- 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).

Former employee of the Novosibirsk police sergeant Yevgeny Chuplinskiy was convicted for the murder of 19 women, mostly prostitutes. Most of them remained unidentified and, most likely, there are many more victims on the account of a serial killer. Chuplinskiy himself admitted to killing 29 women, but investigators believe there were actually more murders. The details of the bloody history of the Siberian murderer, who committed crimes in his spare time, found out the correspondent Igor Nadezhdin.

At the highest

On March 6, at 12:28 p.m., the judge of the Novosibirsk Regional Court, Lyudmila Bilyukova, announced a short sentence, only two pages long: deprivation of liberty."

The investigation was able to prove that in the period from 1998 to 2004, a man killed and dismembered 19 women. 12 of his victims remained unidentified, it is known for certain about the rest that they made a living by prostitution.

Local journalists call Chuplinsky the "Novosibirsk Jack the Ripper", drawing an analogy with a maniac operating in London at the end of the 19th century, who remained unknown. But the comparison is not entirely correct: the London “Leather Apron” (another nickname of the killer, little known in Russia) cut the throats of its victims, and then opened the abdominal cavity, studying the insides. Chuplinsky strangled his victims, and then dismembered them and scattered body fragments in different parts of Novosibirsk and its environs.

Only eight names appear in the indictment: the rest of the unfortunate people remained nameless: ... Neither the killer himself nor the relatives of the missing women ever identified the bodies.

The remains of Chuplinsky's first victim were discovered on November 19, 1998. For the first two years after that, the investigation of all criminal cases initiated after the discovery of dismembered corpses was conducted separately and often suspended by district prosecutors. And if no vital organs were found, for example, only a leg or an arm were found, then local prosecutors sometimes simply refused to initiate a criminal case. But by 2000, it became clear that a serial killer was operating in the city. Then a permanent group was created in the local criminal investigation department to study these crimes. But this was clearly a half-measure: criminal cases were still in the prosecutor's offices of different districts, and were often suspended. The reason is simple: no one from the leadership of the law enforcement agencies of the region wanted to admit that they had a maniac operating.

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.

The number of victims of the elements that hit South Asia is approaching 70 thousand people. And this is preliminary data. In fact, there are many more deaths.

The number of victims of the elements that hit South Asia is approaching 70 thousand people. And this is preliminary data. In fact, there are many more deaths.

The tragedy broke out in the region, where there are popular and expensive resorts. Therefore, according to the Ekho Moskvy radio station, among the numerous victims of the tsunami there are world-famous people and their relatives who vacationed at fashionable resorts.

Among the celebrities affected by the elements in South Asia on December 26, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was named. He was vacationing in the south of Sri Lanka, managed to take refuge in a hotel, and was evacuated by military helicopter.

Photographer Simon Utley (Great Britain), who was vacationing in southern Thailand with his famous companion, Czech supermodel Petra Nemkova, is considered missing. P. Nemkova escaped, but was seriously injured. She did not have time to run to the hotel, and, according to witnesses, she struggled with the waves for 8 hours.

In Thailand, the Swedish skier, world and Olympic champion Ingemar Stenmark also rested with his girlfriend. He miraculously escaped death.

Australian rugby player Troy Broadbridge and his young wife are missing in Phuket on their honeymoon in the tropics.

Miraculously, Italian football players Filippo Inzaghi (Milan), Paolo Maldini (Milan) and Janluca Zambrotta (Juventus), who were vacationing in the Maldives, survived miraculously.

In Phuket, the grandson of the King of Thailand, Pumi Jensen, died. According to eyewitnesses, at the time of the arrival of the tsunami, he was water skiing.

The famous Hollywood actor and director Richard Attenborough lost his loved ones. His 14-year-old granddaughter Lucy has died, his 17-year-old granddaughter Alice is in the hospital, and his daughter Jane, along with her mother-in-law, are missing.

Designer Net Berkas died in Sri Lanka.

As Echo notes, this list is certainly incomplete and will be updated.

Recall that the total death toll in southwestern Thailand is growing. According to the latest information from the Thai Foreign Ministry, it has reached 1,543 people, about 9,000 people were injured and injured.

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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