Along the path of a programmer with Alexei Kapranov. From Yandex to London

Interview

Unlike many of my colleagues, I was not born a programmer. I was born a musician. I did not study programming at the university and until a certain time I was not even going to connect my life with IT.

But I have always been attracted to Moscow, with its wide sidewalks, long embankments and huge parks. But once there, you feel the need for money more than in any other city of our amazing homeland. At that time, my older brother was renting an apartment with two programmers working in some bank. So, in one of the kitchen conversations, I plunged into the world of Python for the first time. A lot of time passed from that moment before I got my first job as a Python developer.

First steps in programming

So, once in Moscow, I had to look for work, since I could not live away for a long time. At that time, my skills were only enough to get a job in technical support for one large and immoral company. I took orders by phone and walked back and forth along the long corridors of the building to connect mice to the system units, which took turns flying out of the nests of all the office staff.

It was there, realizing the absurdity of what was happening, that I wrote my first program. In my free time, I studied the possibilities of the language and wrote scripts for system administration. Senior admins quickly noticed this and began to give me tasks to write this or that program, and I was surprised to find that even with my minimal experience I program better than them and can be useful to them in this.

First work

Surprisingly, I have never worked as a junior. I immediately went to the middle. But I had attempts to get a job as a junior developer. I remember that interview well.

Two well-educated programmers (which is funny, they were husband and wife) tested my knowledge and thinking for two whole hours, after which they concluded that my knowledge was clearly not enough, but they didn’t refuse me, but gave me a list of references and sent me to finish my studies. Two weeks later, I came back for an interview and showed fantastic learning ability, answering many questions that I had not been able to answer before. The next day they called me and said that I was accepted. I was told a salary that would not even be enough for me to rent housing and food, not to mention some excesses. I immediately refused and never regretted it, as I got a job as a system administrator in a world-famous company, where I continued my self-training as a programmer. From this story I took one important point Nothing guides and pushes as well as an interview!

What's next

At some point, tired of office life and work as an administrator, I saved up some money and went to travel to India for six months. Oh, if I could describe what it was for six months, then a book would not be enough, not like this article. When I returned, I already knew that I would try again to get a job as a programmer, and this time luck smiled at me, and I was much better prepared for this. During six months of traveling, I have improved my spoken English very, very well, which now helps me every day in communicating with colleagues. Getting into the language environment turned out to be much more effective than any textbooks (by the way, the same can be said about programming). But it is better to jump there already understanding the basics, otherwise you will use the conditions in which you can become advanced to learn the basics.

So. In my first job as a programmer, I was the only back-end developer in the company! You can't imagine worse! Well, what I wanted, I got. But at the second job, I got into a wonderful team, where real professionals with great experience worked. Thanks to them, I acquired a culture of code and learned about high standards in development. Misha Korsakov and Andrey Belyak - respect and respect!

Now

And now I work remotely in one international company and this has its advantages! Just do not think that I am now lying on the beach with a laptop and enjoying life to the fullest. I still work a lot and get tired a lot, but I don't have to go to the office. I live in St. Petersburg, sometimes I travel. I managed to live in Portugal, in Italy, in Georgia, but I can’t say that I somehow had a special rest there. Organizing travel adds a lot of extra complexity, and when combined with work, it can be twice as hard as working from home or the office. But you can see a lot of new, beautiful and interesting things. And this is a clear plus!

mentoring

And my mentorship began in a very funny way and without my participation. Once I was visiting a friend and accidentally left a book on Python and Django with him. And the next time we met only a year later, and then he surprised me. He says, and now I work as a programmer! Do you remember you forgot my book, so I read it, made my own website on it and recently got my first job.

It happens!

Later, my mentoring continued with the fact that I began to teach one of my friends. Despite the fact that he spends almost every day at a different job, our business is going very quickly and well. The first job as a programmer is just around the corner!

How to become a successful Python developer? Alexey Kurylev will share his experience with both beginners and experienced programmers

Questions

What advice would you give to beginners that is rare or considered unusual, controversial?

Join any movement! Don't miss any opportunity to practice! Always be open to any suggestions!

And what is very important:

“When faced with ambiguity, resist the temptation to guess.” - zen of python

How do you keep your skills up to date? How do you keep growing and getting better as a developer?

Well, work doesn't let you become irrelevant. Every day you have to do something new. Well, I read, of course. I study other languages. Communicate with other developers. I develop different web services in a team with friends, without salary, just for the sake of interest. And I have more rest if possible, this is also necessary, so self-development goes easier and faster.

Top 3 books for beginners

• Mark Summerfield - "Python 3 Programming. The Definitive Guide"
• Wesley Chan, Paul Bissex, Jeffrey Forsier - “Django. Development of web applications in Python”
• Robert Martin - "Clean Code" - Read it even if you don't understand Java, it's very easy good advice. And at the same time, you will start learning Java.

My way

Choice of profession I have been very predictable for others and incredibly surprising for me. The fact is that both my father and mother are programmers. From the first generation of Soviet computer scientists. Dad soldered these huge EU-ki, and mom loaded punched cards into them. At the same time, at school, I dreamed of becoming a chemist, then a biologist, and then an entomologist. I love nature very much.

But in the last classes (93-95) I got acquainted with computers, and I was completely sucked in.

First, endless olympiads in computer science, then the first modem at home, then in our Bryansk Technical University they opened the specialty "Programming" and of course I passed it. I didn’t notice how the years passed, I woke up at about the 5th year, in the region of my diploma, grieved over my school dreams for 10 minutes and since then I have been working non-stop in my specialty.

I started working “for real” in my 3rd year, when, on my mother’s order, I began to write small things for the bank, where she then headed IT. First, some file transcoders, then scripts in terminal program Telemate to work with the cash settlement center, then was big project - workplace currency teller. There was no Internet, as well as an abundance of books - he absorbed all the information that he could reach.

I read to the holes and manuals for Clipper, and the news of Turbo Pascal 7.0 in the magazine "Computer-Press". Tried all programs. So one day I brought home a FreeBSD disk and put it next to Dos. I got sucked in instantly: I completely abandoned FoxPro and Delphi, started writing in awk and Perl, and after two years managed to find a job at an ISP.

I had my idols: the industry is young, hot, everything is seething, every six months there is a discovery and a new star.

But mostly admired all sorts of great foreign scientists of course. Dijkstra, Diffie, Butch. Richard Stallman when I got older and wiser. Well, one of my mother's colleagues, a programmer from Bryansk, Leonid Osovtsov :) He was so alive, a real idol, not an icon. He left a long time ago, lives happily in Israel.

The main discovery of those times for me it's incredible huge world free software. One FreeBSD distribution disk contained more software than I had seen in all previous years under Dos. And none of them required a search for a serial number. Yes, and everything is in the source code. I quickly got involved in the development process, wrote patches, discussed with the developers. Somehow, at one moment, the computer turned from a slot machine and a typewriter into a window in Big world. The Internet consisted almost entirely of programmers, and therefore it was very easy for me then.

I quickly reached the ceiling in Bryansk and immediately after receiving my diploma I left for Moscow. Artus, Agave, Inline, Channel One, Rambler. I worked at Rambler for 4 years, first I programmed web mail, then I created a department for 15 people for it and supervised it.

Approximately in 2002, having already moved to Moscow, I discovered Runet :) Having become deeply bogged down in the English-speaking environment (I don’t say “websites”, because at that time the Internet consisted not only of the web), I simply missed the moment of its appearance. I had to hurry up.

Need to

Now I work as a universal technical soldier in the startup NadoBy.ru. Formally - a technical director, but part-time and a system administrator, tester, architect, task manager, product and project manager, usability designer, coder and programmer in 3.5 languages. In general, I help my technical team of 4 people on all fronts. Tasks are mostly easy conceptually, but require quick response in conditions a large number unknown. I try to assign interesting, large, creative tasks to employees, otherwise I can get carried away and go headlong into them for a long time, and then management suffers. [Editor's note: now, 4 years after this text was written, Alexey works in the Yandex postal department]

There are activities outside of work. AT recent times I am associated with the organization of all kinds of technical conferences. I take part in the work of the Moscow group of Pearl programmers Moscow.pm. From time to time I create, support and participate in various open source projects. Interestingly, all this can be well combined with the ongoing process of self-education, so it turns out win-win.

Work in startups

In a startup, you learn differently - there are no difficult, complex, research tasks, but there are a lot of very urgent, very important and very small tasks. This is constant communication, partners-agents-clients, this is the experience of hiring not only the best, but also the cheapest people. I strongly recommend everyone to try it.

Ideal programmer

This comrade should have realized very, very early that a programmer is a mechanic, from whom a machine is taken away every 15 minutes and a new, next model is brought.

There are a few important words here.

First, locksmith. A programmer-creator, a valuable person who quickly does a lot of good things - is far from being a creative or even a research profession, despite the halo with which it is shrouded to this day. For such a person, patience and perseverance are a hundred times more important than talent, abilities in mathematics and linguistics, and similar things that are praised at school.

Second, 15 minutes. The programmer is constantly learning. Just generally always. it common feature many (if not all) young professions, but it doesn't mix well with plumbing. With the fact that a person must be both an eternal student and a good worker. After all, as it is with working people - with your favorite hammer you can work perfectly, productively for 20 years. We have it the other way around. Although there is a separate big story about people who reach the level of creating their own machines.

Thirdly, this same machine. Now every programmer uses (the numbers are taken from the ceiling) 45 libraries, 5 frameworks, 2 text editors, 2 operating systems, 5 closely intertwined languages, 2-3 version control systems and many other tools, such as a bug tracker, a wiki environment, a debugger , profiler and so on. This is a really large and complex machine, almost the cockpit of an aircraft. The workplace itself has become a complex system, a CNC machine. People who thoroughly know one text editor and the C language are not applicable anywhere. (As a rule, they are very valuable in their places, but these places - one, two, and miscalculated).

Maybe...

There are so many things that we, programmers, lack, we really want to more people I was going to write articles, and not launch high-loaded projects or, God forgive me, search engine optimization. There are so many more interesting things to be discovered, so many foundations to be laid. Incredibly, it's 2010 and there is no artificial intelligence. Instead, a cluster of half a million servers shows ads, hundreds of chic distributed botnets send spam, and the idol of millions is the company that launched the first mass DRM. A disgrace, ashamed before the Universe.

If I had not become a programmer myself, I would have been a scientist, a 100% naturalist, most likely a biologist.

Why? Well, in general, I don’t understand people who choose a profession rationally, according to calculation. We had such guys at the institute - they went, for example, to study for the dull specialty "Turbines", because turbinists were taken to Gazprom. I see that modern man work is big and often the most main part life, and it must be chosen only for love. I had my first love with biology, but then I left it for computer science.

Everyday life of a programmer

Now my work consists of filling the skeleton of the product task with “meat” and fully providing the programmer with the opportunity to completely solve it comfortably for himself. This is the job of a development director. In any startup, the technical director is first the development director, and only then the real technical director, that is, the supply manager. To be a household, you must first develop it.

All edge places, integration moments, even just complex errors control and correct myself free time. Everything is moving very fast, as I wanted, as I predicted. Every day I study. Every day I read blogs, not only because it is interesting, but also because it is impossible to do otherwise.

The bad thing is that there is too much business at work. I hate business, I love honesty, freedom and communism :)

Fortunately, I realized early on that only business guarantees freedom. Honesty, if you strain, you can observe in yourself and in loved ones, and we will build communism when we invent artificial intelligence, which will get us free energy. As long as everything goes according to plan :)

The qualities that you need to try to develop in order to become an outstanding professional are:

• Patience. A programmer who has solved 10 problems 10 times is often better than another who has solved 100 different problems. Because (surprise) repetition is the mother of learning.
• Communications. Autistic programmers are no longer hired. As the industry matures, there are fewer worthwhile things you can do alone.
• Courage in taking risks.
• Ease of lifting.
• Blind print :)

Set high, worthy goals for yourself. Practice, practice, every day. In the morning, immediately after charging, half an hour or an hour of simple coding. Take good care of your health. Try not to eat, watch or read too much. Don't do useless things.

Probably, everyone knows what Tetris is, since this is a game that more than one generation has been sitting for hours on end. But, unfortunately, the person who invented this game did not achieve popularity. And few people know who is the inventor of this game. It turns out that Alexey Pajitnov is the man who invented Tetris, our compatriot. He was born on March 14, 1956 in Moscow.

Alexey Pajitnov: biography

At school, Alexei studied as usual and did not stand out among his peers. But, as he recalls, his diary was always full of comments from teachers.

Alexei Leonidovich graduated from the Mathematical School, and later from the Institute of Aviation. After graduating from the institute, Pajitnov got a job at a computer center, where he invented the legendary game in 1984. In 1991, Alexey moved to the USA. He has many works and awards to his credit.

Creation of Tetris

In 1984, young scientists sat for hours in laboratories with nothing to do. So Aleksey Leonidovich Pajitnov was one of those people. During these years, he was engaged in the study of problems related to human speech recognition and intelligence. To overcome them, it was necessary to solve puzzles and difficult tasks. And then Aleksey decides to create a puzzle that will be interesting for both children and adults.

What made Alexey Pajitnov famous? He originally created computer game, where the figures had to change their position under the gravity of other objects. But computers didn't have great opportunities, and so the game had to be simplified. His figures consisted of five identical squares, but the people did not really appreciate his efforts, and then he decides to create something simpler. For Tetris, seven different figures were developed. This number was not chosen by chance, it is this number that a person’s memory is able to remember. The game was compiled using the Pascal language.

What made Aleksey Pajitnov famous all over the world? He creates Tetris, in which pieces of four squares fall down. By the way, few people know why Tetris is called that way. In fact, in translation, the word "tetra" means four. Although this game was originally called tetramino, people themselves renamed it in order to simplify pronunciation.

As the creator himself says great game He created it in order to give pleasure to people. Alexey believes that absolutely all games that later became famous all over the world should be created for this purpose.

After Alexei created Tetris, the fame of the new toy spread to many cities, and two weeks later everyone was playing it, competing with each other. Although the first week only the employees of the company in which Alexei worked were busy with fun. Two months after the first Tetris model was released, Pajitnov and his colleague created a colored version of the game. advantage new game you can call it a table of records. Tetris was played not only in Russia, but also abroad, the game gained popularity.

It is worth noting that the Academy of Sciences, where Pajitnov worked at that time, was officially considered the creators of the game. That is why Pajitnov for a long time could not receive income from his invention. After all, the game was created during working hours and on a working computer, which is why the rights did not belong to Alexei.

Game rights

Many people wanted to buy the rights to the Tetris game from Alexey. The first was Robert Stein, with whom Soviet entrepreneurs wanted to cooperate in the future, who wanted to make big money on Pajitnov's invention. Although Pajitnov did not sign any documents or contracts with them. Many Americans even created their own versions of Tetris, which were no less popular.

The Hungarian Stein later resold the rights to the game to Microsoft. American Tetris was created in 1989. Since then, over 70 million games have been sold and over 100 million downloads on mobile devices. A little later, gaming and arcade machines with the game Tetris began to be created.

Creation of the Tetris company

Despite the fact that Alexey Pajitnov is not such famous person, everything worked out perfectly for him in life, since the inventor worked hard. He managed to organize Anima Tek, which was offered cooperation by Microsoft. And having already moved to the USA, he organized a company called Tetris, and only then did he start making money on a game created many years ago. And since 1996, Alexey Pajitnov has been officially working at Microsoft. On all products that are produced by Alexey, there is a note that he is considered the creator of the legendary game.

Film about the creation of Tetris

Recently, information was leaked to the press that they plan to make a film in America so that all people can know who created the game, which many generations spent a lot of time on. The directors of this film, of course, will be Americans. Not yet known exact date film release.

The plot of the film will be not only the personality of Alexei Pajitnov, but also Tetris itself. The plot will be sci-fi. According to the directors, the film promises to be no less popular than the game itself.

Tetris today

Despite the fact that today it is very well developed, there are still people who play Tetris. In addition, each game console has a similar game. Today, many games have been developed that are similar to Tetris. You can play with a group or alone. By the way, this game develops erudition and other abilities in a child.

Alexey Pajitnov's life today

Despite the fact that Aleksey lives in the USA, he never thought about emigration, it happened by accident. And Pajitnov could not refuse such a gift of fate. Today Alexey is an employee famous company peace. Several games have been released on his account, mainly puzzles that are in demand. He releases applications for various consoles, but mostly on PC. The Tetris game is very popular, and probably no other game will be able to achieve such popularity. Alexey Leonidovich admits that his wife does not play with any toys, and the children enjoy playing games that their father creates, and he is proud of it.

Aleksey Pajitnov himself plays not only his games - whenever he goes shopping, he always gets some kind of puzzle for himself. He sees his inspiration in games. Pajitnov still plays Tetris, but he doesn't consider himself the best player. Alexey has yet to grow and grow up to schoolchildren who show the best results in this game.

Who knows, maybe Alexei Leonidovich will release another game that will become no less popular than the legendary Tetris.