Volodymyr Obrizan: personal website - 30

On Levels of Stupidity

2016-09-30T00:29:00+03:00

Sorry for such a deeply philosophical post this late at night, but I was promised lunch for it.

The beginner level of stupidity is when you, like, know everything. Well, that is, in reality you know absolutely nothing, but for some reason you think you know everything. For any question from the person you’re talking to, your brain automatically produces an answer. And you’re 100% sure you’re right. And you’re so stupid you can’t even begin to doubt that you’re right.

The next level of stupidity is knowing that you’re wrong somewhere, having doubts. But you’re so stupid that you don’t feel the need or desire to go and learn something, to shed light on your own ignorance.

The level of stupidity grows. You can already feel a need for knowledge, but you remain stupid enough to be too lazy to go and get that knowledge. You always find some excuses, just as stupid as you are: no money (actually there is), no time (actually there is, but you spent it on some crap).

And now your stupidity evolves along with you: you went to courses or a seminar, but you’re so stupid that it goes in one ear and out the other, you don’t take notes on what they’re telling you from the lectern. Your stupidity prevents you from letting new knowledge pass through you. You’re so stupid that you can’t even, for example, tear yourself away from a chat on your mobile phone.

And now, once again, you’ve gotten even stupider. You paid for the courses, listened to everything, took notes on everything, and sort of kind of understood it all (actually no). You came to work (or wherever it is you came), and you’re so stupid that you don’t even see how to apply this new knowledge. You lack the abstract thinking to extend the knowledge you received to your everyday tasks.

It would seem that at this point I could end the post, but I’ll continue.

You can take an even higher step, reach for the stars, become a Master of Stupidity, if at your job in some specific situation you see that the new knowledge can be applied, but because of laziness and your own stupidity you don’t want to apply it.

And here, at the final line, having traveled this long path full of stupidity, you could take the last step. But you’re so stupid you don’t know what it is, and I won’t tell you. I want you to find and take that step yourself, without my help.

Lyosha, you wanted my post? Here, catch!

The Poverty of Domestic Design

2016-06-30T22:26:00+03:00

Oschadbank has installed self-service terminals. And I love automation: it lets you save money, make services cheaper, because an hour of a person’s work costs much more than an hour of a machine’s work. Well, more precisely, in Ukraine that’s still not the case, but throughout the civilized world it’s long been that way.

But Ukraine has another problem besides low wages. No one here understands what design is, how to do it, or how good design differs from bad design.

The terminal at Oschadbank is designed (the word design means “planning”) in such a way that only a handful of people can use it to make the payments they need.

When I first saw the cashier get up from her workstation, come out from behind the counter, and help retirees pay their utility bills, I thought these were just elderly people who were on formal terms with technology. But when my turn came, I became that retiree. Because I couldn’t pay for Ukrtelecom’s services on my own. And I don’t seem to be all that old yet, and I’m pretty well versed in IT.

And this is not a joke. Right there on the wall is a printed instruction sheet saying you have to perform 18 (eighteen) actions to pay for electricity.

If, when paying for the phone, you enter the number without a 0 at the beginning, the machine won’t work.

The bill acceptor is positioned at such a height that you have to bend down to slip the bill in.

As long as every machine needs a doorman, IT will never arrive in Ukraine.

Students Are Curious 6: Will They Really Expel Me?

2016-01-30T22:52:00+02:00

Oh yes, I know: you’ve missed the “Students Are Curious” feature.

So, the students are curious:

Volodymyr Ihorovych, how can this be, will I really be expelled just because of one exam of yours that I didn’t pass?

Yes, you will be expelled. It’s important to understand that expulsion is entirely real. Don’t reassure yourself with the fact that you weren’t expelled for the previous 4.5 years. Or that the guys a year ahead weren’t expelled. Or that the guy from the parallel group wasn’t expelled. This isn’t about them, after all; it’s about you. And you, you will definitely be expelled.

If you think that all you need to do is drag things out a little longer, and that my colleagues and I are just trying to scare you, and that there, at the very last line, we’ll say, “All right, a C,” then you’re mistaken. There will be no C. On February eighth, you will be expelled.

Expulsion is as real as the smartphone you’re reading my blog on. Touch it, feel it, feel its weight, how comfortably it sits in your hand. It is real, just like your expulsion.

In previous installments:

— School students are curious about whether fiction is necessary.
— Students are curious about choosing a major.
— Students are curious about submitting a course after the deadline.
— Students are curious about choosing a programming language.
— Students are curious about submitting a thesis.

Interested in my opinion on any question of university life? Send your questions to volodymyr.obrizan@gmail.com. Anonymity is guaranteed. Answers will be published as questions come in. You can also ask questions through the anonymous-questions site http://ask.fm/obrizan

Retraining into IT from Scratch

2016-01-30T21:31:00+02:00

I’ve been running into this question more often: “What courses should I take if I’m learning IT from scratch?” Well, for example, if your first profession is teacher of Ukrainian language and literature, but you want to get a job as a Haskell programmer.

For me this is a very difficult question. First, I’ve never seen, right in front of me, someone with a completely different qualification become an IT person, and which courses they attend in the process. Second, answering “this will take you 4 years” (as it takes our students) is very hard when people expect quick solutions from you.

No courses in Kharkiv — full-time, correspondence, or online — will turn you into an IT person from scratch. An IT person is not about pressing buttons, and not about knowing a language’s syntax. Because no IT courses teach discrete mathematics. For retraining into IT from scratch, discrete mathematics should become the most in-demand course. Graph theory, set theory, Boolean algebra — there’s no doing IT without this.

Discrete mathematics is taught only at universities as part of bachelor’s training. And that lasts exactly four years.

Students Are Curious 3

2015-01-30T22:35:00+02:00

Students are curious:

I missed all your lectures and lab sessions; how do I get credit if the semester and exam period ended ages ago?

Take the lab manuals, do the labs, prepare answers to the control questions, and then come in, prove that the lab work was done independently, and defend it.

But I very much doubt that you’ll be able to do that. You’re so busy that you couldn’t show up for labs on time and make them up. Or you’re so lazy that you didn’t want to come in and do at least something. Where are you suddenly going to find a whole twenty hours to do the labs? Or where are you going to get the motivation to do them on your own?

So don’t waste either my time or yours; go straight to the dean’s office, where they’ll give you qualified advice on how to write the application.

In previous installments:

— Students are curious about choosing a programming language.
— Students are curious about submitting a thesis.

Review of Jiří Toman’s Book “How to Improve Yourself”

2011-04-30T09:31:00+03:00

I finished reading Jiří Toman’s book “How to Improve Yourself.” The book was published in 1980 in Prague, and in 1988 it was translated into Ukrainian and published in Kyiv by the publishing house for political literature.

The book covers questions such as:

What would you like to achieve in life?
And why improve yourself?
Know yourself
A person wonders: “What am I like?”
How to begin
The prerequisite for any success is the ability to use time
Can mental abilities be developed?
How to improve your abilities
Taking care of your health
Taking care of your appearance
Developing physical capabilities
Preparing for life
Choosing a profession

...and many others that I just got sick of writing out. Overall, the book is like a collection of essays on various topics, but united by a common idea.

For example, the figure below shows a chapter with a diagram, also known as a “pinarik.” On this chart, with a resolution of 15 minutes, you’re supposed to mark phone calls, the work itself, breaks/lunches, meetings, correspondence. And after some time, go back over these diagrams and honestly admit to yourself that you haven’t done a damn thing.

Well, and, you know. Reading the book is clearly not enough to just suddenly become better like that.

Overall, though, the author’s other book, “The Art of Speaking”, seemed more interesting.

Fall

2009-09-30T08:45:00+03:00

Good thing I live in the woods.

I looked out the window and realized it was already fall.