How do IT professionals work? Andrey Aksenov, founder of the Sphinx project

We continue to question specialists about work and leisure hours, professional habits, the tools they use, and much more.

It will be interesting to find out what unites them, in which they contradict each other. Perhaps their answers will help to identify some general patterns, useful tips that will help many of us.

Today our guest is Andrey Aksenov, founder of the Sphinx project. Andrey is rather skeptical about life hacks. They are not his main assistants in increasing personal effectiveness.

What do you do in the company?

All in a row - that's why I am the founder. Sometimes I write code, but more and more tasks such as negotiations, correspondence by mail and the like appear.

One phrase (phrase) that best describes how you work:

Seizures.

How many hours a day do you devote to work?

From 0 to 20 hours.

How many hours do you sleep?

Up to 0 to 6-8 hours. Zero happens, thank God, not every year.

Are you having breakfast

Hardly ever. I mainly drink coffee. Sometimes I add a sandwich.

Do you live in Moscow?

Yes.

How long does it take to get to the office?

I work from home. Therefore, thank God, you don’t have to travel anywhere especially. Of course, sorties sometimes happen, but this is not a daily occurrence.

And if you have to go somewhere, how do you spend time on the road?

Read books.

What issue-tracker / repository do you use?

For historical reasons, we use Mantis. Now it is not known what we would use instead of it. Repository - Git.

What tools, frameworks do you use for development?

We are a team that writes open source mainly for Linux, so we write it, of course ... in Visual Studio (smiles).

Does your company have any internal projects, libraries, and why were they created?

There is every "tying small things." I would not call it internal projects.

Which todo manager do you personally use?

Text files, as well as a program for Windows that glues stickers to the desktop.

What annoys you the most when you work?

When something resolutely fails.

What kind of professional literature would you recommend?

This is the moment of my personal ignorance. Or, on the other hand, self-education. At one time I was forced to form by non-statutory methods.

I have suspicions (I emphasize: suspicions) that Knut, The Perfect Code and a couple of similar books could advise. But since I did not read them from cover to cover, I will not risk it.

What do you prefer: electronic readers or paper books?

Electronic Readers. Usually I have the following reading cycle: "phone - Kindle - phone."

What equipment (computers, tablets, smartphones) and operating systems do you prefer at work and at home?

I historically use Windows. There were attempts to switch to Linux, but the habit and ease of use of Windows overpowered. The phone is Android.

Do you listen to music when you work?

I listen almost constantly. Sometimes I cut down in separate difficult moments.

Which life hack allows you to be more effective?

There is some set of simple standard techniques that worked for me at different times. One of them is a GTD technique with a tomato [Pomodoro - Editor’s Note].

There were stickers on the desktop, physical stickers.

Sometimes it happens that gradually everything ceases to work.

What applications and services can you do without in work or in your personal life?

You won’t know until you try to refuse them (smiles). This is probably a standard set of skype-mail-phone, as well as IDE Visual Studio and Github.

What would Andrei Aksenov write in a letter to the future to himself?

I don’t see the point: in the future I either fail to forget well what was in the past; or I won’t be interested in what that person from the past wrote there.

You have come a long way. And someone is now at the beginning of this path. What would you recommend to a person trying to go the same way?

Since I am a developer, then the advice will be about development.

This work is the same as others - with its pros and cons. Therefore, if in doubt or want to try yourself in something else, you may need to think about it well.

If you are still sure that you are here, then the second advice for you is an individual approach to the projectile. I stand for algorithmic fundamentalism: "Learn the base, the purpose." Teach it very well, teach it so that it bounces off your teeth. After that, any arbitrarily fashionable or old, time-tested technologies will be on your shoulder, and you will cope with them pretty quickly.