Day twenty-six of the 47th loop

I woke up as usual around 7:30, opened my email, and discovered that Habr had published my article in the sandbox. It was my first article for Habr—written pretty quickly, but quite accurately. I deliberately chose not to immerse readers in every nuance of my idea and instead left some things unsaid so that professionals could work out possible applications of the proposed method themselves. In the comments there were plenty of good questions, advice, and recommendations; clearly the people there are smart and genuinely interested in the subject area. But what surprised me was how many karma downvotes I got. For what exactly?! I did not pick fights with anyone, did not write nonsense, and proposed an optimization of an existing format for solving practical problems. Fine, if you do not like the idea, don’t upvote it, or tear it apart in the comments on the merits—but why downvote and restrict the author’s rights? Personally, I believe that if a person is trying and creating something, you should support them, guide them, and criticize them substantively.

I felt sorry for my former self, the one who used to suffer because of criticism and misunderstanding when, for some reason, other people’s opinions mattered to me. Thank God, I have received more than enough vaccinations by now not to pay attention to or take other people’s criticism to heart. What I wrote above is really just a rhetorical question: WHY?! I am not looking for an answer, because I know it already—people do that to place themselves above the person they are criticizing. Well, God will judge them.

It started pouring rain. At work preparations for Golden Autumn began. Lots of activity and a wide range of tasks, varying in both necessity and importance. Today was Olga Romanovna’s last day at the company. Sad. I had gotten used to working with her. But everything changes; everything flows toward change. As a farewell she wished me a Nobel Prize. Well then—that is one hell of a goal.

During the day I talked with Mikha—he is flying to Senatobia today to visit Mike. After work I picked Leah up from daycare. She really is such a restless child. A girl, yes, but at times she behaves like a boy—she splashes through every puddle, picks up every bug and spider, and always has her own answer, which is usually “no.” We’ll see what comes next.

In the evening I watched Slava Marlow’s interview with Sobchak—such a pleasant guy. I love people like that: modest and talented. Then I turned on the soldering iron and started soldering my SIM800L to the board. Well. I had not held a soldering iron since childhood. I completely forgot that a new soldering iron tip needs to be tinned first. In short, I spent half the evening fumbling with it and did a very poor soldering job. I even think I may need to resolder it. How do I learn not to rush, but instead sit down first and work through things methodically?!