Workplaces: Rakhim Davletkaliev, CEO of the Hexlet educational project

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

Lifehacker is visiting a man whom geeks know better under the nickname @freetonik. Raheem told us what tools he uses in his work, what his daily routine is, how running has replaced the road bike and why he considers the current interaction with the computer "terrible primitivism."

What do you do in your work?

I work in an educational project team. I'm acting as CEO. But, in fact, now, at an early stage, this means that I do a little bit of everything: I make minimal edits to the code, communicate with users, discuss the development of new features with colleagues, work with investors, write articles, do homework, manage our accounts in social networks, studying legal and economic aspects. In a word, I am learning. Because Hexlet is a startup, and a startup is continuous learning.

What does your workplace look like?

Most of the time I work from home, and my workplace looks very simple - it is a table, chair and laptop.

I like the table to be large, although I only use a small portion of it.

In the todo list, I have a task for every Sunday “clear the table and clear the Mac”.

Over the course of a week, papers, notepads, dishes and dust accumulate on the table, and all sorts of files are on the computer, so at the end of the week I clean it all up. On the one hand, I like the first hours after cleaning: everything is minimalistic and neat. But on the other hand, I clearly associate disorder with productive work, so my soul is somehow more pleasant and calmer when the table is piled high.

My computer for the last five years has been a MacBook Pro Mid-2010 15”. Upgrades - SSD instead of a standard hard drive, and RAM expanded to 8 GB. Of course, I want a quicker car with a retina, but perhaps I can wait for my company to go public.;)

Since work on a startup cannot be stopped, I use my mobile phone on the go. Until the end of last year, I used the iPhone 4, and then switched to the Nexus 5.

The old iPhone could no longer cope with modern software (this, by the way, is absolute and unfair nonsense), and I was tied to the Google infrastructure (both in my personal life and at work), so I decided to try Android. I'm happy with the transition.

For audio recording (for example, video tutorials) I use the excellent Rode Podcaster microphone.

On trips, I am always afraid to check it in my luggage, so there has never been a single time so that during the inspection I did not have to explain the purpose of this large and heavy piece of iron.

What software are you using?

I miss Snow Leopard a little, all the next versions of OS X brought more sadness than joy, and I don't use most of the new features. I always turn off notifications, I don't understand the meaning of the pull-out panel with notifications and widgets.

Happily, after switching to Spotify and Android, you can forget about iTunes.

Messengers … Oh, how I hate messengers!

I am even a little nostalgic for the times when everyone had ICQ or, for example, Jabber. Now you have to use Skype, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Hangouts every day. I don't seem to have forgotten anything. A! They also write VKontakte sometimes. It's an addiction!

Different people use different messengers, and new "X killers" appear every month. At the same time, there is not a single mass messenger that would be really good and convenient. Everywhere its troubles.

The only thing I'm happy with is this. We use it within the team, and it's just a fairy tale. Its main feature is integration. Therefore, without leaving Slack, we learn about new support tickets, about changes in the code, about the process of deploying new versions of Hexlet to the server, about errors and problems in the system, about mentions on social networks, and so on.

For a long time I used Notational Velocity (about this in the blog), and I used Evernote only for storing useful articles and pictures.

I don’t read texts on my computer. The phone has Feedly (for RSS) and Pocket (for pending articles). If the article is very long, then send it to the Kindle.

Since the beginning of the year, I became a user of a wonderful program for keeping a budget.

Sometimes I play chess on or in HIARCS Chess Explorer on my computer.

For the second year I keep a diary every day. I used it first, and then switched to (by Journey).

How do you organize your time?

I used it for several years, then a little, and after switching to Android I became a user.

It is home to ongoing projects (for example, "working with authors in Hexlet") and the so-called routine: regular tasks like "do yoga" or "clear the table."

Recently, I want to reduce the screen time in all possible ways, so I thought about switching to an analog system on paper like.

What is your daily routine?

I get up at about ten, go to bed at two in the morning. There is no strict regime.

I live by feelings.

Of course, from time to time, the conscience begins to torment, and the inner voice says: “We need to observe the regime! We need to get up earlier! But it seems that it is not worth fighting with yourself.

I get enough sleep, I have time for everything, so everything seems to be fine.

What place does sport take in your life?

In the warm season I run, and recently I began to do the simplest yoga exercises at home.

It used to be a lot of time on the road bike, but with the move to a city owned by cars, I gave up this hobby.

Is there a place for paper in your work?

There are always notebooks and notebooks on the table, I constantly write and plan something on paper, and then translate it into digital format.

There is no purpose to abandon the papers and there never was.

It is clear that I want to deal with any bureaucracy on the Internet, but when it comes to reading or writing, on the contrary, I want to go back to paper.

Life hacking from Rakhim Davletkaliev

I can recommend three artistic ones:

1. Dune by Frank Herbert.
2. The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. I reread it, it seems, for the fourth time. The most alluring universe of fantasy books.
3. "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons. Probably the scariest book I've read.

… and three non-fiction books:

1. "The structure and interpretation of computer programs." Probably the best book on programming.
2. "Target. The process of continuous improvement”by Eliyahu Goldratt. An addictive and brain-reducing business novel.
3. "Of course you are kidding, Mr. Feynman!" The Autobiography of Richard Feynman.

I love paper books, but I prefer to read in English, so I mostly read with Kindle. For PDF, I sometimes use the very first iPad, it copes with this task well.

I stopped listening to podcasts for a long time and I can not recommend anything here. Although a few years ago I recorded a huge number of podcasts. I can advise "", which we recorded with the participants of the Hexlet project and plan to resume in the near future.

Three video castes:

1. - these are wonderful videos about the peculiarities of human structures: countries, borders, books, political order.
2. - stories of an experienced engineer about a variety of mechanisms: watches, household appliances, ships and much more.
3. - great recipes for delicious (but not always healthy) dishes.

Is there a dream configuration?

Something like the operating system from the movie Her. No, not to fall in love with Scarlett Johansson's voice, but to be able to do everything that can be done behind the screen and keyboard, but without the screen - with the voice. For example, you are walking in the forest, received a letter, listened to it, googled the author, found out everything that was needed, answered, planned an event. So far, all these Siri or Google Now are pathetic semblances of the feeling of control and freedom that you want to have.

Now all interactions with a computer seem to me a terrible primitivism. I press the buttons like on a typewriter, move some fictional cursor with my finger to hit the button.

Ideally, you wouldn't want to have any interface at all. Just some kind of brain plugins to send and receive information without computers or screens at all. Well, something I got carried away. I'm going to move the buttons further.:)

Thank you for the attention!