Workplaces: Nikolay Novoselov, founder of the ArtNauka project

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Who Said Science Is Boring? The company headed by our guest refutes this. In the ArtNauka project, chemical and physical experiments become a show. Nikolay Novoselov told Lifehacker how automation helps them to survive the economic crisis, why it is important to unload the "working memory" of the brain and why paper has no place in the world of the future.

What do you do in your work?

I am the head of the scientific project "ArtNauka: Physics of the Impossible". We make art out of experiment. Our work includes both commercial shows at private events and promotional projects. For example, for the TV channels "Moscow 24" and "Science 2.0".

Last January it was scary due to the economic crisis. For me and the whole company, he is the first. This was complicated by the fact that we rented a room for dollars. The advice of seasoned businessmen was to "shrink" to the limit. But we did it differently: we doubled our staff, launched five in-house startups and increased marketing.

At the same time, automation has become a growth point. For effective work in new directions, minimization of labor costs and quality control, we used the potential of modern technologies.

1. We have made an intracorporate chat. We stopped at Telegram. It is super convenient - always to the point, short and prompt.
2. We've automated email responses. Google allows you to embed dummy responses, which is ideal for saving managers' time.
3. We have implemented CRM with IP telephony. Bitrix24 is ideal for client bases designed for regular B2B customers.
4. In order not to call employees during meetings, a corporate "Google Calendar" was introduced.
5. We started using cloud storage. This has led to a hundredfold acceleration of work with clients and contractors - one link, and the information is available to everyone.
6. Some tasks were outsourced to:,,. These services allow you to instantly scale: today there are ten of you, tomorrow - twenty, without unnecessary problems.

We also made our own financial planning system, transferred the accounting of all income and expenses to Excel. For further automation and improvement, we are looking for a convenient group task manager (neither Bitrix24 nor Megaplan suited us in this role) and a personnel accounting system (existing ones sin with visual overload, hardcore and trash). I would be grateful if readers in the comments would advise something sensible.

What is your profession?

After art school, I went to the physics department to study theoretical physics, and then worked as a marketer for two years (from brand manager to director of a marketing agency). After that, we launched our science show, which works throughout Russia and abroad (we perform in the UAE, Italy, Poland, China, and so on).

I believe that neither a university nor a school can be called educational institutions. Their task is to instill socially adaptive skills, norms of behavior and morality, skills for solving socially important problems. There is no need to entertain illusions.

At the moment, I am educated so far only from articles and lectures of smart people. But I plan to study economics. You cannot develop in business if you do not know how IPO and KPI differ and why people do it.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

I would say not strengths, but strong knowledge. I have several of them.

1. I know that I am not the best. There are so many things where I need to learn and change myself, where I need to go forward.
2. Injustice is the foundation of the world. Recently, our office was flooded. Not strong, but noticeable. I understand perfectly well that the maximum we can achieve is that we will be evicted and compensated for 20 thousand rubles. And in the time that we can spend on sorting out the relationship, we will earn more money and bring more benefit. So we smile and wave.:)
3. My task and the task of the company is to benefit the world around us, to serve. Money is the blood of the company, purpose is the brain, service is the heart.

I am happy when I change the lives of people around for the better, when we make the best show and amaze the audience. And also - when I help my grandmother to cross the road.

Weak spots:

1. Overconfidence and superficial judgment. In life and business, you get used to judging quickly and clearly. In any case, so it seems to you yourself. But this is a dangerous illusion that sometimes goes sideways.
2. Lack of knowledge. We spend a lot of time on common truths. We learn to plan, set tasks, look for employees, keep accounting. Unfortunately, we learn from our own mistakes.
3. Disregard for your health. It is unlikely that I will surprise anyone: you only get to the hospital when they bring you there by ambulance.

What does your workplace look like?

The desktop and home desk differ little. On them - a laptop and an audio system. I really love techno and minimal, and ambient, and lounge, and “Shanti”, and “Roof of the World” and Space Moscow. Highly.

Laptop - MacBook Air. The system is old, I don't update anything on purpose: reliability and stability are extremely important to me.

Software:

• Telegram (work chat);
• Google mail and calendar;
• Chrome (always open about 60 tabs at a time);
• Word (about ten windows), Excel, PowerPoint;
• (for storing your own developments);
• Adobe Illustrator CC - I draw and design devices. For example, the device in the photo below accelerates the sheet, then a person can draw on it simply by dripping paint. The devices are designed by me.

Everything else is cloudy. We must accustom ourselves to live in modern technologies. The more clouds, the more outsourcing, the more risk sharing, the better.

Pushes are only included in Telegram, mail and calendar. All pop-ups and sounds are disabled on the computer.

What's in your bag?

I use a backpack for my laptop, wires and documents. If extra things get into it, they can lie around for months. I do not pay attention to objects that are unimportant to me, wherever they are.

Current set: materials from Stephen Carver's workshop, vaporizer, Sennheiser HD 25-C II professional headphones, power supply and more.

Is there a place for paper in your work?

I like to read and watch what Mikhail Slobodin is doing. He is already rejecting everything that will have no place in the world of the future. This is very correct and far-sighted. Therefore, I do not use paper and notebooks. On the contrary, I test voice input, outsourcing, cloud technologies.

At the moment, I am motivated by taking managerial qualities to a new level. Coaching instead of tight control. Fiducials instead of presence. Motivation instead of coercion.

How do you organize your time?

This year we are conducting an experiment: with the team, we have compiled a list of tasks for four months in the top-5 format. We set tactical top-5 tasks for each week, which should lead us to the solution of strategic tasks.

This experiment replaced the more complex goal setting. We have to be fast and precise and we are looking for tools for this.

All RAM passes through Google Calendar and Bitrix24.

What is your daily routine?

I work when it's rushing. The main thing is the goal, not the order.

How do you while away the time in traffic jams?

I listen to techno or speak on the phone. I watch and listen to TED, "", lectures of economists: for example, Sergey Guriev, Andrey Movchan and others.

Smart people inspire me. I want to be smart too!

What's your hobby?

My hobby can be characterized by constantly pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

• Don't eat in the same places all the time: new restaurants, new dishes, new emotions. Especially abroad. Why eat at McDonald's, if you can taste something unknown, unknown how cooked? Extreme!
• Share thoughts. For example, how. There is nothing more difficult than to please both the editor and the reader at the same time.
• Launch new projects and subprojects. For example, we launched four to five internal directions in the company last year. Of course, most of them failed, but the successes of the rest have compensated the costs of the unsuccessful ones.

Life hacking from Nikolai Novoselov

1. Our brain stores about seven things at a time. You come up with an idea - it lives in your head. Didn't take the pants out of the wash - minus one. Meeting tomorrow at 12? Even less free space. That is why I started to keep calendars and plan. This way you can unload RAM and live more efficiently.
2. I listen to educational lectures, especially I recommend good futurists. For example,. While we are swarming in petty squabbles and hysteria about the dollar exchange rate, the world is changing at lightning speed. And there is a chance to be left behind with an outdated head and unnecessary skills.
3. I advise you to read. This will allow you to find out about the most relevant trends before everyone knows about them. And try to read the news in the original. English is not converted to Russian unambiguously. You can lose a lot of important information when translating.

What is your life credo?

Don't be afraid of competition.

You can hide in your niche and be the best manager of the south-western branch of a private bank in Uryupinsk. Or you can take a chance and try to make this world a better place. To do this, you will have to enter into an unequal struggle every time and win over and over again.