winners never back down, and backsliders never win.” (Ted Turner)
43. Try to achieve more goals than you planned.
“Go as far as you can. When you are there, you will be able to see even more” (Morgan).
44. Stay positive
“How you start each day determines how you live it” (Robin Sharma).
45. Don't think too much
“Learn to let go of your thoughts and not get too caught up in them.” (Russell Simmons)
46. Put in the effort
“Luck is a dividend. The more you sweat, the more you get” (Ray Kroc).
47. Always try to be the best
“Prove every day that you are right” (Ray Kroc).
48. Keep trying and you're bound to end up somewhere
“Failure will lead you to win” (Eric Bahn).
49. Don't let negative reviews get in the way
“Beware of the critics. The mediocre mind is the greatest enemy of innovation” (Robert Sophia).
50. Dream big
“Whenever you dream, think big” (Donald Trump).
For several months now, there has been a howl on the Internet. The Moscow authorities want to demolish the "Khrushchev" and unlucky "Stalin" buildings in order to build new houses in their place. The inhabitants of the old quarters are worried that they will be settled somewhere far from the center, and it will not be possible to go to their favorite park or take their child to a school where three generations of the family have already studied. The prospect of moving from Vernadsky Avenue somewhere to the terrible Butovo, where, as you know, only drunk cattle lives, is terrifying. In general, there is no limit to the KGB abomination.
The renovation has many supporters. Indeed, how much joy is it to live in a murdered Khrushchev with a leaky roof and a small kitchen? And the authorities promise something more decent, and even with repairs. After all, a five-story panel building is really a hut on chicken legs. There are a lot of engineering solutions that exclude the possibility of normal repairs. No, they weren't going to be refurbished. We thought that a bright tomorrow would come, we would move people to palaces, and we would demolish these chicken coops to a famous mother.
The renovation doesn’t concern me, so I won’t fit in either “for” or “against”. But it's strange to me - why no one wonders why the authorities suddenly decided to stir up this project right now? Well, not out of love for your people, right? And why muddy the waters before the presidential election?
The answer to this question will surprise you a little. And you will be surprised - how did you not guess such a simple thing yourself.
The construction industry is officially 3% of the GDP of modern Russia. In fact, much more, because transportation, the service sector, advertisers, financiers, importers of building and finishing materials, designers, repairmen, etc. are fed at its expense. and so on. I think in total it will run up 7-8 percent. It's a lot. A lot of. When a country's GDP falls by 3%, it doesn't seem enough to anyone. A 7% drop is a disaster. During the nineties, Russia's GDP shrank by 46%, that is, an average of 4.6% per year. Remember - what was it like?
Since the early nineties, real estate prices in Russia have been on the rise. They jumped especially strongly at the beginning of the 2000s. I bought my first apartment in Moscow for a thousand dollars per square meter, and everyone told me - you're crazy, it's insanely expensive, don't rush, it will soon fall in price. What is characteristic, when I bought a second apartment in the same area a few years later, where the square cost already four thousand, no one spoke about the high cost. On the contrary, they wondered how they managed to find such a profitable offer. In Saratov, growth was in the same proportion.
Naturally, demand created supply. And in the regions, and especially in Moscow. A lot of money was invested in the construction industry. Production capacities were created, equipment was purchased, people were hired. Now only in Moscow there are about two dozen factories of reinforced concrete products. You can count on your own how many there are in the Moscow Region.
The industry has been at its breaking point for two decades. And somewhere in 2014, when the Olympics died down, everything began to end. It began to end back in 2012-2013, but then there were hopes for a revival after Sochi. Hopes were not justified.
And then it suddenly became clear that housing in Russia can not only rise in price, but also become cheaper. And not only in dollar terms, in which prices just f*cked up, but even in ruble terms. And not somewhere in Penza or Astrakhan, but in Moscow. Right here in the Mother See.
And they began to get cheaper, because effective demand ended. Well, people do not have such crazy money per square meter. No - and that's it. Everyone who somehow could, has already bought. There will be a few lucky ones - they will also buy. But the purchase of a hut does not threaten the majority of the population. Excuse me for being direct. So this nice smooth decline in prices didn’t really bother anyone. Roughly speaking, there was a price before the Sun, it became before Venus. And people are not even capable of the moon. They do not take - and that's it.
The state has been quietly feeding the builders for a long time. I travel a lot in Russian cities. There are entire blocks of housing built on government guarantees. An amazing sight, especially in the evening. There is a domino for 10 entrances and 20 floors, and it has been standing for a long time, five years. And it has two windows on fire. There are hundreds of free apartments, but the prices are such that even a proud resident of the capital vomits the tower. Locals will not buy this from the word at all. Because whoever has the money, it is better to take it in the suburbs. The price order is the same. And the developer, in general, do not care. A few tenants patiently pay for the utility bill of the whole house. And the builder himself received money from the state, and no one is forcing you to return it. You can give a couple of apartments to beneficiaries - and everything is fine.
There are also many such houses in the Moscow region. They are building something, but the houses are empty. The rich regionals have disappeared somewhere, and the locals are also not very wealthy. It’s very, you know, not fun to live in a house where your apartment is the only residential one on the three surrounding floors. And yes, it's downright dangerous. So people are not just buying housing - on the contrary, they strive to run away.
Of course, you can continue to build boxes with public money. But even our kind state has begun to understand that this is a common digging of money into the ground. They built a box, and like a cobblestone gurgled into a swamp. Not even circles on the water. It stands empty, the economy from it is neither hot nor cold.
Yes, even with the growth of property taxes and prices for communal apartments, investment apartments began to be dumped. People want to cash in. And these are hundreds of apartments in Moscow alone. And thousands in the Moscow region.
In this scenario, it’s clear that it’s a little naive to build even with such stocks of unsold meters.
And what to do? Don't build? Ask the builders to relax? We have capitalism, right? The invisible hand of the market will come and set things right.
It wasn't there.
Suppose some trust has stopped building houses. Dismissed workers to their homes. The workers are sad. Not everyone will be sad to eat vodka. Some may do something less socially safe.
A reinforced concrete plant will be put into operation, where the trust bought reinforced concrete structures. Workers are also at home. Well, or not at home. And they say that it is almost impossible to revive a plant of this type that has risen after conservation. It's easier to build a new one.
Friendly transporters will stand up. Companions will come up. There will be repair companies. Banks will not lend to the trust and issue mortgage loans. Loans already issued will freeze. And so on. Turn on your fantasy.
That is, roughly speaking, even stopping the work of one developer will indirectly lead to the fact that tens of thousands of people (including families) will suddenly find themselves without a livelihood. This happened before, but due to the inhuman hunger for personnel, it was decided in a matter of days. And now things are a little different.
What if not one developer dies, but five at once? Or ten?
And if you imagine that this has already begun on a national scale?
The renovation program is, in fact, the only way to save the construction industry and everyone who lives off it. The only reasonable one.
The state actually builds new buildings at its own expense. But he does not leave them to stand empty, but populates them with people. They will settle in a new place, new businesses will appear, people will make repairs, buy furniture, etc.
Old houses need to be demolished - these are jobs.
In their place, it is necessary to lay new communications - these are jobs.
It is necessary to build new houses - these are jobs.
Selling housing and premises in old Moscow is much easier than in an open field. So the same scheme - new businesses, new loans, new movements in the economy.
And this is a long-term story. 15 years, maybe more. All this time, the construction industry and everyone who is close to it will have something to do. It is important.
And it is quite normal that the state acts as an instigator and sponsor. On that it, in general, and the state not to allow crises. It does not always work. But here it seems to work.
It has already been said more than once that this is a pilot project, and it can spread to the regions. I'm sure it will spread. Because there is no choice. The stop of one precast concrete plant in Moscow is a wasp sting. The same plant in Astrakhan got up - like a crowbar on the head. Nobody needs it. By the way, with Khrushchevs in the regions it is thinner, and they were often built more reliably. My grandmother had an apartment in the Saratov version - there are brick walls and a meter thick. It will stay for a hundred years. Therefore, most likely, they will pay attention to dilapidated housing and the private sector in city centers.
The economy needs to be revived. And it is enlivened everywhere with just such projects. Not as beautiful as the introduction of nanotechnology in robotics. But noticeably more effective.
You will say - but after all, someone will get very cool on all this renovation! Of course it will boil. And you don't even know how good it is. But they will weld in any case, do not hesitate. They have such a job. But only here - in a good scenario - the whole country will fall from the fat.
Well, for the housewarming.
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