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    "title": "Artöm Mazurchak",
    "_rss_description": "Product notes by Artem Mazurchak: JTBD interviews, customer segmentation, strategy sessions and AI. Founder of Biz-cen.ru and Lashoestring.com, writing from Berlin.",
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        {
            "name": "Artöm Mazurchak",
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            "id": "102",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/customer-interviews\/",
            "title": "JTBD Interviews for a Product: From Guesswork to Clear Segments and Decisions",
            "content_html": "<p>When a product grows, the team almost always ends up with different versions of reality. Marketing sees one audience, product sees another, support sees a third. Then we argue about segments based on intuition, the loudest voice wins the roadmap, and research stays in a folder and changes little.<\/p>\n<p>In this case study, I show how I built one shared picture using LTV data, ABCD segmentation, and deep JTBD interviews. Then I turned the results into clear segments, customer language, and practical decisions for the product and communication. I also explain how I used AI live translation so I could talk to customers in their native language (Spanish), even when I do not speak it.<\/p>\n<p>I do not share the company name and the exact numbers on purpose. In the screenshots, the data is fictional, but it still shows the right meaning.<\/p>\n<h2>Goal of the Research<\/h2>\n<p>Here is what I needed to do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stop inventing audience segments, and build them from real facts and real user voices.<\/li>\n<li>Agree on the focus: who we serve best, and what value we deliver better than competitors.<\/li>\n<li>Understand which customers actually keep the economics working.<\/li>\n<li>Create artifacts that help other departments act and align with the needs of a particular segment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/1x2-2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"595\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">At the start, we agreed that you can grow business metrics and beat competitors through the right segmentation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>My Pre-Interview Setup<\/h2>\n<p>For research like this, I build the process from scratch: first I align terms and expectations → then I collect facts → after that I write testable conclusions and turn them into concrete decisions with clear priorities. This removes subjectivity and makes it easier to pass the result between teams.<\/p>\n<p>The project had four steps:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Aligning views inside the company.<\/li>\n<li>Quantitative segmentation by LTV and ABCD segmentation.<\/li>\n<li>Deep interviews in JTBD logic.<\/li>\n<li>Writing clear customer jobs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Step 1. Running an Internal Team Workshop Alignment<\/h2>\n<p>At the start, I ran a workshop where I set the JTBD frame:<\/p>\n<p><i>People choose a product as a tool to solve a specific task. It is important to see the context, triggers, success criteria, trade-offs, and alternatives — not a list of desired features.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Then the team described its current view of segments: who they see as key, what they promise them, where the product magic is, and which jobs it covers. We compared the maps, captured the differences, and agreed: from here we test hypotheses with data and interviews, not with personal beliefs.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 2. Economics: LTV and ABCD segmentation<\/h2>\n<p>To make sure interviews did not turn into talks with random people, I started with the customer base. Using seven months of data, I split users by LTV ranges and calculated group size, average number of purchases, revenue, average LTV.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/2x2-2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"497\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">The analysis showed that customers with LTV 200–500 bring 56% of revenue. The goal of the research was to understand why they choose the product and what tasks \/ jobs they use it for, so we can learn how to attract and retain this group.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/3x2-2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"651\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">I applied the ABCD framework to the collected data.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This is where the first “cold shower” happened, and it made the discussion clear right away: a clearly defined share of LTV customers brought most of the revenue. That gave the research an honest focus. We wanted to understand:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>who these people are;<\/li>\n<li>why they choose us;<\/li>\n<li>how to scale this success without drowning in endless service for low-value customers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Step 3. In-Depth Customer Interviews to Identify Segment Patterns<\/h2>\n<p>The goal of the interviews was to understand why the client chose our product:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>what happened before the purchase;<\/li>\n<li>what became the trigger;<\/li>\n<li>what options they compared;<\/li>\n<li>where they hesitated;<\/li>\n<li>when the feeling appeared: “aha, this works”;<\/li>\n<li>how the customer defines success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In each session, I captured the profile, trigger, aha moment, problems, customer jobs, and signals of disappointment. At the same time, I collected live quotes: the phrases people use to describe their goal and progress. Later, this language works great in marketing, onboarding, and product messaging.<\/p>\n<p>I ran the interviews in Google Meet, and I recorded and transcribed them with Loom. Some conversations were in Spanish: I used a new <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/meet\/answer\/16221730?hl=en\">Google AI<\/a> service that does live, two-way translation in real time from Spanish to English and back.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-video\">\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JWE_7pGwxBc?enablejsapi=1\" allow=\"autoplay\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">An example interview where I talk to a customer from Spain without speaking Spanish. In the video, you can see how an AI-based two-way translator works.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Timing made one thing clear fast: 90 minutes gives better quality than 60. People have time to move past general phrases and get to the real reasons and trade-offs.<\/p>\n<p>I planned to do 25 interviews. But by the 20th, I saw that the key motives and conflicts were repeating — so I stopped earlier.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/4x2-2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"651\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">In total, I did 23 interviews: 16 in English and 7 in Spanish. I captured thoughts and conclusions from each session on an online board — in the end, it became a full knowledge base.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Step 4. Defining Three Key Segments and Their Qualification Criteria<\/h2>\n<p>After the interviews, I built the segmentation so it works in real life. Not abstract portraits, but criteria that help the team confidently assign a customer to a group and understand how to work with them. I looked at:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>goals and motivation;<\/li>\n<li>risk attitude;<\/li>\n<li>experience;<\/li>\n<li>discipline;<\/li>\n<li>routines and rituals;<\/li>\n<li>learning and decision-making styles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/6x2-2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"446\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">This is how three segments appeared, with different motives. Each has its own entry triggers, its own aha moment, and its own criteria for what is valuable.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Inside the segments, I saw repeating patterns: how people describe the goal, how they measure results, and which limits they see as critical. I put them into a separate block so other departments could better understand what our clients think about and how they make decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Another artifact was a matrix of selection criteria and reasons why some customers choose competitors. It connected the customer voice with the market picture and helped us define clear points of comparison across segments.<\/p>\n<h2>How I made the results accessible to the whole company<\/h2>\n<p>One typical research risk is that knowledge stays with the researcher and dies when the context changes. To avoid that, I built an internal AI agent based on the project materials: transcripts, tagging, insights, and also external sources. Teams could ask questions and get answers grounded in real interviews and quotes, including in different languages.<\/p>\n<p>This sharply increased the visibility of the knowledge portfolio: product, marketing, and support started to speak the same language and return to the source data faster when decisions were disputed.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "When a product grows, the team almost always ends up with different versions of reality. Marketing sees one audience, product sees another, support sees a third",
            "date_published": "2025-12-30T23:21:02+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:55+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "custdev",
                "cutmers",
                "JBTD",
                "segmentation"
            ],
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            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Tue, 30 Dec 2025 23:21:02 +0200",
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        {
            "id": "99",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/strategy-session-for-products\/",
            "title": "Strategy Session for Products: Building a 1–5 Year Plan to Hit Goals or Design a New Future",
            "content_html": "<p>Methodologist Georgy Shchedrovitsky developed a way to organize a team’s thinking and actions so it can deliver large, complex projects. I built my strategy session format on these principles. In this article, I explain how the session works and what a company gets at the end.<\/p>\n<h2>Why a strategy session matters — and what happens there<\/h2>\n<p>To work on big projects, you first need to pause and design the future. If you only follow trends, the project may either never happen — or it will happen with major difficulties and not in the form you originally planned.<\/p>\n<p>The reason is simple: we’re <a href=\"https:\/\/mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/the-fourth-revolution-ai-how-do-we-use-past-lessons-why-cant-we\/\">standing at the edge of a new industrial revolution<\/a>. Old rules stop working, and new rules are still being created. The winners are the projects that shape those rules. Strategy sessions are where teams do exactly that.<\/p>\n<p>Most teams are good at day-to-day execution and quick results. But sometimes there is no shared understanding of where the company is going:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>what Point A looks like today and what future the company wants;<\/li>\n<li>what context the company will operate in — and whether it plans to influence it;<\/li>\n<li>what each department must do to reach Point B.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/departmentx2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"655\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Here is how one department’s scheme looks: a person plays a specific role inside the department. The department operates in a certain context. Tasks move the department toward its goal.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/team_schemex2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"967\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">And here’s what teamwork sometimes looks like: each department is on its own, with its own goals and its own way to reach them.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/unitetheteamx2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"967\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">But it should look different: the team has one shared goal. Everyone moves toward it in sync and understands what is expected from them at any moment. To see this goal clearly, people need to take <i>a reflective position<\/i> — step back and look at their work from the outside.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>So what’s the real difference between these two pictures? In the “right” one, at Point A the team first builds a shared view of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the single context of the company;<\/li>\n<li>how departments connect and communicate to each other;<\/li>\n<li>what roles people play inside departments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Only then does everyone start to shape Point B — and design the context they want to end up in.<\/b><\/p>\n<h2>Planning the future: small company vs. big company<\/h2>\n<p>The approach differs depending on how many resources you have.<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" class=\"e2-text-table\">\n<tr>\n<td><b>A product with limited resources<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>A product with a lot of resources<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Often follows external trends. Treats the existing context as the “rules of the game” for the next year.<\/td>\n<td>Can hold a position longer and set the context for the whole market. Often builds strategy for 3–5–10 years.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><i>Take Elon Musk’s Neuralink: a chip implanted in the head that lets you control a computer with your thoughts. It has been tested on paralyzed people — and it works. It’s possible that in 10, 20, or 30 years many of us will use such chips. <b>Musk is shaping the context we may all live in.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<h2>A key step: define Point A metrics through a company funnel<\/h2>\n<p>An important part of the session is to define your current metrics at Point A. The easiest way is a shared company funnel, where each conversion is owned by a specific department. Even if the company has no historical data, you can still assume a funnel to make the goal measurable.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/simple_funnelx2-4.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"621\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Seeing the company as a funnel helps you consistently generate projects that improve conversion at each level. This is a very simplified version — in reality, the funnel is much bigger.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When the funnel is ready, you can focus on three things:<\/p>\n<p><b>1. Create a list of projects that can significantly improve conversion between stages and key metrics.<\/b> These are not just operational tasks — they are new initiatives. For example: a new client acquisition approach, a new market segment, a new process.<\/p>\n<p>Projects are designed for specific funnel stages. Moving stage by stage, we:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>make sure we covered all key parts of the business, which helps us generate more ideas;<\/li>\n<li>discuss ideas tied to a specific stage, not in general terms;<\/li>\n<li>we’ll rank the projects and focus on the ones most likely to benefit the company.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>2.  Check if the projects are good enough to reach the strategic goal.<\/b> Maybe you need a fundamental shift and must rethink how the system works.<\/p>\n<p><i>Example: when I built an office rental service, we started with an ad-based model. At some point, we realized it couldn’t scale results fast enough. We created a new approach that didn’t exist in the market: we began closing brokerage deals remotely. The company increased revenue 5x in two years.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>3. Define success metrics.<\/b> Founders might name top-level numbers — revenue, market share, etc. Then the team builds the funnel from the bottom up and clarifies how each department will move toward the goal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/planningx2-1.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"878\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Only after the ideal outcome is defined can we move on to a real plan and concrete steps. It answers one question: “What exactly do we need to do to get to point B?”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>How Shchedrovitsky’s approach turns strategy into results<\/h2>\n<p>The approach fits into four steps.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 0. Build a map for a new project<\/h3>\n<p>If you already found your market, go to the next step. But if you’re planning a big, long project (3–5 years), first map it and answer key questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What future does the organization want to live in, and how do you see it?<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Can the organization design that future?<\/b><\/li>\n<li>How does the organization act, and what is its role?<\/li>\n<li>How does the organization deliver value — what problem does it solve?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Step 1. Think of your project as a funnel<\/h3>\n<p>Map the business as a funnel, align on one North Star Metric so everyone shares a clear view of what matters most.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 2. Each department prepares in advance<\/h3>\n<p>Each department:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>describes the context, object, and role of key people in the department;<\/li>\n<li>fills in Point A data for its part of the funnel;<\/li>\n<li>prepares a plan with obvious solutions to save time during group discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Step 3. Run a shared meeting<\/h3>\n<p>First you set the overall frame for the session. Then each department presents its Point A and Point B.<\/p>\n<p>Then the team describes the projects at a high level so everyone understands their purpose and value in the same way. At this stage, we don’t go into details, so we don’t spend too much time discussing one idea. <b>During other teams’ presentations, people add important facts and clarifications, and if you already have a working business model, this kind of discussion usually takes about 95% of the whole strategy session. If you’re just starting out, you’ll spend more time defining point B.<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/projectsx2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"878\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">In the end, you get a table of potential projects for each department.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Six principles and a quick glossary<\/h2>\n<p>Before we go into each principle, let’s align on terms.<\/p>\n<p><i>Imagine a factory line. Today it is assembled as-is — that’s Point A. In a year, it should run faster and more stable — that’s Point B. Each machine has an input, output, and a handover point. If you mix up operations, the line stops. If you set the handover and order correctly, speed and quality grow.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Teams work the same way: we take work from neighbors, do our part, hand it over — and we can see where effect is lost on the path from Point A to Point B. Sometimes you just need better handover discipline. Sometimes you need to rebuild part of the “line” so the move to Point B can really start.<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" class=\"e2-text-table\">\n<tr>\n<td><b>Term<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Definition<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Example<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Points A and B<\/td>\n<td>A is the current state; B is the desired state.<\/td>\n<td>Average client launch time is 120 days (A). Target is 90 (B). The team forecasts, rebuilds the process, and agrees on cross-team projects to hit the goal.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Context<\/td>\n<td>The situation in which the company’s activity unfolds.<\/td>\n<td>Sales and marketing saw the situation differently. After discussing the shared context, they built a fuller picture of where the company stands and how to use trends.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Person<\/td>\n<td>A person’s role inside the organization, visible as a network of connections in real work.<\/td>\n<td>The marketing head could invent and test new acquisition methods, but had no time because of operations. After defining their Point A and Point B, the team created a project to reorganize that person’s work.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Reflective position<\/td>\n<td>An “above the action” position: stepping out of your role, context and organisation.<\/td>\n<td>Marketing takes traffic and outputs qualified leads → sales takes leads and outputs a service package → the client starts using the product.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Action position<\/td>\n<td>Participants come ready to take responsibility for execution, not just dream or complain.<\/td>\n<td>“Let’s build an AI support bot: it can solve 60% of tasks while keeping NPS as high as with human support. I know how to start.”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Self-movement<\/td>\n<td>Internal activity and motion of a system or person. Management is only possible when there is self-movement.<\/td>\n<td>Anton is interested in AI and product and has suggested ideas. He may be ready to lead a project that matches his interests.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Management<\/td>\n<td>Influencing a moving object by using its own movement to reach the organization’s goal.<\/td>\n<td>We choose a project and check it supports the goal. Knowing the trajectory of self-movement, we adjust course so the project doesn’t drift away.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Work assembly<\/td>\n<td>How scattered tasks become one flow from request to result.<\/td>\n<td>Request → qualification → demo → proposal → contract → launch, with named owners.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Schematization<\/td>\n<td>Putting the situation on a board as a scheme. It helps build a shared language: key elements, connections, and how the scheme links to the goal.<\/td>\n<td>The goal was higher margins. When the acquisition system was mapped, it became clear current channels can’t deliver clients at the needed cost. The team invented a new acquisition method.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Organization \/ object<\/td>\n<td>Describing how elements are assembled into a whole and what connections bind them.<\/td>\n<td>In sales, a Business Developer did partners + closing + client support. Two problems: losing clients when BD quits; hard to measure BD efficiency. After analysis, the team split roles: SDR (attraction), BD (signing), Accounting (relationship growth).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Owner<\/td>\n<td>The person accountable for a specific area and its metric.<\/td>\n<td>Sales lead owns qualification.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h2>Principle 1. The future isn’t something that happens — it’s made from the position you choose to take<\/h2>\n<p><b>Core idea. <\/b>You don’t need to guess the future — you can build it. To do that, you take and hold a position to “pull” the market into the reality you want (think Nike and sports culture, or Amazon and one-day delivery). The team chooses Point B and acts instead of chasing trends. This matters even more in the AI era, where new norms are still being set — and the future belongs to those who set them.<\/p>\n<p><b>Business questions it answers<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What position do we hold so the desired future becomes real?<\/li>\n<li>What external conditions can we use to our advantage?<\/li>\n<li>What opportunities and projects must we create to “bring” the future closer?<\/li>\n<li>What should we refuse to avoid chasing hype?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How it works in the session<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fix Point A and construct Point B.<\/li>\n<li>Map key elements of the future reality: the company’s core purpose, the rules of the game, critical assumptions.<\/li>\n<li>Turn the position into strategic “yes\/no” choices and a set of key projects.<\/li>\n<li>Align departments into one movement toward Point B.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Impact<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The team stops chasing trends and starts setting new rules in its niche.<\/li>\n<li>Functions align into one trajectory, reducing waste.<\/li>\n<li>Focused action speeds up results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Principle 2. Reflection is a position “above” action<\/h2>\n<p><b>Core idea.<\/b> Stepping above operations lets you see the activity map, the gaps between Point A actions and Point B goals — and then build a focused plan.<\/p>\n<p><b>Business questions<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are we doing the wrong things right now? What is truly priority?<\/li>\n<li>Which processes and projects are “weeds” that must be removed?<\/li>\n<li>Which market signals matter — and what should we ignore to stay on course?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How it works<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Set the time horizon: how far ahead you plan.<\/li>\n<li>Look at the company across organization, people, and context. Fix Points A and B across these layers.<\/li>\n<li>Identify gaps and form projects needed to close them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Impact<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Better prioritization, less operational noise.<\/li>\n<li>Less wasted time and money; the Point B vector stays clear.<\/li>\n<li>Plans become concrete and doable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Principle 3. You can manage only what is already moving<\/h2>\n<p><b>Core idea. <\/b>Any project is based on self-movement. Management is trajectory correction — you can’t manage something static. In the session, we look at how departments and leaders actually move: where initiatives go, what motives drive them, and where movement needs adjustment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/guidingx2.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"598\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Management is only possible when something is moving—only then can we correct its direction.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Business questions<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where is the self-movement of each department and key person directed?<\/li>\n<li>Which projects steer that movement — and do they lead to company goals?<\/li>\n<li>What must be tuned or replaced so movement goes the right way?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How it works<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Analyze current and desired positions, review ongoing initiatives, plan new ones.<\/li>\n<li>Build projects that set the right direction frame.<\/li>\n<li>Agree what self-movement matches Point B, and what must change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Impact<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You find inertia and “dead zones” faster and focus efforts where there is real traction.<\/li>\n<li>Teams become more proactive and autonomous.<\/li>\n<li>If a department’s trajectory conflicts with Point B, it becomes clear where adjustments are needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Principle 4. Schematization moves the situation to the board — so reality becomes clear.<\/h2>\n<p><b>Core idea.<\/b> A shared picture is born on a scheme. A scheme forces you to be precise and fix the essence without long speeches. That reduces misinterpretation and speeds up alignment.<\/p>\n<p><b>Business questions<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the company’s core position — and what reality are we building on purpose?<br \/>\n<i>– Where is it a task (solvable inside the current structure) vs. a problem (needs structural change)?<\/i><\/li>\n<li>If we can describe Point B, why aren’t we there yet?<\/li>\n<li>Which dependencies between functions are critical? What must be rebuilt from scratch?<\/li>\n<li>How do we measure success, and what are the decision boundaries and rules?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How it works<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Put the situation on the board: objects, connections, forces, shared terms.<\/li>\n<li>Add rules, constraints, critical assumptions; mark disputed areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Impact<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One shared meaning and “rules of the game,” fewer conflicts.<\/li>\n<li>Faster decisions, cheaper coordination.<\/li>\n<li>Clearer prioritization: resources go to key elements, not noise.<\/li>\n<li>Less rework: the scheme becomes a reference for process and communication design.<\/li>\n<li>More stability in turbulence: the scheme is an anchor for adjustments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Principle 5. View the situation in layers — context, organization, person<\/h2>\n<p><b>Core idea. <\/b>A situation has multiple layers. To manage it, you must see context, the organization’s structure, and real people with their self-movement — and connect these layers to one goal.<\/p>\n<p><b>Business questions<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Which contextual limits and opportunities define the playing field?<\/li>\n<li>How are processes, roles, and resources built — and do they match Point B?<\/li>\n<li>Where do gaps between layers appear?<\/li>\n<li>Which changes in one layer will create the biggest effect in others?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How it works<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For each department, create a 3-column table: Points A and B for context, organization, person.<\/li>\n<li>Identify gaps and causes; mark contradictions and hidden assumptions.<\/li>\n<li>Form projects that stitch layers together (rules, processes, roles, incentives). Decide what must be rebuilt from scratch.<\/li>\n<li>Set local KPIs\/OKR per layer and cross-layer metrics (funnel conversions).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Impact<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Better cross-functional initiatives, because teams understand each other through joint discussion.<\/li>\n<li>Stronger ownership of goals: people see their impact on the whole.<\/li>\n<li>Faster root-cause discovery (not just symptoms).<\/li>\n<li>Management becomes systemic, not firefighting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Principle 6. Company activity exists on four levels: operations, projects, programs, ideas<\/h2>\n<p><b>Core idea.<\/b> Any activity stands on the level of ideas. Ideas define what we do, why, and why it matters. Major results and key changes are not achieved at the operational level. So in a strategy session, we work at least at the project level — ideally at the program level.<\/p>\n<p><b>Business questions<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>At what level are we solving the problem now — and why are we stuck there?<\/li>\n<li>What must move from operations to project or program level to create a breakthrough?<\/li>\n<li>Where do we lack ideas or a conceptual frame for meaningful decisions?<\/li>\n<li>How do we measure progress and effect at each level — alone and together?<\/li>\n<li>Which decisions fail because levels are mixed up, and how do we fix it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How it works<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Introduce shared terminology for levels and label all initiatives.<\/li>\n<li>Review the portfolio: mark the current and target level for each initiative.<\/li>\n<li>Identify program tracks for 6–18 months with owners and shared metrics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Impact<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Operations stop eating strategy; focus stays on what matters.<\/li>\n<li>Nonlinear shifts appear through program effects and capability building.<\/li>\n<li>A shared mission and strategic narrative form.<\/li>\n<li>Resource planning improves across time horizons and decision levels.<\/li>\n<li>The organization learns faster: good solutions become standardized and scaled.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How the strategy session runs<\/h2>\n<h3>Before the session: departments prepare materials<\/h3>\n<p>Each department creates a presentation where it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>describes its activity;<\/li>\n<li>explains its part of the funnel;<\/li>\n<li>shows which projects were done and how they changed the funnel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For companies launching a new project with a long planning horizon, the main goal at this stage is to agree what will be done at all. Only then does it make sense to discuss preparation in detail.<\/p>\n<h3>During the session: two offline days<\/h3>\n<p>Early start. One big wall for schemes and flipcharts. A screen for presentations. We work in blocks with short pauses to process.<\/p>\n<p><b>Day 1: <\/b>build a shared picture. Each department shows Point A, Point B, and its plan. Other teams add their understanding and propose projects.<\/p>\n<p><b>Day 2:<\/b> continue presentations and project discussion. At the end, we summarize: everyone can share impressions and highlight projects they believe are strategically critical.<\/p>\n<h3>After the session: build an open backlog and align plans<\/h3>\n<p>Each department builds an open backlog and prioritizes projects. Then there is a setup meeting: each team presents its plan for the next quarter and the projects it will deliver.<\/p>\n<p>After the quarter ends, you run another meeting to review the results:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>check how the department’s funnel metrics changed;<\/li>\n<li>see blockers and delivery speed for each department;<\/li>\n<li>if new projects appeared during the quarter, assign priorities and, if needed, take them into work;<\/li>\n<li>each department builds the next quarter plan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What you will have after the session<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A single movement map: how it is now → how it should be.<\/li>\n<li>A target scheme of how the company should be structured.<\/li>\n<li>One prioritized list of tasks with owners and metrics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How I can help your team<\/h2>\n<p>For the past several years, I’ve been systematically studying the work of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Idealized-Design-Dissolve-Tomorrows-paperback\/dp\/0137071116?sr=8-9\">Russell Ackoff<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.litres.ru\/book\/georgiy-schedrovicki\/orgupravlencheskoe-myshlenie-ideologiya-metodologiya-6606999\/\">Georgy Shchedrovitsky<\/a>. I earned an MBA and studied at Stanford and Berkeley. I’ve been applying this foundation in practice for the last seven years, facilitating strategic sessions for both B2B and B2C projects. A typical group ranges from five to forty participants.<\/p>\n<p>If the approach described in the article resonates with you, you can run a strategy session on your own—this page includes everything you need. If you’d like support, I’m ready to guide you step by step.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "Methodologist Georgy Shchedrovitsky developed a way to organize a team’s thinking and actions so it can deliver large, complex projects",
            "date_published": "2025-12-17T17:09:10+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:59+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "Berkley",
                "entrepreneurship",
                "leadership",
                "product",
                "Stanford",
                "strategy",
                "Strategy Session",
                "systems"
            ],
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            "id": "96",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/the-fourth-revolution-ai-how-do-we-use-past-lessons-why-cant-we\/",
            "title": "AI’s Fourth Industrial Revolution: Why Old Product Playbooks Fail",
            "content_html": "<p>We’re living through a unique moment: the fourth industrial revolution, under the AI flag. Humanity has already gone through three industrial revolutions, and the worries people feel now aren’t new. How should we think so we stop worrying and, using what we know about past shifts, turn this moment to our advantage?<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/AOnce@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sam Altman often <a href=\"https:\/\/wordsandchaos.com\/2025\/05\/09\/locke-two-treatises-government\/#:~:text=Image%3A%20Reading%20the%20Static%20banner\">says<\/a> in his talks: “we’ll have to rethink and change how organizations and society function.” Let’s unpack what that means.<\/p>\n<h2>Ford’s assembly line: a template for change<\/h2>\n<p>Let’s look at a past example of how to act to seize the moment. Before Ford’s assembly line, one worker assembled the entire car, doing many different operations.<\/p>\n<p>With Ford’s moving line, the process was rebuilt: the line moved, and each worker did one or two operations — <b>productivity increased eightfold<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>But what did people think about first, before they started building Ford’s assembly line? A change like that required huge investments: rebuilding production from scratch, retraining people with new skills, and setting new management standards.<\/p>\n<p>They started with the idea of a new organization design scheme:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Redefining the operations in the plant;<\/li>\n<li>Reorganizing communication between workers;<\/li>\n<li>Setting new roles for each team member.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Changing the organization design scheme<\/h2>\n<p>In the end, In the end, they defined an organization design scheme.. From this comes an important point:<\/p>\n<p><b>The core feature of any industrial revolution The core feature of any industrial revolution is an organization design scheme..<\/b><\/p>\n<p>These schemes aren’t “written in the sky” or hidden in secret books. In every industrial revolution, a specific group of people define the new scheme. They set a new norm, and from that norm new products were conceived.<\/p>\n<p>Like any cultural change, a new norm takes time to be accepted by society. The key takeaway: first you establish the scheme, and only then do you start thinking about products.<\/p>\n<p>From this follows another point:<br \/>\n<b>fast product success = product failure.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A fast win usually means the product fit into the old organization design scheme. Great products take time to mature. But the companies that set the new norm gain an undeniable advantage for the next decades and, in the end, win the competition.<\/p>\n<h2>How we work today<\/h2>\n<p>Here’s, schematically, how work typically runs in a product company today. Suppose John takes on a task. John might be a product manager, John might be a product manager, a designer, or a team lead. — that detail doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/old@2x-1.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"1058\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>When John starts, he tries to understand the task and collects context:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>He understands the company’s domain to some extent and knows the constraints of his department and his specific role.<\/li>\n<li>He gathers information about the external context — competitors and customers.<\/li>\n<li>He talks to the internal team to understand the task better.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Eventually, John forms a working picture of the task’s context. It’s incomplete, but good enough to start. His time for gathering context is limited: the context remains incomplete, yet he needs to proceed.<\/p>\n<h2>How we’ll work tomorrow<\/h2>\n<p>In the new scheme, John has an agent that:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Remembers all relevant context: company constraints and plans; the department’s work and ideas; information tied to his role.<\/li>\n<li>Exists not only for John but also on the side of internal teams, customers, and competitors.<\/li>\n<li>Changes how we communicate: from “human–human” toward protocol-like human–agent and agent–agent interactions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/new@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>Let’s use this scheme to see how product work could evolve.<\/p>\n<h2>Product example<\/h2>\n<p>To see what kinds of products emerge from the new scheme, focus on the part where John used to “collect context.” We interview people who build products, analyze their work, and how their activities are set up today.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/aiproduct@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>The analysis shows: up to 60% of their time goes to gathering task context — and even then the context stays incomplete. From here comes a product idea: <b>build a domain AI assistant for a specific person, in a specific department, for a company in a specific domain<\/b>. The goal is to radically increase the speed and quality of decisions.<\/p>\n<p>How the assistant works:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>It has access to role-relevant sources (docs, task tracker, knowledge base).<\/li>\n<li>It sees context gaps and points out what’s missing.<\/li>\n<li>It finds relevant past discussions (e. g., a Slack thread from six months ago) and routes to the knowledge holders.<\/li>\n<li>It takes into account practices of direct and indirect competitors.<\/li>\n<li>It acts within company policies and constraints.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Result: a dramatic productivity boost — less time searching, fuller context, faster and better decisions.<\/p>\n<p><b>The AI assistant is just an illustration of how to derive a product from the scheme<\/b>.<\/p>\n<h2>An orchestra of products from one scheme<\/h2>\n<p>We explored only one spot in the scheme that led to one product. But the scheme reveals more places where opportunities for new products appear:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Agents on the side of customers and competitors;<\/li>\n<li>Agents on the side of internal teams;<\/li>\n<li>Products that enable human–agent and agent–agent communication.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/orchestra@2x-1.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"1058\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>When a company starts from the scheme, it can create several interlinked solutions at once. The scheme lets you build an orchestra of products that amplify each other.<\/p>\n<p>A few books that explain how to think systemically about this topic are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Idealized-Design-Dissolve-Tomorrows-paperback\/dp\/0137071116?sr=8-9\">Idealized Design<\/a> by Russell Ackoff and Georgy Shchedrovitsky’s Organizational-Managerial Thinking.<\/p>\n<p><b>Takeaways:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>We’re in the fourth industrial revolution, and we must build products differently than in the last 100 years.<\/li>\n<li>First define a new organization design scheme — then think about products.<\/li>\n<li>Fast product success = product failure: a fast win means the product plugged into the old organization design scheme.<\/li>\n<li>A new organization design scheme lets you invent several mutually reinforcing products.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"e2-text-video\">\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4tTLWlYftV4?enablejsapi=1\" allow=\"autoplay\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">This post is also available as a video presentation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n",
            "summary": "We’re living through a unique moment: the fourth industrial revolution, under the AI flag. Humanity has already gone through three industrial revolutions",
            "date_published": "2025-09-25T21:26:44+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:59+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "AI",
                "organization design scheme",
                "product",
                "strategy",
                "systems"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/oldscheme@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Thu, 25 Sep 2025 21:26:44 +0200",
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        {
            "id": "58",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/how-venture-studios-help-big-companies-survive-the-ai-era\/",
            "title": "How venture studios help big companies survive the AI era",
            "content_html": "<p>A venture studio is an organization focused on building and scaling startups. Unlike accelerators, studios are typically specialized in a specific industry and offer deep operational support to the startups they launch.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, large corporations launch internal venture studios. The biggest challenge they’re trying to solve is “the innovator’s dilemma”. This concept, described by Clayton, explains how big companies often miss out on new markets and breakthrough technologies because they’re too focused on protecting their current market share. And right now, many of those breakthrough technologies are connected with AI.<\/p>\n<p>Venture studios are also often founded by serial entrepreneurs with deep expertise in a particular vertical. Their experience gives them an edge in selecting the right projects to launch and in providing the kind of hands-on support startups need to succeed in that specific field.<\/p>\n<p>Take, for example, companies that made traditional hard disk drives. When SSDs first hit the market, they were expensive and the demand was small. But as costs dropped and the market exploded, many HDD makers who failed to invest in SSD technology early enough went out of business. Classic case of “the innovator’s dilemma” in action.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Traits of a Venture Studio<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Industry Specialization<\/h3>\n<p>One major trait of venture studios is their focus on a single domain like health, finance, developer tools, etc. Specialization makes it easier to choose which startups to launch and how to support them. Startups within the same vertical tend to face similar challenges, so operational help is more relevant and effective.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, investing in specific infrastructure costs less than trying to cover multiple verticals at once. Once a few startups are up and running, they can share learnings, data and network. That speeds up experimentation and improves decision-making across the board.<\/p>\n<p>A great example is Askona, a company that makes sleep products, launched a venture studio focused on wellness and recovery. Every startup in that studio benefited from Askona’s deep knowledge in the field.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Building Repeatable Processes<\/h3>\n<p>Industry focus gives studios clarity on what phases a startup goes through and that helps build the right infrastructure to guide teams through each stage. Studios create best practices, frameworks and roadmaps to help startups move faster.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, it’s all about finding the balance between freedom and structure. Founders need room to think like entrepreneurs, take risks and move fast. At the same time, proven processes help tackle the common challenges every startup faces more efficiently. The studio’s operational support should guide the direction, not hand out a strict playbook.<\/p>\n<p>That support often includes:<br \/>\nA. Identifying a big enough market and applying the right evaluation methods<br \/>\nB. Structuring the idea discovery process for future projects<br \/>\nC. Selecting key metrics and developing strategies to move them<br \/>\nD. Providing resources for hiring, marketing, product expertise and CustDev.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Fail Really—REALLY Fast<\/h3>\n<p>Having established processes in place allows startups to move faster from the very beginning. Unlike independent startups, founders inside a venture studio don’t have to constantly worry about fundraising, they can stay focused on building and growing the company.<\/p>\n<p>So, if you define clear target metrics for each stage of a startup’s development, you can quickly see whether the project is on track to find PMF.  If the startup doesn’t hit its targets, it’s easier to shut it down and move on. So venture studios bring both discipline and speed to startup development.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Skin in the Game<\/h3>\n<p>One of the core risks Clayton highlights in The Innovator’s Dilemma is what happened when large companies set up R&D centers (the early predecessors of today’s venture studios). A common mistake was staffing those centers with teams from the parent company. Along with their skills, they brought the mindset and values of an established corporate environment rather than an entrepreneurial one. And that mindset crushed breakthrough ideas before they had a chance to grow.<\/p>\n<p>Venture studios should feel like startups. The team needs real entrepreneurial spirit. Functionally, that means owning and executing on a P&L. Emotionally, it means:<br \/>\nA. The mission should feel like a life’s calling, something you’d be proud to tell your kids about.<br \/>\nB. Your persistence, ability to shape strategy, flexibility and willingness to take risks can make or break everything. It’s about taking the kind of ownership Nassim Taleb calls having “skin in the game”.<\/p>\n<p>The same goes for startup founders in a venture studio. More often than not, they’re entrepreneurs, not corporate execs. And that entrepreneurial mindset is key.<\/p>\n<p>I once joined a long discussion about how to build effective venture studios. Someone suggested that companies could find people with entrepreneurial mindsets within their own ranks to lead startups. But we agreed that the very traits that made those people successful in a corporate setting might hold them back when launching something from scratch. So, it’s better to build teams with real entrepreneurs at the core.<\/p>\n<p><b>Summary<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Venture studios give big, established companies a way to stay ahead in a fast-changing market.<\/li>\n<li>Industry specialization helps startups get the exact support they need.<\/li>\n<li>Shared infrastructure and repeatable processes speed up growth and learning.<\/li>\n<li>Studios build knowledge around key success metrics, making it easier to decide when to double down or walk away.<\/li>\n<li>And finally, the entrepreneurial culture within venture studios is critical. Without that, even the best ideas won’t make it past the starting line.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n",
            "summary": "A venture studio is an organization focused on building and scaling startups. Unlike accelerators, studios are typically specialized in a specific industry and offer deep operational support to the startups",
            "date_published": "2025-01-06T22:15:28+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:56+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "AI",
                "entrepreneurship",
                "lead",
                "leadership"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/innovation@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Mon, 06 Jan 2025 22:15:28 +0200",
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            "id": "59",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/how-to-speak-so-people-actually-listen\/",
            "title": "How to speak so people actually listen",
            "content_html": "<p>I took a course called “Speech”. It taught me that the most important part of speaking isn’t when you’re talking – it’s the pauses. It also explains why learning your speech by heart doesn’t work and what kind of mindset you need to actually be heard by your audience.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/govorit@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>M. himself is a well-known actor, both in theater and on screen. He does solo monologue shows, just him on stage for two hours, holding the audience’s attention the whole time. Old-school craft.<\/p>\n<p>I enrolled because I wanted to level up my communication. There were 22 in-person sessions twice a week. Each class lasted an hour and a half,  in a small group of five.<\/p>\n<h2>So, how to speak to be understood?<\/h2>\n<p>The main point of the course – speak clearly. Like this – imagine you walk into a liquor store and ask for a specific bottle of wine. That’s it. That’s the level of clarity you want everywhere: you have a goal, you say what you need and your words just do the job – clean and easy.<\/p>\n<p>Don’t expect people to figure out what you mean. That’s your job. It’s your responsibility to speak in a way that makes sense to the person listening.<br \/>\nSpeech is the number one human tool.<\/p>\n<p>But before you can master it, you have to notice it.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the time, speech is just something we run on autopilot. To control it, you need full awareness, like really understanding the machine you’re operating.<\/p>\n<p><b>The two biggest enemies of good speech are autopilot and speed.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Just because we hear someone speak doesn’t mean we understand them.<\/p>\n<p><b>Real understanding means thinking about what you’re hearing and relating it to yourself.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>And for that connection to happen, the speaker needs to actually have something to say. We’ve all seen it when someone starts talking, trying to come up with an idea as they go and you have no clue what they mean. That’s what happens when you talk before you’ve even figured out your own point. That’s where the pause comes in. That’s your moment to form an idea.<\/p>\n<p>When someone’s talking to you, look at them. Don’t turn away or close your eyes just to “focus” on their words. People don’t speak with just their voice.<br \/>\nExample: imagine you urgently need a Sapsan  ticket from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Your phone’s dead, the app’s useless, 5 minutes left before sales close. You negotiate with the people in line, squeeze your way to the counter. The ticket agent slowly types in your passport info, checks for seats. And then she says something.. At that moment, you’re laser-focused, eating her alive with your eyes.<\/p>\n<p><b>So if you’ve shown up somewhere and you’re spending your time there, then really listen, eyes included. Respect yourself and the person you’re talking to. If you decide to speak, show up for it fully.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>And when it’s your turn to speak, stop worrying about how you look. That’s the very moment you actually look alive.<\/p>\n<h2>Why are pauses the most important part of speech?<\/h2>\n<p><b>Don’t waste your time memorizing every single word.<\/b> That’s not the goal. Your real job is to communicate meaning — to get your message across. And once you focus on that, the right words will come naturally.<br \/>\nA memorized script doesn’t help you communicate meaning. It just makes you sound like a robot. And when you’re stuck trying to remember exact phrases, you stop being present. Same goes for reading from a script. The goal becomes “don’t mess up” instead of “make them understand.”<\/p>\n<p>One of the exercises from the course is to learn to speak in one breath:<br \/>\n“To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,<br \/>\nIn a pestilential prison, with a life‑long lock,<br \/>\nAwaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock<br \/>\nFrom a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block.”<br \/>\nThis verse should be spoken the way you move through a slalom, entering each turn smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>You don’t need to rush through the verse without stopping at the turns. If you’re speeding, it means your only goal is to get it over. But the real goal is to make sure the listener understands you. And it’s totally fine if you forget or replace a few words, as long as you understand your purpose, the listener will hear you.<\/p>\n<p>Always take a pause before you start reciting a verse. Remind yourself of the task –  to communicate meaning. Then focus on the technique, but don’t lose sight of the goal. <b>The pause is the most important part of speech. That’s the moment when you lock in on the purpose of your message. If you skip the pause,  then what are you even saying?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Your brain will want to go on autopilot and say things the way you always do – the easy way. You’ll take a breath where you feel like it, not where the thought naturally ends. But breathing should break up meaning, not just give you a break. Autopilot will also make you start talking before you’ve even figured out what you’re trying to say.<\/p>\n<p><b>To make sure your listener actually understands what you’re saying, the whole meaning has to fit between breaths. That’s the difference between speaking and writing.<\/b> In writing, we pause at the period. But in real speech, it’s only the question mark that really feels anything like that kind of pause.<\/p>\n<p>When you’re delivering meaning, it’s like bringing out a cake. It matters as a whole, you don’t serve it pre-sliced. Same with sentences. Don’t chop them up.<\/p>\n<p>The listener picks up on your mood. Whatever state you are in, that’s what the audience feels too.  If the speaker is relaxed, the audience relaxes. That’s why when someone tells you “pull yourself together!” before going on stage – it’s probably the worst advice you can get. Because then the audience ends up listening to someone who’s clearly tense.<\/p>\n<h2>What position should you take in speech, in relation to your listener?<\/h2>\n<p><b>Your goal is the motive you’re putting to use. If you didn’t reach the goal, it means your motive wasn’t strong enough.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>At the core of it, you’re using your brain for someone else: thinking, choosing words and building meaning on their behalf, right in the moment of communication.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When you’re thinking for someone else, your full attention shifts to them. In that moment, you’re fully focused on the other person. You’re actively engaging with them, serving them. And for the speaker, it can feel almost like meditation. You sort of dissolve into the other person. They understand you effortlessly – because in that moment, you are them.<\/p>\n<p><b>5 things to keep in mind when you speak:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Talk like you’re explaining it to a 5-year-old.<\/li>\n<li>You’ve got one shot – everything’s on the line.<\/li>\n<li>Make it interesting.<\/li>\n<li>Care about who you’re talking to.<\/li>\n<li>What you’re saying is the most important thing your listener will hear today. Their life depends on it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There can’t be any unfamiliar words in your speech for the listener, they’re black holes. The moment you say one, their attention gets sucked into figuring out what that “black hole” means.<\/p>\n<p>There are always two steps you need to follow:<br \/>\nA. Set the goal, and take a pause for it.<br \/>\nB. Then, once you’re moving toward that goal, start paying attention to every step you take.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine you’re walking a narrow path at night. Up ahead, there’s a gate,  and once you pass through it, the wide road begins. You shine your flashlight on the gate just once, that’s your goal. Then you bring the light back down and watch every single step. Carefully. So you don’t slip. Forget the goal – and you end up in the wrong place. Stop watching your steps – and you fall.<\/p>\n<p><b>Courage is doing it despite everything because you know your goal. Be courageous in your speech.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A speaker can only pass on information if they’ve actually processed it,  if they’ve understood it and made it their own. If their only goal is to just repeat what they heard, without really owning it, then they can’t truly communicate it.<\/p>\n<p>To control your speech, you need full, conscious control. Otherwise, you’ll slip into autopilot.<\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b> It’s kind of amazing, no one ever really teaches us how to speak. We just pick it up by watching others. And I’ve always wondered – how is it that some people speak so clearly and you just want to listen to them? But I didn’t have the glossary or the framework to understand what made the difference  or how to learn it myself.<br \/>\nM., thank you – now I do.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "I took a course called “Speech”. It taught me that the most important part of speaking isn’t when you’re talking – it’s the pauses",
            "date_published": "2024-08-25T15:22:31+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:56+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "leadership",
                "внимание",
                "другие",
                "как говорить",
                "речь"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/govorit@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sun, 25 Aug 2024 15:22:31 +0200",
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            "_rss_guid": "59",
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        {
            "id": "60",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/immanuel-kant-the-metaphysics-of-morals\/",
            "title": "Immanuel Kant “The Metaphysics of Morals”",
            "content_html": "<p>What is a “just war”? Why can full-blown democracy be just as terrifying as tyranny? When is it okay to force your will on someone else? Is it possible to criticize a national trait and still be a citizen? Why doesn’t logic always explain everything? And how is the fact that land is limited connected to the rise of laws and the birth of the state?<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/kant@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Innate thoughts and ways of knowing<\/h2>\n<p>Kant lived from 1724 to 1804 and is considered one of the founding thinkers of European liberalism. He drew a sharp line between nature and freedom. His work laid the groundwork for the German constitution and helped inspire the liberation movements and liberal values that shaped 18th-century Europe.<\/p>\n<p>In the first part of his life, Kant followed European rationalism. For rationalists, the core idea is innate knowledge, something we’re born with. It’s not learned from experience, not something we invent and definitely not a product of imagination. Their go-to method for figuring things out is deduction.<\/p>\n<p>Here’s a simple example of deduction: the idea of God as something we’re born with. You can’t understand God without first realizing who you are. You see yourself as a limited, uncertain person, someone who doubts and struggles. And if you feel doubt, it means you’re not all-powerful. You can only understand that you’re imperfect if you compare yourself to something perfect – God. Innate ideas aren’t just about logic or strict beliefs. They’re more than that.<\/p>\n<p>Transcendental means a type of knowledge that looks at how we understand things, not the things themselves, but how our mind works when we try to understand them.<\/p>\n<h2>Kant’s revolution in Philosophy.<\/h2>\n<p>Pre-Kantian philosophy is known as the dogmatic way of thinking. It’s based on the idea that our thoughts or ideas must match reality, that’s how we come to know something. This view sees truth in two ways: as accuracy (matching reality) or as correctness (following certain rules). Correctness – our thoughts are true if they follow the mental rules we use to understand things.  So, something is considered real if it fits the way our mind naturally organizes experience. Kant introduced the idea of the a priori – built-in structures in our mind that shape how we experience the world. The a priori lays down the framework for how experience unfolds. For Kant, truth is always tied to possible experience<\/p>\n<p>Before Kant, space was thought of as something the mind creates –  a product of thinking. But Kant argued that to even understand space, we already need an inner sense of it. This shows that concepts don’t just come from abstract thinking, they depend on mental structures we already have. Without those, we wouldn’t be able to grasp the concept at all.<\/p>\n<p>In any kind of knowledge, there are two parts: our senses and our understanding. Understanding is then split into the mind and reason. The difference is that the mind works with things we can actually experience, while reason tries to go beyond that.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kant, reason finds in things only what it has already put there to begin with. The unconscious already holds everything within itself, it just gradually uncovers things as experience unfolds.<\/p>\n<p>For Kant, experience always means what we take in through our senses. That’s where the a priori starts to show up. We can only know things if they’re given to us in experience. Any object is really just how the mind puts different parts of experience together into one whole.<\/p>\n<p>It’s the mix of sensations that makes something real. We don’t control what we feel and our mind isn’t the one creating it. You can take what seems like the same thing, break it down, and realize it’s really just a structured set of sensations. That moment when you try to understand an object by focusing on how it feels – that’s as far as reflection can go. Our senses are the passive layer of consciousness.<\/p>\n<h2>The categorical imperative is the core of Kant’s ethics.<\/h2>\n<p>There’s the realm of actuality and appearances, and then there’s the realm of duty. In the phenomenal world, we’re driven by sensory pleasures. But in the moral world it’s the imperative that rules.<\/p>\n<p>We’re looking at two opposing realms: the domain of physical life – nature and the domain of morality – ethics. And this distinction is absolutely central to Kant. The categorical imperative is the maxim of your will. What matters most is that the principle behind your action could be made universal. That alone has the power to liberate. Because no being should ever act toward another in a way that denies their belonging to the human race – that is, their conscience, their rights and ultimately, their freedom.<\/p>\n<p>And we slip into something less than human when we allow the human in us to be diminished. In other words, if my rights are violated and I don’t stand up for myself, I’m not just letting it happen – I’m disrupting the metaphysical order of the world. I’m committing a moral offense against myself.<\/p>\n<h2>Freedom, Right and Morality: Kant’s Triad<\/h2>\n<p>Kant’s distinction between morality and right. The essence of being human lies in our freedom. In this sense, right is the meeting point between freedom and nature. By definition, a human being is free. They have the right to full authority over everything that belongs to the realm of nature.<\/p>\n<p>Right concerns only the external and actions or, in Kant’s terms, it doesn’t touch the grounds or motives behind those actions, or the way of thinking that guides them. Right exists solely in the realm of actions. And the moment it starts creeping into the realm of free discussion, into the realm of thought, then, according to Kant, the state can go away.  A civil servant, once home, can write whatever they want in a journal, publish it and share it however they want. For example, they might argue that Islam’s influence has a negative effect on their country’s folk traditions, because Islamic music is built on a different tonal structure. And then that same civil servant shows up to work and follows the rules, treating their fellow citizens, including Muslims, with the same respect as anyone else.<\/p>\n<p>Today we live in a world where words are treated as if they were actions. And Kant’s domain of freedom is under attack. The clash of opinions doesn’t belong in the legal realm.<\/p>\n<p>A crime committed out of need is still a crime. Bourgeois law, on the one hand, upholds the principle of equality, on the other, it conceals inequality. The moment law becomes politicized, it starts being applied selectively, based on context. And at that point, what is legal turns into something political. Law still exists, but it starts functioning as an instrument of added force.<\/p>\n<p>Kant has two core principles:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Right – its universality;<\/li>\n<li>Peace – the cultivation of a moral way of thinking.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>According to Kant, land becomes property the moment there’s any act of will to claim it, for example, marking off a plot with stakes. Before that, the land belonged to whoever was working it.<\/p>\n<h2>On the separation of powers, the impossibility of direct democracy, and the danger of despotism<\/h2>\n<p>In Kant’s time, society was still waiting to be freed from the monarch, as republics hadn’t yet taken shape. Kant’s approach to forming a civil community isn’t based on the idea that life will simply get better if people live together. That, however, was the core assumption of classical Enlightenment thinking.<\/p>\n<p>A desire matters simply because it belongs to the will of choice and that’s the domain of freedom. To follow the law is a moral duty. For Kant, right is grounded in personal freedom or in morality. For Hegel, it’s grounded in morality, not in ethics. Morality arises from the freedom of the individual will. Ethics, on the other hand, comes from being embedded in social contexts, shaped by the spirit of your people.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kant, right is the set of conditions under which the will of one person can coexist with the will of another, according to a universal law of nature.<\/p>\n<p>Strict right is based on the idea of external force, the right to mutually require certain actions from one another, but always under the rules of freedom.<\/p>\n<p>The law of freedom means: I have the right to do anything, as long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s freedom. No person can be denied the ability to exercise their freedom, which ultimately includes the right to own property.<\/p>\n<p>Right has no power to establish morality, it’s indifferent to motives. Right doesn’t regulate thought, because thought belongs to the realm of the subjective. From this follow the key principles: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of belief and freedom of the media.<\/p>\n<p>Morality is governed by the categorical imperative –  act only according to that principle which could become a universal law. So that no one in this society, including yourself, is excluded from that right. And the first thing you must do is refuse to let anyone treat you in a way that violates your rights.<\/p>\n<h2>The right to freedom and how that right gives rise to civil society<\/h2>\n<p>I can require someone else to follow the law and by doing that, I’m also requiring them to join civil society. But their personal morality isn’t being controlled. To help a child become a person, we teach them:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>To take care of their basic physical needs, like not to soil themselves.<\/li>\n<li>To use reason, like not grabbing a live wire.<\/li>\n<li>And to develop morality, like not poking other people with a screwdriver.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Only then can they become a person and truly be free.<\/p>\n<p>Mamardashvili said: “We don’t judge people, we judge actions. Let God judge the person.” The first thing I have an external right to is my body. And that means originally mine is: the place I was born and the work I do.<\/p>\n<p>The basic form of property is the right to land. Every person has a right to their own share of the land, because the land isn’t an endless plain. If it were infinite, we could just spread out forever and never have to interact. But it’s limited and we’re forced into contact and that leads to the creation of civil society.<\/p>\n<p>To “claim land”, I have to mark it in some way, in Roman law, that used to mean working the land. The moment I make that claim, I bind myself to things.<\/p>\n<p>In primitive societies, there’s no trade or exchange, because the best thing is the thing I made for myself. Why would I trade the axe I crafted to fit my own hand for anything else? Every act of exchange feels like a loss, a concession that doesn’t benefit me.<\/p>\n<p>Working the land is one way to mark a claim to it, but just as important is an act of will. My property extends as far as I can maintain control over it. The push toward human interaction starts from a purely material condition,  while the concept of property itself is entirely idealistic. The boundary of the original claim is the boundary of force.<\/p>\n<h2>The question of property and the state<\/h2>\n<p>Within a legal system, we must never ask the question, “Where does this property come from?” As anyone who asks that question is undermining the state, it’s a call to rebellion. In other words, the moment we recognize the rule of law, we have to resist the temptation to challenge someone’s ownership based on how it was acquired in the past. Otherwise, there’s always a “reason to start a war.”<\/p>\n<p>We can speak of different kinds of right:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Natural right – the kind I possess simply because I was born human. The right to freedom, the right to mutual coercion. And this right includes the power to compel those who haven’t yet joined society, to join it.<\/li>\n<li>Private and public.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The second classification is based on the object of the right:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Property rights – over land and money.<\/li>\n<li>Personal rights – the right to use another person’s will, governed by contracts.<\/li>\n<li>Parental authority, the authority of the head of the household and the right in relation to a servant. The idea of the servant can be applied to the hired worker. The relationship with a servant is, at its core, based on freedom, which means it’s based on a contract. But the servant submits their will to that of the master. They don’t act from their own autonomy, and because of that, they fall short of full personhood.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>According to Kant, the other -the one in the role of servant -can never be used as a thing. There is a prohibition against exhaustion. Because no one should ever surrender their will entirely.<\/p>\n<p>According to Hegel, the slave is the one who couldn’t stake their life in the struggle. You always have the option to “fall on your sword.” But instead, you choose slow erosion in the face of your mortal enemy. The slave, in becoming a slave, has no illusions about it. And in Hegel’s view, there’s no “middle ground” for servants, there are only persons and things.<\/p>\n<h2>Justice, Freedom and the State<\/h2>\n<p>Hegel later expands on Kant’s idea, claiming that the state is the construct through which God realizes freedom on earth.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom means the freedom to do whatever I choose. But we have to remember, the land is limited. So eventually, we run into others and interaction becomes inevitable.  And this interaction isn’t something we chose, it gives rise to what Kant called “unsociable sociability.” Arguments based on survival alone aren’t enough to justify coming together.<\/p>\n<p>My domain is marked by a sign, working isn’t a necessary marker. I can drive stakes into the ground and declare – this is mine. That right is always provisional. In this sense, nothing can be held permanently. The condition for holding onto something becomes the condition for civilized life and that marks the moment the state begins to emerge.<\/p>\n<p>A family gets a good piece of land, rich and fertile. Over time, the family grows. And under natural right, they might feel they have a fair reason to take land from another family that has fewer children. In a system like this, conflicts will keep happening. If natural right is in charge, there’s no motivation to invest in your land for the long term or to act with a bigger plan in mind. There’s no stable ground for a civilized world, because next year, another family might have a better harvest.<\/p>\n<p>The first act that establishes civil law is ending the condition where everyone is their own judge. You no longer get to be the one who decides what’s just for yourself. The role of determining justice is handed over to something external and that’s the moment the state appears, along with the rule of law and the court.<\/p>\n<p>There are two major attempts by different schools of thought to define the concept of the social contract. The first version (found in Hobbes and Rousseau) says that each person gives up all of their power. In this view, the individual is a product of the sovereign. Citizens are artificial beings and even life itself is handed over. The second version (seen in Locke and Spinoza) holds that each person gives up only part of their power. In this model, individuals retain their natural rights.<\/p>\n<p>From this, two views of the state emerge. In the first model, there is no right to rebellion.  But in the second we have not only the right to resist, we have a duty. Because if the sovereign threatens our self-preservation or our conscience, we are obligated to defend them.<\/p>\n<p>We have both private and public right. Private right governs the relationship between two citizens. And with the emergence of the state, I suddenly have a reason to plant trees in my garden, because tomorrow my neighbor won’t be able to take them from me.<\/p>\n<h2>The role of the sovereign in the state<\/h2>\n<p>At the level of private right, we can identify three types of rights:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Personal right – the ability to direct the actions of others. I can make agreements with people to help with certain tasks.<\/li>\n<li>Property right.<\/li>\n<li>Personal-property right – applying within certain limits: to children, wives and servants. They belong to the household.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Natural relationships are restructured, because the sovereign exists. As a father, you’re obligated to feed your children, even if you’ve stopped loving them. Under natural right, people own unequal amounts of property and that leads to endless conflict. That’s why they enter into a civil contract. And in the end, civil right does two things:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>We’re not allowed to question why people started out unequal. Everything that happened before the contract isn’t up for debate. Because when the contract was made, everyone gave up everything. The power given to the sovereign is way bigger than anything you owned.<\/li>\n<li>The state shouldn’t block people from moving into a free society,  even if they started out under personal-property relationships. For example, children should be able to inherit what their parents earned. And a servant can be free to stop being a servant. The state doesn’t raise or educate people, it just creates the space for freedom. Raising people isn’t the job of the state.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Public right arises between the state and its citizens. And according to Kant, public right is divided into three parts:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>State right – governs the relationship between citizens and the state within a country.<\/li>\n<li>International right – governs the relationships between states.<\/li>\n<li>Cosmopolitan right – governs how we treat individuals from other countries.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The state is the unification of a large number of people under the rule of law. At its core, it’s an act that takes place before the emergence of the sovereign.<\/p>\n<p>The highest authority is the legislative power. The separation of powers is essential, otherwise, despotism will take hold. If a state doesn’t divide power into legislative, judicial and executive branches, then it basically falls back into a state of nature. Without that separation, we end up in a kind of zombie condition. But if all three branches are functioning properly, then you, as a citizen, have something that’s guaranteed to be yours.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kant, direct democracy is impossible, because when the people rule directly, the assembly itself becomes the sovereign. And that same body can end up holding judicial, legislative, and executive power all at once, bringing us right back to the situation where even a democratic state turns into a kind of zombie.<\/p>\n<h2>Active and passive citizens<\/h2>\n<p>Citizens are divided into active and passive. Active citizens are those who can make independent decisions, because they provide for themselves. They are able to think with their own minds and live according to their own judgment. Those who are not citizens include women, children and servants. A European blacksmith is a citizen.  An Indian blacksmith is not. The Indian blacksmith goes from house to house taking orders, in that sense, he functions as a servant. The European blacksmith sells his goods freely. He’s not part of the household and isn’t subject to personal-property law. A factory worker, on the other hand, is not fully independent, because he’s paid a wage.<\/p>\n<p>During the French Revolution, what was being defended, according to Kant, was precisely the definition of the active citizen. The wage worker doesn’t stand on his own and is a passive citizen. But he’s still a citizen, because the state protects him from slavery and helps ensure that contracts are honored.<\/p>\n<p>As you are fully independent, you’re expected to think for yourself and in that sense, the state becomes enlightened. The state’s role is not to stop people from gaining independence or from forming and developing their own judgments. Propaganda, by its nature, reduces freedom, because it assumes I won’t be thinking with my own head. A true citizen wants to be surrounded by other active citizens – people with full freedom. Whether you choose to support a certain view or not, your judgment should be guided by one principle: does this increase freedom or does it diminish it?<\/p>\n<p>A person loses their civil rights when they commit a crime. The law plays an educational role, it shapes a person for entry into society. And the measure of punishment, according to Kant, follows a just principle: “an eye for an eye,” “measure for measure,” – for a life taken, a life in return.<\/p>\n<p>To punish a criminal means placing them in a position of dependence on the state and in that sense, they automatically shift into the status of a thing. They are no longer a party capable of signing their own judgment. They become a functionary, someone who can no longer act or speak fully on their own behalf. The judge signs the sentence for them, because they had already signed the social contract earlier. By punishing the criminal, the state also takes on a responsibility: not to erase them entirely. They cannot be forced to work to the point of despair.<\/p>\n<h2>Forms of government and despotism<\/h2>\n<p>There are three forms of government: autocracy (rule by one), aristocracy (rule by a few) and democracy (rule by the people). According to Kant, the wrong form of rule is despotism. The opposite of despotism is the republic. But every form of government, no matter which, carries the risk of slipping into despotism.<\/p>\n<p>Kant wouldn’t have been troubled by a state that called itself an autocratic republic. In such a system, there’s a single person who identifies with the sovereign and has the final word, but only within the scope of legislative power, not judicial or executive. At the same time, there’s popular representation that can either limit this person’s legislative decisions or at least point out when those decisions are flawed. This form of government could also be called a constitutional monarchy. In such a system, laws are drafted by parliament and the monarch gives them final approval. So in this way, even a “proper” autocracy, in Kant’s view, is no longer absolute.<\/p>\n<p>When there is capital punishment and a sovereign, the right to grant pardon appears. But in a lawful state, pardon should never be used in cases where one citizen has taken the life of another. The sovereign may exercise clemency only when the crime was committed against the state itself. Pardon, in that case, is meant to express the splendor of sovereign greatness, a gesture of power, showing that the sovereign stands above the law. Kant, however, is more critical. He argues that the sentence of death itself already carries enough of that splendor.<\/p>\n<h2>The justice of war and international relations<\/h2>\n<p>Once a state has established the kind of internal structure Kant envisions, only then can we begin to consider its relationships with other states – relationships that, at first, exist in a natural state. In essence, states initially stand in a condition of war toward one another.<\/p>\n<p>The basic “proper” approach to war between states is not the destruction of the enemy’s sovereign. Even though we wage war in order to reorganize other people and their state, so that they relate to us differently, according to new principles – our ultimate goal is to reshape relations between states in a way that makes cooperation possible or even the creation of a lasting peace.<\/p>\n<p>It can be justifiable to start a war when a neighbor becomes excessively armed or expands so much that they begin to loom over us. And this kind of “looming” doesn’t have to be military, it could come through excessive control over trade routes.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kant, no war can ever be justified on the grounds of intervening in the internal affairs of another state. Europeans and the West more broadly do not, in principle, seek a despotic world order. That’s not their choice. From Kant’s perspective, Russia’s current internal structure is fundamentally despotic. And that means the kind of international order Russia proposes cannot, in its essence, be accepted, because what will be reproduced through Russia’s model? A replication of despotism. What gets multiplied is a system where power is concentrated, freedom is secondary and law serves authority rather than the individual.<\/p>\n<p>In waging war, it cannot be punitive, because you are not the authority that decides justice. You are not the sovereign over others. You cannot absorb a people “into yourself” or turn their lands into colonies.<\/p>\n<p>During war, you cannot plunder the people, because they are private citizens. Even reparations must come with a receipt, a formal acknowledgment. There must be a ban on partisan fighters,<br \/>\nbecause fighting them means killing the people themselves. Partisans, by definition, act outside the authority of the state and they may not stop fighting even after peace is signed. Only the army should take part in war.<\/p>\n<p>A just war can be initiated in three cases:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>A direct threat to the existence of our state.<\/li>\n<li>A threat to our civil existence, when the very foundation of law is being undermined.<\/li>\n<li>When the possibility of establishing perpetual peace is blocked, for example, through despotic relations between states.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n",
            "summary": "What is a “just war”? Why can full-blown democracy be just as terrifying as tyranny? When is it okay to force your will on someone else?",
            "date_published": "2024-07-14T08:25:26+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:56+02:00",
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                "war"
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            "id": "61",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/how-oleg-tinkov-helped-me-start-my-business-in-2009\/",
            "title": "How Oleg Tinkov helped me start my business in 2009",
            "content_html": "<p>With all the buzz around Tinkoff Bank’s sad rebranding, I figured it’s the right time to share a story about how Oleg Tinkov actually helped me launch my first business back in 2009. And no, this isn’t one of those “he inspired me” stories,  he really helped.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/tinkov@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>Back in high school, I got into design, and by my first year of college, I was working at design studios around St. Petersburg. Around the same time, Oleg Tinkov started filming his “Business Secrets” – interviews with entrepreneurs he knew. I remember binge-watching those episodes. At the time, he felt like a total role model to me, this wild mix of rock’n’roll vibes, raw energy and fun, fearless marketing.<\/p>\n<p>In my third year of college, in 2009, another economic crisis hit Russia and suddenly businesses lost much money. At the time, I was working in a company that focused on “premium” websites, not quick, cookie-cutter stuff, but full-on custom builds. We spent real time talking with clients instead of just handing them a generic brief and cranking out templated designs. But as the crisis hit, the head of the studio announced it was time to go assembly-line: fast, standard solutions. I was 20, full of idealism, and said no. Naturally, I got fired and honestly, it was fair.<\/p>\n<p>After I got fired, I went to my parents and told them I had to quit school and immediately enroll in a design program in London, because I couldn’t grow in St. Petersburg anymore. They, quite reasonably, said no.<\/p>\n<p>After thinking it over again, I decided that getting a diploma might not be such a bad idea after all. Since I had just been fired from the best studio in the city, there was really only one option left – start my own branding company (of course). I teamed up with a project manager from my previous job and we got to work on our website. We worked at his place, coming up with a name for the company, calling other design studios to better understand how they worked and creating fake projects to fill out our portfolio. We named the studio agrrr.com. Our email was emc2@agrrr.com and the favicon on the site was literally an icon of Jesus,  because, well, the word “favicon” clearly contains the word “icon.”<\/p>\n<p>While getting everything ready, we realized that no serious company could exist without an office.  So we rented a space in a warehouse complex for $200, 15 square meters, deep in the heart of an industrial zone. Next door, there were about 50 migrant workers sleeping in their unit and the bathroom was so disgusting that even the flies couldn’t handle it,  they basically dropped dead from the smell and the view.<\/p>\n<p>On February 13, 2010, we launched our website and I sent a message to Oleg Tinkov, who at the time was hugely popular on LiveJournal. LiveJournal was a blogging platform, basically the predecessor to today’s social media.<br \/>\nHere’s what the message said:<\/p>\n<p><i>Hi Oleg,<\/i><br \/>\n<i>We don’t need your money. But today we launched a branding company – AGRRR.com If you really want to support young entrepreneurs, post this message on your LiveJournal.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Oleg posted it. He said he didn’t even look at the site,  just decided to help some young guys. We couldn’t have asked for better publicity the day after launch. By today’s standards, it’d be like Taylor Swift letting a band formed yesterday open for her show. It was a hit – thousands of people visited the site.<\/p>\n<p>We started getting inquiries from clients who had found us through Oleg’s LiveJournal. One of them was an invitation to join a pitch for Mirel – the biggest confectionery company in the Urals. We actually won that pitch and signed a contract for what felt to us like an insane amount: $40,000. For context, my salary at the previous company was around $1,000.<\/p>\n<p>At the time we won the pitch, we hadn’t even registered the company yet. And we started working without any upfront payment. To officially register the company and fly to Chelyabinsk for our first business trip, all before we saw a single ruble from the client, I borrowed $1,700 from my mom to buy the tickets.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<div class=\"fotorama\" data-width=\"1049\" data-ratio=\"1.3623376623377\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/agrrr_1@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"770\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/agrrr_2@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"770\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/agrrr_3@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"770\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/agrrr_4@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"770\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/agrrr_5@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"770\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/agrrr_6@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"770\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Some of the works we managed to do at Agrrr<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Then came the security check, they couldn’t figure out why the company had been registered on the same day the contract was signed. Trips to Chelyabinsk, lectures on cake recipes, 30 hours of interviews with key people at the factory, a fancy 60-square-meter office (obviously), our first employees, and of course, a full-time accountant, who also happened to be my partner’s sister (because obviously a five-person company needs proper bookkeeping). The branding agency lasted about a year, and after that, I moved on to other projects.<\/p>\n<p>Without Oleg Tinkov, we’d never have taken off like that at the start. But more than that, it was a signal of support – an act of belief and approval in the spirit of entrepreneurship. That same boost still shows up in the projects I’m working on today. I don’t think many people have done as much for entrepreneurs now in their 30s and 40s as Oleg has.<\/p>\n<p>Oleg, thanks, you’re cool!<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "With all the buzz around Tinkoff Bank’s sad rebranding, I figured it’s the right time to share a story about how Oleg Tinkov actually helped me launch my first business back in 2009",
            "date_published": "2024-06-08T07:04:00+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:56+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "entrepreneurship",
                "Oleg Tinkov",
                "Tinkoff"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/tinkov@2x.jpg",
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        {
            "id": "62",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/simulation-game-how-will-ai-develop-over-the-next-5-years\/",
            "title": "Simulation game: “How will AI develop over the next 5 years?”",
            "content_html": "<p>At the weekend, we spent two days on a simulation all about how AI might evolve over the next five years. There were 36 players involved. The game itself is a test and workout for skills like leadership, dealing with uncertainty, negotiation, building coalitions and cascading teamwork. Last year, I took part in a similar simulation, but that one focused on a geopolitical conflict.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/AI@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Here’s how the game worked<\/h2>\n<p>Everyone was split into teams, each representing a key player in the market:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Established IT leaders – companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Alibaba;<\/li>\n<li>AI startups – like Anthropic and OpenAI;<\/li>\n<li>Chipmakers – companies like IBM and Nvidia;<\/li>\n<li>Venture investors – GP and Standard Investments;<\/li>\n<li>Conglomerate – X, led by Musk;<\/li>\n<li>Regulators, the press and the courts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>35 people were split into teams and each person got assigned a role with details like personal goals, company status, industry position, team relationships, company ownership percentages, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Each team member had their own “stats” like the number of people on their team, computing power, budget, accounts receivable and more.<\/p>\n<p>There were 5 rounds, each lasting about an hour and a half. You could do pretty much anything: lure talent away from other companies, sue someone or get regulators involved, raise funds to build new factories to boost computing power. Any move was allowed, but moderators, the court or regulators could step in and veto an action.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of each round, all the agreements made were handed over to the moderator, who compiled the results into a spreadsheet for each company. The spreadsheet tracked key stats that changed during the round, covering everything from team size to available cash.<\/p>\n<p>The main goal for each team was to reach singularity, they used a Scrabble-like mechanic for that. At the end of each round teams got letter tiles, the number of letters depended on team size and computing power. But the exact formula of how letters were awarded was a secret, known only to the organizers and it wasn’t a straightforward calculation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<div class=\"fotorama\" data-width=\"2560\" data-ratio=\"1.3333333333333\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/IMG_3808.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/IMG_3799.jpg\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Post-game takeaways<\/h2>\n<p><b>1. The role you got is just a formality.<\/b><br \/>\nMy role was a team lead at a company like OpenAI, not a top position. When I started negotiating with other teams, they asked what my position was and if I could make decisions. But I explained I was there representing the team and my role didn’t really matter. Very good. When it came time to run for president, I thought, there are already bigger names in the game, like Musk, so why even bother? Roles are just labels, both in the game and in real life. But it’s easy to use them as an excuse.<\/p>\n<p><b>2. Always lead, always.<\/b><br \/>\nAt the start of the game, we spent way too much time explaining what everyone planned to do. But as soon as we nailed down a clear vision of the goal and just got moving. Coming in with a plan and sharing it with the team really helped. I think the long talks happened because people were afraid to work with other teams and didn’t want to take responsibility alone. They wanted to share it so no one felt fully in charge.<\/p>\n<p><b>3. If you don’t get the result you want, don’t overthink it – keep going.<\/b><br \/>\nWhen my or the team’s actions didn’t pay off, I got caught up in my emotions. But a few times when I pushed through and made an extra effort, things surprisingly turned out well. I’m more convinced than ever that keeping a cool head gets you results faster.<\/p>\n<p><b>4. Look at your social connections before you start and use them.<\/b><br \/>\nAt the start of the game only three teams had computing power. The first two teams I asked didn’t want to work with me. But the third team had someone I already knew and they agreed to cooperate. I’m sure the trust we built before the game helped a lot. You should use this kind of trust and manage it, both in the game and in real life.<\/p>\n<p><b>5. Keep the whole game in mind while working on the current round.<\/b><br \/>\nIt’s normal to want quick, predictable results. But if you only focus on the short term, your options get limited. When you plan for the long game, looking ahead several rounds, you open up more possibilities and better chances to succeed. For example, we started building a coalition in the first round and didn’t finish it until the third, but that gave us a lead over the other teams.<\/p>\n<p><b>6. When things are uncertain, focus on finding opportunities. <\/b><br \/>\nIn uncertain situations with lots of different interests, it’s easy to just stick to your own goals – your role makes them clear and it feels simpler that way. But if you pause for a second, you’ll see everyone starts like that and the only way to win is by working together. So from the very beginning, look for chances to boost both your position and the other team’s. In the end, the team that began building a coalition right from round one won.<\/p>\n<p><b>7. First, get the context – then take action, but don’t take too long.<\/b><br \/>\nThe roles and rules are detailed and you get all the info just before the game starts, so it’s impossible to understand everything right away. My team spent time trying to figure it all out, but we ended up talking too much and wasting time we could use to do something. You learn the context by engaging with others, not by staying stuck in your own little world.<\/p>\n<p><b>8. Keep taking action until you get a confirmed result.<\/b><br \/>\nWhen several teams are involved in a deal, it can feel like you’ve already agreed and can move on to the next step. But deals have fallen apart more than once right at the signing. So until the agreement is actually signed, don’t get distracted, follow through all the way to the end.<\/p>\n<p><b>9. Split up the responsibilities.<\/b><br \/>\nMore than once, our whole team went to negotiate with another group, all of us listening at the same time, which wasn’t very efficient. In the game, just like in real life, there are lots of tasks and layers to handle. To work better, it’s smarter to divide the responsibilities and work on things at the same time. On the second day we did that and our team got way more efficient.<\/p>\n<p><b>10. Stay in sync and make sure everyone’s on the same page.<\/b><br \/>\nWhen signing some deals, it turned out that key people had different ideas about how things should work and that ended up breaking the deal. The main points and strategy need to be clearly explained from the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Marat Atnashev, Timur Atnashev and their team for organizing the game.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "At the weekend, we spent two days on a simulation all about how AI might evolve over the next five years",
            "date_published": "2024-05-02T19:58:13+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:56+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "AI",
                "leadership",
                "Simulation",
                "strategy",
                "Uncertainty"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/AI@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Thu, 02 May 2024 19:58:13 +0200",
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        {
            "id": "63",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/jean-jacques-rousseau-the-social-contract-or-the-principles-of-p\/",
            "title": "Jean Jacques Rousseau “The Social Contract or the Principles of Political Right”",
            "content_html": "<p>What’s the social contract and how does it help a person discover true freedom? What does someone give up by signing on? Why does a person need others? What does a well-functioning state look like, and who are the key players in it?<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/russo@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Biography<\/h2>\n<p>Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712 and died near Paris in 1778. His father was a watchmaker, but his mother died in childbirth, so an uncle and aunt brought him up. Dad passed on a love of reading. From ten to twelve he lived with a priest, where he picked up Latin and studied Scripture. At sixteen he set off to wander and, over the next sixteen years, tried on lots of jobs: private tutor, footman, secretary, while reading and diving into music theory. He fell for Madame de Warens, an older and better-educated woman who left a deep mark on him, teaching him to write and speak in the polished language of high society.<\/p>\n<p>Of all the jobs he tried, music mattered most to him. He even wrote an opera that was staged in Paris and the king of France offered him a pension for it. Rousseau refused because he believed in democracy. In the end, he made his living by copying sheet music.<\/p>\n<p>After moving to Paris, he got to know the city’s elite and built relationships with them. Later, he fell out with them. Rousseau was a hard person to deal with as he argued with everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Rousseau’s work falls into three periods.<br \/>\n<b>1. Early period. <\/b>In 1749 he entered an essay contest run by the French Academy of Sciences: “Has the revival of science and the arts improved morals?” He set nature against civilization and said that staying close to nature keeps our behavior genuine.<\/p>\n<p>Most thinkers then believed the Enlightenment made people better, but Rousseau argued that science and art only corrupt us and pull us away from happiness.<\/p>\n<p>His other key text from this era, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755), insists that inequality is man-made, born with private property.<\/p>\n<p><b>2. Middle period (1756–1762).<\/b> Rousseau left Paris for the countryside and there wrote The Social Contract. The French Parliament promptly banned it. We’ll dig into that book next.<\/p>\n<p><b>3. Late period (1762–1778).<\/b> Hounded for his ideas, Rousseau fled to Switzerland, then England and finally slipped back into France in 1768. During these years he grew convinced he was being persecuted and saw conspiracies everywhere. Even so, he managed to publish a music dictionary and wrote an operatic melodrama.<\/p>\n<p>In his works, Rousseau reflects on nature and on how our perception grows. He argues that this growth should first and foremost cultivate feelings of compassion and mercy.<\/p>\n<p>Rousseau’s ideas had a strong pull on later figures in history and culture. Mussolini, for instance, leaned on Rousseau’s distorted belief that people should get back to nature, while cities drive them toward vice. Tolstoy idolized Rousseau. And the only portrait that hung in Kant’s study was of Rousseau.<\/p>\n<h2>Contents<\/h2>\n<p>People aren’t enemies to each other in their natural state. Their relationships stay peaceful, because war breaks out only over property.<\/p>\n<p>People team up to survive, they enter a social contract when the upside of living together beats the risk of going it alone. When people band together, they save more than their lives, they keep their freedom, too. They trade natural freedom for civil freedom, the kind that’s protected by laws. <b>When you’re on your own, freedom is fragile as the strong can snatch whatever they want. The social contract locks that freedom in place. Now it’s not just you defending it, the whole power of society has your back.<\/b> With the social contract, you don’t give anything up, you only gain.<\/p>\n<p>There are two kinds of unity: association and aggregation. Aggregations are communities kept together by force, they’re false forms of unity. Associations are communities of the true sovereign, revealed when a common will appears. When people enter the social contract, they hand over all their rights. Because everyone gives up their will completely, equality comes into being at the same moment. The general will of the people was later picked up by the fascists, but they twisted it, claiming that unity is set by the party.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone in modern society is caught between defending the state and hanging on to their property and life. As citizens, we’re told to volunteer for war, but as people we know: “the dead own nothing.”<\/p>\n<p>For Rousseau, the sovereign is made up of its citizens. Anyone who hasn’t entered the social contract and hasn’t become a citizen is a foreigner. Property begins with land, so sovereignty has to be tied to a specific territory. The constitution is the sovereign’s manifestation.<\/p>\n<p>No state can exist without a government. <b>The government’s main job is to carry out the people’s will.<\/b> That gives the state three key actors: the sovereign, the people and the government. What sets the government apart from the sovereign is that the government is bound by law. The sovereign, in turn, makes the laws.<\/p>\n<p>Rousseau says sovereignty can be carried out in three ways: monarchy, democracy and aristocracy. He also draws a line between strong and weak governments. A strong government follows the sovereign’s will and to do that it has to stay small, leaving no room to twist the sovereign’s laws or slip in personal interests.<\/p>\n<p>Political art is the skill of spotting what truly carries weight and what doesn’t, what’s only formal and what’s substantive. Rousseau draws a line between law and political law. Political law is what you get when people act not by the written code but by who’s influential, handing out penalties to match. When political law takes over from regular law, it signals a weak government that can’t do its main job.<\/p>\n<p>There are two sides to sovereignty. First is the sovereign’s direct power, the right to make laws. Second is the sovereign handing some of that power to the government. Monarchy works better for large states, because as the government grows, there’s more room for different readings of the laws.<\/p>\n<p>For mid-size states, Rousseau says aristocracy works best, because its leaders are chosen. Elections clear the way for the most capable people.<\/p>\n<p>Democracy works best in small countries because you can bring everyone together. In Rome, for instance, about 400,000 citizens could meet and serve as the sovereign. The form of government people choose depends not just on territory, but also on their habit of obeying the law, their education, how their work is organized and their consumption habits.<\/p>\n<p>The sovereign’s decrees are sacred – above every other law. <b>When the state is born, each person is born again as a citizen once the social contract takes effect. From then, Rousseau sees religion as a political tool, a way to legitimize authority and train people for civic life.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Rousseau identifies four kinds of religion:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Personal religion: rituals, ceremonies, baptism.<\/li>\n<li>Polytheism: each nation has its own god, because each nation has its own sovereignty.<\/li>\n<li>Pantheon religion: Rome is the model: believe in whomever you want, just obey the law.<\/li>\n<li>Christianity, which Rousseau sees as the worst for a sovereign. A Christian’s true homeland is in heaven, so winning or losing a battle hardly matters –  keeping the covenant does. A Christian ends up either an enemy of the state or a citizen who does his duty half-heartedly. To save the nation, Rousseau says, Christianity must first be scrapped. For any Christian, the spirit comes first and the real homeland is above.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Selected quotes<\/h2>\n<p>According to Rousseau, Russians will never become truly civilized. Here’s how he explains it:<br \/>\nRussians will never be genuinely civilized because civilization reached them too soon. Peter had a talent for copying others but lacked real genius, the kind that creates something out of nothing. Some of what he did was good, most of it missed the mark. He saw his people were rough, but he didn’t understand that they weren’t ready for the rules of civil society. He tried to enlighten and improve them all at once, when they still needed time to get used to its demands. He set out to turn them into Germans and Englishmen before first making them Russians. By convincing his subjects they already were what they weren’t, he kept them from ever becoming what they could be.<\/p>\n<p>Even in wartime, a just ruler may seize what belongs to the enemy nation as a whole, yet still respect private citizens and their property. He upholds the same rights on which his own authority rests.<\/p>\n<p>On the Social Contract: when each person hands himself over to the whole community, he isn’t surrendering to any single individual. Because every member gets the same rights over everyone else that they grant in return, each person wins back the equivalent of what he gives up and gains extra power to protect what he keeps. In the social contract, you give up your natural freedom, the limitless right to grab whatever tempts you, but you gain civil freedom and the legal right to everything you own.<\/p>\n<p><b>Alongside the benefits a person gains in the civil state, we can add moral freedom – the one thing that makes you truly your own master. Living by mere impulse is slavery, living by a law you set for yourself is freedom.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The original agreement doesn’t wipe out natural equality, instead, it replaces the physical inequalities nature gave us with equality as persons and equality before the law. People may differ in strength or talent, but through the agreement and by right – they all become equals.<\/p>\n<p><b>About tyrants<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Tyrants always create or choose times of chaos – moments when society is gripped by fear, to push through harmful laws that people would never accept during calmer days. Picking that exact moment to make their move is one of the clearest signs that separates the work of a real lawmaker from the actions of a dictator.<\/p>\n<p>Their personal goal is always to keep the people weak, suffering and unable to resist. Sure, if you imagine the citizens staying completely obedient forever, then the ruler would actually benefit from having a powerful nation, because that strength, being his own, would make him intimidating to neighbors.<\/p>\n<p><b>In the end, despotism doesn’t rule to make people happy, it ruins them just to keep them under control.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The moment someone starts saying “Why should I care?” about what’s happening in their country, you can be sure that country is dead.<\/p>\n<p><b>About sovereignty and Christianity<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Since the Social Contract makes all citizens equal, everyone gets to have a say in what everyone else should do, but nobody can ask someone else to do something they wouldn’t do themselves. It’s exactly this right, crucial for giving life and energy to the political body, that the sovereign grants to the ruler when setting up the government.<\/p>\n<p>Christianity teaches nothing but slavery and submission. Its spirit is so perfect for tyranny that tyrants can’t help but take advantage of it. True Christians are made to be slaves, they already know it and it barely bothers them. To them, this short life just isn’t worth much.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "What’s the social contract and how does it help a person discover true freedom? What does someone give up by signing on?",
            "date_published": "2024-04-01T07:00:00+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:56+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "Freedom",
                "religion",
                "Rousseau",
                "Social contract",
                "Sovereign",
                "state"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/russo@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Mon, 01 Apr 2024 07:00:00 +0200",
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        {
            "id": "64",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/baruch-spinozas-theological-political-treatise\/",
            "title": "Baruch Spinoza’s “Theological-Political Treatise”",
            "content_html": "<p>How our modern scientific worldview sprouted from Scripture. The government’s core mission. Why religion and politics need to stay in separate lanes. Why it’s crucial to know the world an author lived in before you dive into their work. How to actually read the Bible.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/spinoza@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Social context.<\/h2>\n<p>The Treatise’s core goal is to split theology from politics and rein in religion’s sway over public life.<\/p>\n<p>In 1665, Johan de Witt, an influential statesman who championed the interests of the merchant-industrial bourgeoisie, invited Spinoza to write a new text. Spinoza put aside work on his major book  Ethics to take on the project. He spent the next five years writing and in 1670 the book was released anonymously.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, the Netherlands had only recently won its freedom from Spain. Spirits were high and the government backed religious tolerance. That atmosphere pulled in plenty of thinkers, including René Descartes.<\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands was a political battleground at the time. On one side, you had the merchant and industrial elite led by Johan de Witt. On the other, the Stadtholder faction driven by religious ideology and in charge of the military. And just to make things even messier, there was also a war going on with England. De Witt, worried the Stadtholders might gain too much power, kept military funding on a tight leash.<\/p>\n<p>Johan de Witt had a clear goal when he commissioned Spinoza’s work –  to weaken the power of the Stadtholders by dialing down religion’s grip on politics. Spinoza believed that letting religious doctrine guide the government wasn’t good for society as a whole. In his writing, he ran with that idea and laid out arguments that still shape how modern states are built today.<\/p>\n<p>But in the end, Johan de Witt lost the political battle. He was brutally murdered, burned alive. As for the book, even though it was published anonymously, people quickly connected it to Spinoza and it was promptly banned.<\/p>\n<h2>God = Nature = Reason = Science<\/h2>\n<p>In the first part of his treatise, Spinoza challenges the idea of the Bible as a reliable source of knowledge. He argued that to truly understand Scripture, you need to know the context in which it was written: Jewish history, rhetoric, linguistics to grasp the real meaning behind the words and metaphors and natural science to tell the difference between actual miracles and natural phenomena.<\/p>\n<p>The treatise was written to explore the relationship between democracy and religion and it marked the beginning of the Radical Enlightenment. Everything that came before it was more like enlightened conservatism.<\/p>\n<p>Spinoza didn’t see nature as just matter, he also meant the laws of substance or God, the infinite being. In his view, God’s power is natural and inseparable from the workings of nature itself. That means nature’s power is both divine and infinite. And that’s where he draws a powerful connection: God = Nature = Reason = Science.<\/p>\n<p>Human beings are part of nature. It’s important to distinguish between the general laws of nature and what’s unique to human nature. Spinoza points to one core human right –  the right to preserve oneself. And for that purpose, he says, it’s fair to use whatever means are available.<\/p>\n<p>To survive, people need each other. That’s why communities form, by coming together, they amplify their strength. Reason shows itself in our ability to build that collective power while still living in peace.<\/p>\n<p>In the first part of the treatise, Spinoza argues that miracles don’t exist, what we call miracles are just the opinions of prophets. Religion and divine revelations have nothing to do with nature or truth. To Spinoza, the Bible is basically the core ideological text of the old regime.<\/p>\n<p><b>Spinoza saw the Bible as a tool for keeping people in line, something made for the general public, who don’t have a strong sense of rational morality. It works by stirring up the imagination and emotions, using fear and promises to leave a strong impression and set the rules for the crowd.<\/b><\/p>\n<h2>How the rise of science was already written into Scripture<\/h2>\n<p>The Jewish state was a theocracy, where divine law and civil law matched. Spinoza believed divine law entered Scripture through revelation and that God created the conditions that allowed the Jewish state to emerge. and that God created the conditions that allowed the Jewish state to emerge. <b>But here’s the interesting twist: in that same sense, any nation can be seen as “chosen,” just like the Jews, because the right conditions also came together for other nations to form.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In the Jewish state civil law turns into religious duty, making the entire nation function like a monastic order. Even everyday actions, like milking a cow, take on a religious meaning.<\/p>\n<p>Spinoza believed that a theocratic state built on theology sees “others” as enemies of God, simply because they worship different gods. In his view, the Jewish state was the most unnatural form of government on earth. By relying so much on religion to hold it together, the state ends up weakening itself.<\/p>\n<p>Theocracy is dangerous because it is closed for different opinions or new ideas. Different interpretations of sacred texts open the door to speculation and internal conflict, which often leads to civil war. <b>To get past that kind of mess, Spinoza says we need science. It gives us a more stable and reliable way to build a society.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>According to Spinoza, Scripture came into being as a natural part of Jewish history. The Jewish people were once enslaved by the Egyptians, an external force that controlled them. God might feel like “one of us,” but in a theocracy, he still ends up acting like a ruler. <b>When religion runs the government, it creates a deep conflict inside society, a struggle between belief and freedom. Spinoza says the only way to fix that is through science and reason. That’s what helps humanity grow and become what it’s truly capable of.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>To prevent conflict in theocratic states, Spinoza suggests separating religion from government and protecting freedom of speech. The only opinion he thinks should be limited is the calls to ban freedom of speech. The state should be a tool for freedom, built on laws, strengthened through unity and designed to let reason shine.<\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b> It’s kind of amazing to realize that science and almost all modern ways of thinking actually grew out of a religious worldview. I used to think science gave us an independent, “objective” picture of the world, something that let us see the true nature of things.<\/p>\n<h2>Selected Quotes<\/h2>\n<h2>On Prophets<\/h2>\n<p>Here’s how I’ll wrap it up: prophecy never made prophets any more knowledgeable. They stuck to their own biased views. So when it comes to abstract or speculative stuff, we’re under no obligation to believe them.<\/p>\n<p>But there’s nothing blasphemous in what we’re saying as Solomon, Isaiah, Jesus and the rest may have been prophets, but they were still human. And like any human, it’s fair to assume that nothing truly human was foreign to them.<\/p>\n<p>So, all of this clearly shows what we set out to prove: that God shaped revelations to fit the understanding and personal views of the prophets. Which means prophets might not have known things related to pure reason or abstract thinking. They even disagreed with each other on those topics. That’s why it’s simply wrong to look to the prophets for knowledge about nature or the deeper workings of the spirit.<\/p>\n<h2>On the calling of the Jews and whether prophecy was unique to them<\/h2>\n<p>True happiness and fulfillment come from wisdom and understanding the truth, not from being wiser than others or from others lacking that truth. That kind of comparison doesn’t add even the slightest bit to a person’s actual wisdom, which is where real happiness lies.<\/p>\n<p>By “God’s guidance” (Dei directio), I mean the fixed and unchanging order of nature, the natural chain (concatenatio) of cause and effect. As we’ve said before, the universal laws of nature that govern and determine everything are nothing other than God’s eternal decrees. These contain eternal truth and necessity. So whether we say that things happen according to the laws of nature or by God’s will and direction, we’re really saying the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Everything we truly want in life basically comes down to three things: understanding the world through its first causes, gaining control over our emotions or developing a habit of virtue and finally, living a calm, peaceful life in good physical health.<\/p>\n<h2>On divine law<\/h2>\n<p>So, since a law is nothing more than a way of life that people set for themselves or others in order to reach a certain goal, I think it makes sense to divide law into two kinds: human and divine. By human law, I mean a way of living that’s meant to keep the state running and preserve social order. Divine law, on the other hand, is about something higher, reaching true knowledge of God and learning to love Him.<\/p>\n<p>The more we understand the natural world, the greater and more complete our knowledge of God becomes. The deeper we explore nature, the more fully we come to know God’s true essence.<\/p>\n<p>So, we conclude that God is described as a lawmaker or ruler only because of how the masses think and because of the limits of human understanding. In reality, God acts and governs everything solely out of the necessity of His own nature and perfection.<\/p>\n<p>Why religious rituals were created and why we believe in stories from the past<br \/>\nLaws in any country should be designed in a way that motivates people not through fear, but through hope for something good that they deeply desire. That way, people are more likely to do their part willingly.<\/p>\n<p>So, if something ever happened in nature that went against its universal laws, it would also go against reason and against the very nature of God. Anyone claiming that God breaks the laws of nature is basically saying God goes against His own nature. And honestly, nothing could be more absurd.<\/p>\n<p>I’ve already shown that Scripture doesn’t explain things by looking at their direct causes. Instead, it tells stories in a way that’s most likely to inspire reverence, especially among the masses. That’s why it often speaks about God and other matters in very vague or imprecise terms. Its goal isn’t to convince the mind, but to move and captivate the imagination.<\/p>\n<h2>On interpreting Scripture<\/h2>\n<p>Scripture doesn’t define the things it talks about, just like nature doesn’t either.<\/p>\n<p>If you’re reading a book filled with strange or hard-to-understand ideas and you don’t know who wrote it, when it was written or why – it’s pretty much impossible to figure out what it really means. Without that context, there’s no way to know what the author intended or could’ve meant. But once you do know those things, your thinking gets a lot clearer. You’re less likely to project your own assumptions onto the text and more likely to focus on what the author actually meant, what they were trying to say based on their time, their situation and their audience.<\/p>\n<p>I honestly can’t get over how some people see such deep, hidden mysteries in Scripture that, supposedly, no human language could ever explain them. And then they go and stuff religion with so much philosophy that the church ends up looking more like a university lecture hall and faith starts to feel more like a science or worse, just endless debate.<\/p>\n<p>Here’s the thing: if someone lives a good life, then even if they don’t agree with others on doctrine, they’re still a true believer. But if their actions are bad, then no matter how much they say the right things, they’re not really a believer at all.<\/p>\n<p>Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.<\/p>\n<p>Like we said, reason belongs to the realm of truth and wisdom, while theology belongs to the realm of devotion and obedience.<\/p>\n<p>Those who run the state always try to make even their shady actions look legit. They want the public to believe they acted fairly. And it’s pretty easy for them to pull that off when they control how the law is interpreted.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, even just moving your homeland was seen as shameful, because worshiping God, which they were always obligated to do, was only allowed in their own land. That land alone was considered holy, any other place was seen as unclean and defiled.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "How our modern scientific worldview sprouted from Scripture. The government’s core mission. Why religion and politics need to stay in separate lanes",
            "date_published": "2024-03-30T06:15:00+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:57+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "governance",
                "religion",
                "science",
                "Spinoza",
                "state"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/spinoza@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sat, 30 Mar 2024 06:15:00 +0200",
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        {
            "id": "65",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/the-prince-by-machiavelli\/",
            "title": "“The Prince” by Machiavelli",
            "content_html": "<p>A 16th-century guide to building an authoritarian state. The ideas still hold up today, you can easily draw parallels with modern Russia. The first part focuses on the state itself, while the second dives into thoughts on republics.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/makiavelli@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Biography and Context<\/h2>\n<p>Machiavelli grew up in Florence and lived from 1498 to 1512. He was the son of a successful, however not particularly wealthy lawyer with plenty of influence and connections. His father was determined to give him the best education possible and even wrote in his diary: “I spent so much money on it, I’m scared to even write down the amount.”<\/p>\n<p>Starting at age seven, Machiavelli studied Latin, but his education wasn’t classical. He didn’t know Greek, so he couldn’t read the works of Greek philosophers in the original Greek, even though The Prince draws clear parallels with Plato’s ideas. Machiavelli was well-educated, but he wasn’t a part of the intellectual elite.<\/p>\n<p>In Machiavelli’s time, learning was starting to become independent from the Church and skilled workers were making a living through their craft. Society was shifting from a religious-centered worldview to a humanist one. In the religious view, God came first and people came second. Humanism flipped that – people came first. The main idea was that the world was made for humans, which the Bible also points out.<\/p>\n<p>The humanist era celebrated what people could do. Humanism was based on the idea that all people are equal, that education matters and that being active and engaged is a key part of life. During Machiavelli’s lifetime, the “Neoplatonist school” took shape – a universal system of logic meant to explain how everything in the world worked.<\/p>\n<p>Then Machiavelli became part of a republican intellectual club that included conspirators plotting against the Medici family, who had regained power in Florence. Some of the conspirators turned out to be Machiavelli’s former students, which led to him being sentenced to death. The Medici later granted him amnesty, but stripped him of all official positions.<\/p>\n<p>The Prince was Machiavelli’s attempt to win back favor with the Medici court. What’s interesting, despite being a supporter of free thought, he wrote a guide on how to build and run an authoritarian state.<\/p>\n<h2>Overview<\/h2>\n<p>Below is not a word-for-word translation of the text, just a loose retelling of the parts I found interesting.<\/p>\n<p>The state is what holds everything together.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Power is what’s needed to keep everything organized. Some people take on that job, they’re the ones in charge of running things.<\/li>\n<li>But those people also need support. That support comes from authority and control.<\/li>\n<li>The most important part of holding power is reason. It’s a key part of what makes authority work.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>When power stays the same for too long, there comes a point where extra resources are wasted just to keep the status quo. This hurts society, because those resources could’ve been used for other kinds of progress.<\/p>\n<p>There are different types of states: inherited, new and mixed. As for the people, some are used to obeying, while others are free. A person becomes a ruler through a mix of boldness and luck.<\/p>\n<p><b>For a ruler, it’s important to have boldness to achieve great things. That means recognizing the moment and acting in tune with the spirit of the times. Chance is the raw material and with willpower, it can turn into success.<\/b>  Understanding timing means knowing that yesterday was too early and tomorrow will be too late.<\/p>\n<p><b>Boldness helps reveal the meaning behind events, but actions also need to be strong and decisive.<\/b> Machiavelli gives an example of a ruler who first sent a tough official to bring order to a city using harsh methods. Once things were under control, the ruler had him cut in half and left his body in the town square. That way, the ruler kept peace and won the people’s support by getting rid of the man they hated.<\/p>\n<p>Qualities like kindness or honesty in politics often end up being long-term mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>Political toughness should look like personal goodness. Executions should inspire both fear and respect as if they were fair. And those in power need to keep up that appearance.<\/p>\n<p><b>A politician has to be both a person and a beast (a fox and a lion). The lion can’t avoid traps and the fox can’t fight off wolves. That’s why you need to be a fox to spot the traps and a lion to scare off the wolves.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Machiavelli got a lot of ideas from Greek philosophy, but he didn’t mention his sources directly, probably to avoid revealing that he couldn’t read Greek. In one part he comes close to quoting Plato, who believed that all good judgment comes from knowledge. <b>Knowledge means understanding the balance between pleasure and pain.<\/b> Doing the right thing means knowing how to choose between what feels good and what hurts and picking the lesser pain when you have to. The Greeks called this ability Logos, which means word, reason and balance.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you’re in a battle and losing, what’s the better choice: to run away and go home or to die fighting? The lesser evil is to die on the battlefield, because if you run, you’ll be killed with shame anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Immoral actions should be covered up with a show of morality in the moment, but in the long run they might actually turn out to be merciful. In the moment, the crowd is drawn to success. The masses don’t see long-term consequences.<br \/>\nAnd when the masses completely merge with the state, there’s no room for reflection, everything becomes part of the crowd and critical thinking disappears.<\/p>\n<p>If the nobility sees itself as equal, you can offer new nobles new positions. That way, they’ll know you can take those privileges away and that gives you control over them.<\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b> It’s surprising how clearly and calmly Machiavelli explains how an authoritarian state is built. When you’re living in one, you keep hearing that “the state is for the people.” But really, it’s the other way around – the people are for the state. And that, for Machiavelli, is what real political strength looks like.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "A 16th-century guide to building an authoritarian state. The ideas still hold up today, you can easily draw parallels with modern Russia",
            "date_published": "2024-01-18T15:01:00+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-02-21T15:01:50+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "governance",
                "Machiavelli",
                "philosophy",
                "state"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/makiavelli@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Thu, 18 Jan 2024 15:01:00 +0200",
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        },
        {
            "id": "49",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/how-do-smart-trackers-fool-us\/",
            "title": "How do smart trackers fool us?",
            "content_html": "<p>There are a lot of trackers that you can use to collect various metrics of your day. What is more, each of these trackers claims that it will improve the concrete sphere of your life. Garmin’s ecosystem is built around sports metrics. Oura Ring declared that it would help you improve your sleep.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/insight@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>The main problem is that none of these trackers can provide personal advice based on your data. Each of these trackers states in AD that you can improve your life by gathering metrics with their help. I will explain why it is a false statement.<\/p>\n<p>You can find a ton of information in the Garmin app or other fitness apps. For instance, you can find your running cadence (number of steps per minute) and elevation in one graph. So what? How can you use this information to improve your results? Why do trackers gather data but not provide any personal insights, not generic ones but concrete ones?<\/p>\n<p>From my point of view, the main reason they do not give you concrete suggestions is that they do not want to take responsibility for recommendations. On the other side, these companies know that their users are willing to gain such insights. So this is a dilemma for such companies. How to provide personal recommendations for trackers users without taking responsibility? Each company has its approach to this question.<\/p>\n<p>I see three main ways how companies overcome this dilemma:<br \/>\n<b>1. Provide users with average metrics.<\/b><br \/>\nFor instance, the Garmin app shows what the length of REM stage sleep is. By revealing those metrics, it can assist you in understanding if your REM stage from last night is within the average interval or not. You will not get any personal advice based on your metrics, only a generic one. The app shows you the right direction, and this ‘right’ is a blurry one.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/REM@2x.jpg\" width=\"244\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>2. Create ‘‘personal health media’’.<\/b><br \/>\nIt means to educate customers with content that discloses metrics deeper. For instance, you can create two pieces of text explaining how long or short sleep affects the body. An app can show a person a text that fits his data based on the person’s metrics. For example, the <a href=\"https:\/\/welltory.com\/\">Welltory app<\/a> creates an individual feed with insightful content based on your metrics.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/welltory@2x.jpg\" width=\"244\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>3. Invent a new branded metric with the ‘‘secret’’ formula<\/b>.<br \/>\nIn the Garmin app, you can find the Body Battery widget. Garmin states that:<\/p>\n<p>Body Battery can be used to help manage a user’s day. When the number is high, it should mean the user has enough energy for a workout or exercise. Conversely, when the value is low, it may be a good idea to conserve and rest.<\/p>\n<p>Your Body Battery points are linked to the amount of stress, quality of your sleep, amount of activities. As alcohol or caffeine affects your sleep, your Body Battery point is concerned too.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/IMG_6315.jpeg\" width=\"2436\" height=\"1125\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>That is a trick, Garmin pushes you to increase your points of this metric. But as the formula behind it is hidden, suggestions of what you should improve are blurred too. The most important thing is that if they are blurred, the company takes no responsibility for this recommendation.<br \/>\n;—)<\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><br \/>\nNone of these approaches can be valued as personal recommendations. Even companies try to wrap them that way in marketing materials. Without any doubt, in the long run, the winner will be the companies that will find a way to gain truly personal insights.<\/p>\n<p>I have a rough guess where the solution may lay. I will later share my thoughts on this theme. What is your experience with smart trackers? Do they have any effect on your life?<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "There are a lot of trackers that you can use to collect various metrics of your day. What is more, each of these trackers claims that it will improve the concrete sphere of your life",
            "date_published": "2022-02-20T18:13:04+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:56+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "fitness",
                "marketing",
                "sport",
                "trackers"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/insight@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sun, 20 Feb 2022 18:13:04 +0200",
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            "_rss_guid": "49",
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        {
            "id": "67",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/whats-the-difference-between-information-understanding-and-knowl\/",
            "title": "What’s the difference between information, understanding and knowledge? And how the digital world changed the way we think about all that?",
            "content_html": "<p>You could start from the idea that everything in the world is connected and everything affects everything. So when we try to really understand something, we have to look at it in a broader context.<\/p>\n<p>But here’s another way to look at it. If we’re going to talk about a specific term, we need to define its boundaries clearly. Say “this is white and this is black.” Everyone joining the conversation should be on the same page about what we mean, so we’re not arguing about definitions, we’re agreeing on them first.<\/p>\n<p>Let’s break down the difference between information, understanding and knowledge. Then we’ll look at how the digital age has changed what these words mean and how it’s reshaped the way we work and organize what we do.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/informatio@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Definitions of information, understanding and knowledge. And how are they connected?<\/h2>\n<p>You can break down communication into three steps:<br \/>\nA. First comes the transfer of information, spoken or written. That’s the basic <b>act of communication.<\/b><br \/>\nB. Then, the person receiving that information filters it through their own context. They start to form an <b>understanding<\/b> of how to act in a way that might lead to a positive outcome. This is where information becomes personal. That’s why you can tell a group of people the same thing and they’ll each walk away with a different takeaway, because they process it through their own lens.<br \/>\nC. Finally, the person takes action. They do something based on their understanding and the results of that action or lack of results turn into real <b>knowledge.<\/b> That’s the key: knowledge doesn’t exist without action. It’s something we gain through doing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/understanding@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Information<\/b> is data about the world around us, passed along through communication.<br \/>\n<b>Understanding<\/b> is the meaning we personally assign to that information as we process it.<br \/>\n<b>Knowledge<\/b> is the experience we gain through action, it’s knowing what actually works in a specific situation.<\/p>\n<h2>How digital changed information and understanding?<\/h2>\n<p><i>On the information level:<\/i><br \/>\nThe amount and speed of access to information have exploded. Now anyone can create and share it, since the cost of producing and distributing information has dropped dramatically.<\/p>\n<p><i>On the understanding level:<\/i><br \/>\nUnderstanding often comes from information that’s structured like a clear, step-by-step guide. Digital tools have massively sped up how fast we can find those kinds of instructions. So now, thanks to tech, people can build understanding across way more areas than ever before.<\/p>\n<p>Which means the number of areas where someone can start building their understanding has grown dramatically.<\/p>\n<h2>How digital changed knowledge?<\/h2>\n<p>On the knowledge level digital has brought the biggest changes. The important one is that <b>we’ve started to lose the skill of acting in the unknown. These days, if there’s no step-by-step guide, people often just don’t know what to do.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Let’s take a look at how people worked with knowledge before the digital age:<\/p>\n<p>There was a guy named John who lived in a village. He wanted to know how to grow a good potato harvest. His father passed down some knowledge like planting only the bigger potatoes. He also read in a book that you shouldn’t fertilize right before planting, but in the fall, after the previous harvest.<br \/>\nThat was the extent of what John knew about planting. Those first two steps were within the bounds of what others had already figured out. He hit the limits of other people’s experience pretty quickly.<\/p>\n<p>If John wanted to improve his potato harvest, he had to start experimenting. That meant stepping into the unknown. He had to figure things out for himself like what to do during a dry season or how to handle it when it rained nonstop.<\/p>\n<p>Some of his ideas failed, others worked. And that’s how it used to go in the age of books, before the digital world took over. Gaining knowledge had two key features:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Whatever area John decided to explore, he quickly picked up all the available knowledge within the “known” and hit the edge of the “unknown”.<\/li>\n<li>He often ended up in the “unknown” and had to figure things out by testing his own ideas.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>With the invention of writing, the amount of information grew, people could finally store and pass down what they knew about the world. But it was digital technology that truly exploded the amount of information we have. That massively expanded the boundaries of the “known” world we live in. And that changed everything, now people can spend their whole lives staying within the “known” without ever needing to step into the “unknown”.<\/p>\n<p>With digital you can spend your whole life learning a single field, even something like farming and still never reach the edge of the “known”. Most of the time you’re just following instructions, because it’s now so easy to find information that fits your exact situation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-video\">\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GCH-_vgYvGw?enablejsapi=1\" allow=\"autoplay\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>To act in the “unknown” you need to be able to handle the emotional weight of trying things that don’t work out. But if you’re always following ready-made instructions, that kind of emotional resilience doesn’t develop. So stepping into the “unknown” feels not just unfamiliar, but uncomfortable too.<\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b> The skill of gaining new knowledge has weakened, because gaining new knowledge means testing hypotheses, some of which won’t lead to the best result. But thanks to easy access to information, people have gotten used to always following instructions that guarantee a positive outcome.<\/p>\n<p>P.S. At the knowledge level, other important changes are happening too. Let’s list them without going into detail:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>To reach the edge of the “unknown”, where new knowledge can be created, now takes more time for an individual. That’s led to a rise in specialization.<\/li>\n<li>The value of easily repeatable knowledge has gone down, while the value of being able to synthesize knowledge has gone up.<\/li>\n<li>Competition between companies has become less about quantity and more about quality.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>November 2021<\/p>\n<p><i>This text was created as part of the work done by the “Digital” group. The group included Ruslan Akhtyamov and Evgeny Oshchepkov.<\/i><\/p>\n",
            "summary": "You could start from the idea that everything in the world is connected and everything affects everything",
            "date_published": "2022-01-23T16:35:04+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-02-21T14:59:50+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "digital",
                "Kamchatka",
                "knowledge",
                "thinking",
                "understanding"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/informatio@2x.jpg",
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        {
            "id": "68",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/the-main-challenge-of-digital-transformation\/",
            "title": "The main challenge of digital transformation",
            "content_html": "<p>During my MBA, in the “<a href=\"https:\/\/mazurchak.com\/all\/modul-na-kamchatke\/\">Kamchatka Module<\/a>” we dug into Georgy Shchedrovitsky’s framework called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ozon.ru\/product\/orgupravlencheskoe-myshlenie-ideologiya-metodologiya-tehnologiya-147331560\/\">Organizational‑Managerial Thinking<\/a>. To keep sharpening that mindset, we launched the K2 Club, made up mostly of fellow alumni.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the club we’ve split into a handful of focus groups: power&energy, health, digital, public strategy and a few more. The setup is three or four off‑site sessions a year, each one three days of intense, collaborative work. At those meet‑ups, the method’s experts Andrey Evgenievich Volkov and Pavel Brunovich Mrdulyash guide us through the process. Between sessions, each group keeps working together regularly. Here’s a quick recap of what our “Digital” group has been working on.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/k2@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Defining “digital”<\/h2>\n<p>To define what we mean by “digital,” we’re starting with the ideas of language and writing. Language is a way to communicate through gestures, sounds or speech. It came long before writing and helped people connect within small groups. But language only worked in the moment, in the context of a situation. Language opened the door to new ways of organizing and working together. It transformed how people lived and interacted, it was a turning point for society.<\/p>\n<p>The next big shift came with the invention of writing. The biggest change it brought was the ability to store knowledge. Writing made it possible to pass down information and shape culture in a whole new way, it laid the foundation for civilization. Knowledge could be capitalized, built up and shared across time and space. Writing broke the limits of the moment. It let people communicate outside of a specific situation or context. Information started moving faster, more widely and more densely. Writing changed how society was organized and opened the door to entirely new kinds of activity. It was another major transformation.<\/p>\n<h2>The role of digital in transformation<\/h2>\n<p>We believe that the rise of digital marks the next big transformation. What’s new this time is the arrival of a new player in communication – IT systems. Communication is no longer tied to physical media. It happens instantly, across any distance. When language first appeared, people usually had to be physically present to communicate. With writing, they could share knowledge through books. Now, with digital, we don’t need physical carriers at all. The density, speed and reach of communication have increased dramatically.<\/p>\n<p>To show that IT systems are now active participants in communication, take this example: two route planners are discussing the best route for a cargo ship. They refer to the system that analyzes weather patterns and get recommendations on the optimal path. The fact that a system can now offer that kind of input has once again transformed how we operate as a society.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/cifra1@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"952\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>Whether it’s writing or digital, the goal of communication has always been the same – to share meaning. The speed, density, reach and number of actors involved in communication shape two key things:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>What kinds of activities are possible;<\/li>\n<li>What forms of organization can exist to support those activities.<br \/>\nWe call a combination of these two things an activity model.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>We call it a transformation when a new way of communicating leads to entirely new activity models. Digital technology has marked one of those turning points in society.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/cifra2@2x.jpg.jpg\" width=\"2098\" height=\"1125\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Problem framing<\/h2>\n<p>We place the idea of “digital” on the third level, the same level as religion, mythology and meaning. It’s a core concept, something foundational. The activity models it creates belong to the first level, the level of real-world projects. In between, on the second level, is culture. It connects deep ideas with everyday actions.<\/p>\n<p>We also apply a digital transformation framework to this model. On the first level we find digital assets, digital models and digital organization. On the second level is digital culture – the focus of our studying.<br \/>\nWe believe that digital technology led to new activity models and they’ve spread rapidly across all areas of life. But cultural change is happening much more slowly. <b>That’s where we see the problem: the way we work has changed, but the culture to support this new way of working hasn’t fully formed. There’s a gap.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Our goal is to develop a method for transforming digital culture that can help bridge this gap.<\/p>\n<p>July 2021.<\/p>\n<p><i>The group also included: Ruslan Akhtyamov, Evgeny Oshchepkov, Sergey Chernobaev and Mikhail Milyokhin.<\/i><\/p>\n",
            "summary": "During my MBA, in the “Kamchatka Module” we dug into Georgy Shchedrovitsky’s framework called Organizational‑Managerial Thinking",
            "date_published": "2021-09-23T23:03:07+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:57+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "digital",
                "methodology",
                "Shchedrovitsky",
                "skolkovo",
                "thinking",
                "transformation"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/k2@2x.jpg",
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        {
            "id": "69",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/how-to-dream-in-a-way-that-makes-dreams-come-true-a-new-years-re\/",
            "title": "How to dream in a way that makes dreams come true? A New Year’s resolution guide",
            "content_html": "<p>For the past three years, I’ve been using the New Year holidays to dream and then turn those dreams into a list of goals for the year. This simple process helps me think about the past year, figure out what’s important to me and plan for the year ahead. In the end, it really helps me reach my goals.<\/p>\n<p>The power of this New Year practice comes from one simple idea. All year long, you’re faced with tons of choices: what to do, who to spend time with, what to buy, where to travel, whether to say yes, etc.  <b>When you take time to plan your year, it gets easier to spot the ideas and opportunities that really matter to you.<\/b> Plus, it’s a beautiful way to show love and care for yourself.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/octopus@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the same time, the search for opportunities to make your dreams come true is mostly a subconscious process. The things on your list start to “happen” to you almost on their own. The work I’m sharing here helps increase the chances that luck will be on your side. So, here’s how I dream and turn those dreams into plans.<\/p>\n<p>The method includes the following steps:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Choosing the key areas of your life;<\/li>\n<li>Evaluating the current state of those areas;<\/li>\n<li>Dreaming;<\/li>\n<li>Turning dreams into goals;<\/li>\n<li>Supportive actions during the year.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Let’s talk terminology. A dream is a desire with no one responsible, no set timeframe and no clear criteria for making it happen. Goals are desires with someone responsible, a set timeframe and clear criteria for success. A plan is a breakdown of the steps needed to reach the goal.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Choosing the key areas of your life<\/h2>\n<p>If someone asked you to list 100 dreams, you’d probably slow down around number 20. The brain struggles with abstract tasks, but handles clear ones really well. For example, if you’re asked to come up with 10 dreams related to physical health, then 10 more about friendship and a few in other areas, you’ll reach 100 much faster. To help yourself dream, the first step is to figure out the key areas you want to focus on.<\/p>\n<p>That’s why they say a clearly defined problem is half the solution. Once you know the boundaries and understand what challenge you need to overcome to get the result you want, you’re already halfway there.<\/p>\n<p>To choose the areas you want to dream in, there’s an exercise I recommend doing. Take your time with it and do it thoroughly, it’ll give you a solid foundation for all the work ahead. And if you make it a habit to revisit your dreams each year, you won’t have to redefine your dream areas every time.<\/p>\n<p><b>Exercise:<\/b> Imagine you’re 90 years old and getting ready to celebrate your birthday. What country are you in? Who are you preparing for the celebration with? Where are you going to mark the occasion? What’s around you? What kind of place is it? What makes it special? Describe it in detail. What emotions are you feeling? What’s happening the moment you walk in? Are any guests already there, or are they arriving later? Who shows up and in what order? It doesn’t matter if everyone is still alive, maybe someone has passed, but you’d still love them to be there. What’s the atmosphere like? Is there a detail that’s meaningful just to you? Describe it. For example, if you love cycling, maybe there’s a photo from the start of the Tour de France hanging on the wall.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/d59b6d9f4c7682c1d44209b1788d7b38.jpg\" width=\"1080\" height=\"667\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Start of the Tour de France at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>And now you’re sitting at the table with your guests. All the people who’ve truly mattered in your life are gathered around you. Picture the table, who’s sitting where? It’s time for the toasts. Who stands up first to speak? Who is this person and what do they say to you? Who goes next? What do they say? What are they grateful for? What do they admire about you? What parts of your life do they highlight? How have you made a difference in their life?<\/p>\n<p>Now, make a list of the people sitting around that table. Go one by one and describe the toasts they give. As you go through this exercise, you’ll start to see a pattern: the things your loved ones mention in their toasts are the parts of life that truly matter to you. These are the areas that align with your values and what you care about most. We’ll use these areas as the foundation for the next steps in working with your dreams. Most people come away from this with about 10 to 15 key life areas.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some example areas that might come up for you: family, work, friends, sports and physical well-being, health, mental health, community involvement, finances, material things, spiritual life, education and personal growth, travel. You can use this list as a starting point for your own work, but I still encourage you to create a personal list. That way, the work you do with your dreams will feel much more meaningful.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Evaluating the current state of those areas<\/h2>\n<p>Working on any plan starts with mapping out the route. And the most important part of that is figuring out your starting point. The same goes for dreaming within your chosen areas of life, you first need to reflect on where you currently stand in each of them.<\/p>\n<p>Write a few paragraphs about each of your areas. What successes have you had in each one? What steps have you taken to make progress or create positive change? What’s shifted over the past year?<\/p>\n<p>This kind of review can help in a few ways:<br \/>\n<b>A. It gives you a clear sense of what you’ve already accomplished.<\/b> In some areas, you might be pleasantly surprised by the progress you’ve made. In others, it may become clear that it’s time to grow and give them more attention.<br \/>\n<b>B. It helps define the boundaries of your dream areas.<\/b> If you started out with general directions, now, by listing real examples, you’ll narrow the focus of each one. Some areas might overlap and that’s totally okay. You’ll just get a better sense of where those overlaps happen.<br \/>\n<b>C. As you go through this process, new dreams will likely start to pop up, ones you hadn’t even thought of before.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>After you’ve described each area, give it a score from 1 to 10, where 10 means you feel completely satisfied. If you’ve taken your time with the first step, the areas you’ve chosen should align with your core values. That means they’ll likely stay meaningful to you for years to come. These scores will help you track your progress over time and see how things shift from year to year. They’ll also make it easier to spot which areas might deserve more attention in the year ahead.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Dreaming<\/h2>\n<p>This is one of the most exciting parts of the process. The best way to approach it is by using a mind-mapping tool. If you’re on a Mac, I recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/mindnode.com\/\">MindNode<\/a>, but there are plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=mind+map+online&oq=mind+map&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5j0i395j69i65.8291j1j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8\">free browser-based options<\/a>. Of course, a good old sheet of paper and a pen works just as well. In fact, some people find that format even more comfortable.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/blank@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>A mind map lets you keep all your key areas in focus, while also making it easy to jump between them. As you brainstorm dreams in one area, an idea for another might pop up out of nowhere. For each area, I usually end up with from 5 to 20 dreams.<\/p>\n<p>This part of the process is all about turning off your inner critic. Write down any idea that comes to mind. <b>What matters is that you’re dreaming about what you truly want, without worrying about the resources it might take or how long it might take to get there.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>What helped me with this step was breaking it up into a few sessions. It’s easier to get into a creative, relaxed flow that way. Next year, you won’t be starting from scratch as you’ll already have the dream map you made this year, which will make it easier to get into the right mindset.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/fullmindmap@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">One of my filled-out dream maps<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Some time ago, I was really curious about one question: «How do you tell the difference between dreams that are truly yours and those that are shaped by culture or society?». Here’s the answer I came to – if a dream isn’t really yours, you simply won’t have the energy to follow through on it.<\/b> For whatever reason, you’re choosing not to see what’s underneath it right now. And that’s okay. It’s still something that gives you direction and keeps you moving forward.—)<\/p>\n<p>When a dream isn’t really yours, here’s what usually happens: you focus on it, maybe even set goals around it, but a year later, you realize you haven’t made any real progress. I call those “expired dreams.”<\/p>\n<p>When you look at some of your dreams a year later, you might feel nothing, just delete them. But others might suddenly resonate even more than before. That’s when it’s important to pay attention to how you feel.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Turning dreams into goals<\/h2>\n<p>One way or another, you’re going to spend your time on something throughout the year. If you don’t have a plan, a lot of your actions will likely be spontaneous or impulsive. And that’s okay, choosing not to focus on your dreams and simply responding to whatever opportunities come your way is still a valid path. It just leads to different results. <b>Whatever you end up with at the end of the year – that’s your true goal, whether you planned for it or not.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Out of all the dreams in each area, some will naturally resonate more than others. A year has its limits, you can’t chase everything at once. That’s why it’s important to choose a few dreams to turn into actual goals for the year. In my dream map, I bold the ones I want to focus on. Then I make a separate list with just those selected goals. I transfer that list into my planning app <a href=\"https:\/\/culturedcode.com\/things\/\">Things 3<\/a>, which I also use for daily planning. You can use any planning tool that works for you or just write the list on paper.<\/p>\n<p>Next, take the goals you’ve chosen in each area and assign them a priority. I use a simple star system: ★★★ for something that’s absolutely essential to achieve or at least make serious progress on this year, ★★ for something I’d really like to get done, and ★ for something that would be nice to accomplish if there’s time.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/things3@2x.jpg\" width=\"1165\" height=\"972\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">In the end, you’re left with the most important goals for the year<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Some goals can be achieved within a year. Others feel big and overwhelming, you’re not even sure where to start. If a goal feels too big, break it down into smaller steps and make a plan. And if you’re not sure what those steps should be, write out a few hypotheses that might help you move closer to it. Try them out and see what works.<\/p>\n<p>The trick is to keep your focus on the big dream, not just the steps in the plan. Working through the steps might not always be exciting. But when you stay connected to where those steps are taking you, you’re much more likely to find the energy to follow through.<\/p>\n<p>Chances are, one area or dream will stand out as especially important to you this year. Turn it into your mission for the year, and place it at the top of your goals list. That way, every time you check in with your list, your mission will be right there keeping your focus on what matters most.<\/p>\n<p>If you’ve made it to this part of the process, you’ve already done the most important work. <b>Here’s the core idea: every year gives you the opportunity to either move closer to your dreams or drift further away. By bringing your dreams into conscious focus, you’re far more likely to recognize the path that can lead you to them.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>For some dreams, it’s not always easy to define what it means to “complete” them. For example, what does it really mean to learn English or become an athlete? One approach is to set measurable goals for the year, something that defines what “done” looks like. But there’s also a helpful trick: shift into “doing mode”. That means making a deal with yourself to work on the dream regularly. For example, studying English twice a week for an hour or going jogging every Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>It’s easy to slip into the mindset of “I’m not okay until I achieve this one thing” and end up putting your life on hold until some made-up condition is met. To avoid that trap, Scott Adams suggests this idea in «<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still\/dp\/1591846919\/\">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life<\/a>» : Goals are for losers – focus on systems. For example, instead of telling yourself you’ll be an athlete after you hit some milestone, just decide: Starting today, I’m an athlete. And athletes live active lives consistently. This way, you start living the identity right away, without needing to prove anything first. You don’t need to run a marathon to call yourself an athlete. (By the way, the book itself is pretty mediocre, you’re not missing much if you skip it.)<\/p>\n<h2>5. Supportive actions during the year.<\/h2>\n<p>Once a month, create a recurring event in your calendar to open up your yearly goals and review them. Once a quarter, take some time to reflect on the past three months. Note what you’ve already accomplished and what might need to become a priority for the next three.<\/p>\n<p>A friend of mine also shared that he uses Miro to create a visual representation of his goals. He builds a board filled with images that reflect his plans for the year and revisits it regularly during the year.<\/p>\n<p>I also use a phone app called <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/ru\/app\/365-dots\/id1370611373\">365 Dots<\/a>. You can add it to your dashboard, it’s a beautiful visual that shows how much of the year has already passed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/360@2x.jpg\" width=\"1049\" height=\"529\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">365 Dots app interface<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b><br \/>\nThis process usually takes me about five days during the New Year holidays (not full days, of course). There’s no need to rush, enjoy the process. Think of it as an act of care and self-love. Take time to acknowledge everything you’ve achieved over the past year and let yourself dream freely and wholeheartedly!<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "For the past three years, I’ve been using the New Year holidays to dream and then turn those dreams into a list of goals for the year",
            "date_published": "2020-12-29T14:54:00+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:57+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "attention",
                "choice",
                "development",
                "dreams",
                "habits",
                "Intuition",
                "love",
                "motivation",
                "New Year’s resolution",
                "planning",
                "reflection"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/octopus@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Tue, 29 Dec 2020 14:54:00 +0200",
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        },
        {
            "id": "70",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/tony-robbins-four-day-training-unleash-the-power-within\/",
            "title": "Tony Robbins’ four-day training “Unleash the Power Within”",
            "content_html": "<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/IMG_0302-Recovered.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>A year ago we bought tickets to see Tony Robbins in Birmingham, England, for his four-day event UPW. Because of the pandemic, it got rescheduled and moved online, running from October 22-25. R. from Skolkovo had recommended it. Personally, I was just curious to see a well-produced show. A lot of people poke fun at events like this, but I wanted to form my own opinion. There were 11000 people joining in at the same time. I set up my own little venue in our living room with a projector.<\/p>\n<p><b>Cool<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Each day the event started at 10 am and wrapped up around midnight. About 40% of it was either dancing or physical exercises, which actually helped a lot with staying focused and taking in the info. I ended up keeping a few of those exercises for myself.<\/li>\n<li>Several times a day, you’d get automatically put into small breakout groups of four to work together. Someone might be crying, someone else is super excited, telling you their story. There’s also a lot of solo work, you’re constantly answering speaker’s questions. That kind of interactivity really helps lock in the material and builds a sense of trust.<\/li>\n<li>Most of the messages are super simple stuff like “drink plenty of water.” But the way they stick with you isn’t through logic, it’s through emotion.<\/li>\n<li>A great point was that you can tell a lot about a person just by the questions they ask even without knowing what they’re talking about. Different people will ask completely different questions in the exact same situation. The questions themselves reveal something fundamental about each person.<\/li>\n<li>“I am not enough” turns out to be a globally popular feeling, it’s in the top two. The other big one –  “I will not be loved”. Whew.<\/li>\n<li>Focus, Clarity and Commitment and then MASSIVE ACTION. Think about how you felt when things were going well, probably confident, right? So why choose to feel any different when you’re starting something new?<\/li>\n<li><b>What if true success isn’t about doing something no one else has done, but about imagining something and then seeing it come to life? What mindset shapes the way you define success?<\/b><\/li>\n<li>On day three, Tony asks you to close your eyes and feel the insecurity, the disappointment, the sense that your dreams never came true. Then, with 11000 other people, you let out a scream of pure grief. It sounds like something straight out of hell. And then, in total contrast, you rise up confident, grounded and feel what it’s like when your dreams become real, tangible goals that are actually coming true. Then you scream again, this time like one of the 300 Spartans, fierce and unstoppable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Weak<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>There’s not a lot of meaningful content in terms of actual ideas. It’s mostly emotional hype. MASSIVE NLP.<\/li>\n<li>40% dancing or physical exercises. I was trying to get my money’s worth, but it was too much.<\/li>\n<li>At the end of each day, there was a full hour of pitching other courses, all wrapped in the “You wouldn’t go to the gym once and expect to get in shape”<\/li>\n<li><b>On the last day they were selling a “3 for the price of 1” deal for the in-person event in Birmingham, set for June 2021. And the very next day an email saying it would be online because of COVID. Classic. Curtain drop!<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Quotes and tools:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Where focus goes energy flows. Example: if you’re driving a sports car at high speed and thinking, “Don’t hit the wall,” your eyes go straight to the wall and that’s exactly where you end up. The key is to keep your eyes on where you actually want to go. Focus on your fears and you’re almost guaranteed to crash. Focus on your destination and you’ve got a real shot;<\/li>\n<li>Resourcefulness is more important than resources;<\/li>\n<li>Potential → Action → Results → Belief\/Creativity → back to Potential;<\/li>\n<li>Leaders are paid to make tough decisions. Everyone can make easy decisions.<\/li>\n<li>Some people freeze to death in winter, while others go skiing and warm up by the fireplace.<\/li>\n<li>Here’s a quick stress-relief exercise: put both hands on your chest and close your eyes. Think of three happy moments from your life. Once you feel them, stack your hands and listen to your heartbeat. Now, reach out and imagine holding a moment you’re proud of. Place it into your heart. Do the same with a future moment that inspires you and place that in your heart too.<\/li>\n<li>Working with fear. Act it out like a scene: when fear is holding your hand and you try to pull away, it pulls back. It keeps you stuck. But if you move toward the fear, it’s fear that gets tired first. You can even follow it, pick up speed and then redirect that energy wherever you need it to go.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b><br \/>\nOn the last day of the training I felt like it was a 3 out of 10. But the next day I realized I was in a really strong, resourceful state. Motivational trainings like this can actually be useful tools, especially in moments when you need to make a tough decision. It’s a lot easier to do that when you’re in a good state. There are many ways to work with your energy, but the intensity of events like this helps you hit a true peak state.<\/p>\n<p>As an online event, I wouldn’t recommend it. As an offline experience maybe, more like a show. But honestly, you’re better off checking out “Context” by Vladimir Gerasichev. It’s not just about boosting your state, the techniques are more structured and actually useful long-term. <a href=\"http:\/\/mazurchak.com\/all\/trening-kontekst-ot-gerasicheva-i-moskotina\/\">I’ve written about it before<\/a>.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "A year ago we bought tickets to see Tony Robbins in Birmingham, England, for his four-day event UPW. Because of the pandemic, it got rescheduled and moved online",
            "date_published": "2020-11-10T14:49:00+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:57+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "kontekst",
                "motivation",
                "tony robbins",
                "UK"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/IMG_0302-Recovered.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Tue, 10 Nov 2020 14:49:00 +0200",
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        {
            "id": "71",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/why-is-it-so-hard-to-change-and-what-helps-us-build-new-habits\/",
            "title": "Why is it so hard to change and what helps us build new habits?",
            "content_html": "<p>Here’s how I see the whole change process. What it really takes to build new habits. What gets in the way and makes them hard to stick. Why emotions play such a big role. And who can help you change.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/brain@2x.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"320\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>People don’t do what’s best for them, they do what they’re used to<\/h2>\n<p>Most of the time people react to things on autopilot. They just go with whatever feels most familiar. And if you ask someone why they did something, their answer will usually be automatic too. You’ll get a made-up logical explanation, something that sounds reasonable and makes sense. That’s the brain kicking in with a justification or a “safe” explanation.<\/p>\n<p>The brain’s job is basically to come up with a logical answer. To keep you doing what you’ve always done and stop you from trying anything new. The brain believes one thing above all: “New equals risky. If I stick to what I’ve done before, I’ll survive.”<\/p>\n<h2>The foundation of real change is an “uncomfortable ” explanation of your behavior.<\/h2>\n<p>Any event can be explained in two ways: the “safe” or “uncomfortable ” one. <b>If someone reacts automatically, the brain will jump in and explain why what they did was actually the best thing for them. That kind of explanation is what I call a “safe” explanation.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>That kind of explanation justifies the automatic reaction. And here’s the trap, you think it was your own choice. But really, it was just your autopilot kicking in again. The brain goes, “You did everything right. That wasn’t automatic, that was thoughtful, intentional, totally your decision. What you did fits who you are. Even if you had more time to think it through, you’d still choose the exact same thing.”<\/p>\n<p><b>To start becoming more self-aware, you’ve got to look for the uncomfortable  explanation of your behavior. That means asking: why might the way I acted not be the best for me?<\/b> Don’t just go with the first answer your brain gives you. Of course the “safe” explanation feels better, it says you did the right thing, made a smart choice and did what’s best for you. That kind of thinking saves energy, because then you don’t need to change anything. And your brain avoids the risk of trying something new.<\/p>\n<p>The uncomfortable  explanation does the opposite, it makes you slow down, think and reflect. What if your automatic reaction isn’t actually helpful, but harmful? The truth is, when we first formed those reactions, we didn’t really have time to consciously choose from all the options. We just went with whatever came up first. And there it became a habit.<\/p>\n<p>Just because you learn to see the uncomfortable  explanation doesn’t mean it’s the only true one. But it gives you something important – a choice. You get a moment where you can consciously decide whether to keep your reaction or change it.<\/p>\n<h3>Examples of “safe” and “uncomfortable ” behavior:<\/h3>\n<p><b>The first example.<\/b><br \/>\nI’ve hired several people for lead roles at our company. A few of those hires didn’t work out, we ended up parting ways after just a couple of months.<\/p>\n<p><i>“safe” explanation:<\/i> It’s better to promote people who’ve already been with the company for a while. I trust them more and they already understand how things work internally.<\/p>\n<p><i>“uncomfortable ” explanation:<\/i> I’m afraid someone in the company might be more experienced than me. I avoid competition, so I end up pushing away strong candidates on purpose.<\/p>\n<p><b>The second example.<\/b><br \/>\nA. dreams of launching a finance project in the US market. But instead, he’s been living in Moscow and working at a big consulting firm for the past seven years.<\/p>\n<p><i>“safe” explanation:<\/i> to take a risk and start something in the US, I need to build up some capital first, A. says. Plus, he’s climbing the career ladder and a partnership at his firm is already on the horizon.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/fear@2x.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"320\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Noticing the real reasons behind your usual behavior can be uncomfortable. Especially when you’ve spent years justifying your choices to yourself and others with “safe” explanations.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>“uncomfortable ” explanation:<\/i> A. is afraid to take responsibility for something new. He’s worried he might fail. Deep down, he’s not even sure he really wants it. His current situation is convenient, no need to risk anything or take real ownership. He can keep telling people he’s a future entrepreneur, not just another corporate guy. He gets to scroll through TechCrunch, share fintech news with coworkers and look like he’s “in the game” without actually doing anything.<\/p>\n<p><b>The third example:<\/b><br \/>\nDuring his wife’s pregnancy, F. realized he didn’t love her and decided to leave the family. F. believes that society puts too much pressure on the idea of family.<\/p>\n<p><i>“safe” explanation:<\/i> F. expected his wife to keep growing professionally during her pregnancy. He wanted her to stay curious and passionate about things the same way he is. She didn’t really engage in conversations about his work or laugh at his jokes, that created distance between them.<\/p>\n<p><i>“uncomfortable ” explanation:<\/i> F. isn’t that interested in his own work. So when he tried to share his thoughts about it, his wife didn’t respond the way he hoped, not because she didn’t care, but because he couldn’t express it in a way that sparked real connection. On top of that, he was scared of the responsibility of becoming a father. So he started focusing on everything that was “wrong” in the relationship as a way to justify leaving.<\/p>\n<h2>Why do people change at all?<\/h2>\n<p>For real change to happen, a person has to see where their habits are actually taking them long-term. **They have to realize that if they don’t shift that trend, it’s it’s a dead end. Literally. They’ll live less and feel less alive.<\/p>\n<p>The same mechanism that once helped a person survive is what keeps them from seeing their own trend. <b>The same mechanism that once helped a person survive is what keeps them from seeing their own trend. It’s the thing that helps us form habits and protects us from trying new, risky reactions. But it also blocks us from seeing where those habits are really taking us over time. It’s the thing that helps us form habits and protects us from trying new, risky reactions. But it also blocks us from seeing where those habits are really taking us over time.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>As we go through life, we actually get signals telling us it’s time to shift the trend. Some are emotional signals like loneliness, apathy, low moods that won’t go away, anger or a deep sense of emptiness. Others come from the outside, struggling to build real connections with family or friends, failed projects, hobbies that just don’t bring joy anymore. If someone ignores these signals for too long, the body can start speaking up too, like back pain from carrying too much responsibility. The signals show up through people around you: family, friends, partners, and through the simple fact that things just aren’t working.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/longlife@2x.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"320\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">A – a shorter, less fulfilling life. B – what’s possible if you manage to catch the trend early.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Noticing the trend is uncomfortable, especially if you’ve spent years justifying your behavior to yourself and others with “safe” explanations. Admitting there’s an uncomfortable reason behind it means facing the fact that you haven’t been living in the best way. And once you admit that, you’re faced with the need to change. That’s scary. It takes a lot of energy and real courage to actually start changing.<\/p>\n<p>The uncomfortable explanation usually comes from people who actually care about you, like family, close friends or a therapist. A therapist is often the better option in these conversations because they don’t have hidden agendas, unlike loved ones, whose personal motives you also have to consider. People outside your inner circle usually won’t give you that kind of feedback, it’s risky. They know it could lead to pushback, anger, defensiveness or even hostility.<\/p>\n<p>To notice your own trend and change, you need three things:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>The ability to give uncomfortable explanation for your behavior;<\/li>\n<li>The skill to recognize your own emotions;<\/li>\n<li>And the courage to take actions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Being able to recognize your emotions helps you figure out what kind of life really works for you. <b>Emotions come from the unconscious.<\/b> And the unconscious has two parts: your personal one, shaped by your own experience, and the collective one, shaped by everything past generations went through. Those before us already learned what kind of life helps us survive. Your personal unconscious carries a deep need for love. So at the core, we’re all driven by two things: the need to stay alive and the need to be loved. That’s why therapists often ask people to focus on their feelings as emotions help you find your way through life.<\/p>\n<p>Courage is what helps you actually integrate the experience. You often hear people say, “I get it, but I still can’t do anything about it.” That’s because there’s a gap between understanding and integration and to close it, you need new experiences. You have to start acting differently. Only then can the brain see that there are other possible outcomes besides the automatic reaction it’s used to. To do that, you need to go through three steps:<\/p>\n<p>Step one is when the <b>brain understands.<\/b> At this stage, you’ve heard enough uncomfortable explanations to see your old patterns clearly.<\/p>\n<p>Step two is when the <b>brain starts to believe<\/b>. To believe, it needs new experience, you have to act differently and break out of your usual habits.<\/p>\n<p>Step three is when the <b>brain integrates it<\/b>. Now it starts creating new explanations, why the new way is actually better than the old one.<\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><br \/>\nMost of what we do in life is just automatic reactions. The brain sticks to what’s familiar and backs it up with “safe” explanations to keep us from changing. Most of the time, people don’t do what’s best for them,  they do what they’re used to. Real change only happens when a person realizes that if they don’t change, it’s a dead end.<\/p>\n<p>To change, you need three things:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>The ability to see the uncomfortable truth behind your behavior;<\/li>\n<li>The skill to understand your own emotions;<\/li>\n<li>The courage to integrate new experiences.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n",
            "summary": "Here’s how I see the whole change process. What it really takes to build new habits. What gets in the way and makes them hard to stick",
            "date_published": "2020-08-24T17:34:04+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:57+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "changes",
                "courage",
                "emotions",
                "habits",
                "methodology",
                "reflection",
                "responsibility",
                "thinking"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/brain@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Mon, 24 Aug 2020 17:34:04 +0200",
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        {
            "id": "72",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/how-responsibility-gets-shared-why-building-systems-matters-and\/",
            "title": "How responsibility gets shared, why building systems matters and the skill of putting out fires",
            "content_html": "<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/fire@2x.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"320\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>How do people share responsibility?<\/h2>\n<p>Responsibility, whether at work or in personal relationships is always split the same way: 100% on one side and 100% on the other. When you’re working toward a goal together, it’s not about shifting the responsibility onto someone else. It’s about agreeing on how to build a system that will help you reach that goal.<\/p>\n<p>The moment someone says, “I’m 99% responsible,” they’re already starting to give up control over the outcome. And if things don’t go well, it’s easy to just blame the other person. That’s how you slip into a victim mindset. And once you’re there, it’s hard to learn or figure out how to actually get things done.<\/p>\n<h2>Focus on the system, not on who’s to blame<\/h2>\n<p>— Okay, but if I’m not blaming anyone and taking full responsibility, how am I supposed to get things done? I can’t do everything by myself.<\/p>\n<p>When you discussed the task as a team, you were actually building a system together, figuring out how you’d work to reach the goal. So if the result doesn’t happen, the only thing worth focusing on is how to improve that system. What needs fixing to make it work? The key question isn’t “Who’s to blame?” but “How do we improve the system to get the result?”<\/p>\n<p>In all of this, we’re assuming the people you work or build relationships with actually want to get things done. But if they don’t, even then, it’s on you. You’re the one who chose to work with them. That’s 100% your responsibility. And chances are, there’s something in it for you, some reason you picked that person or keep acting in a way that stops you from getting the result.<\/p>\n<p>When I started Biz-cen.ru, I was responsible for pretty much everything. And when the first team members joined, I was sure they’d mess things up, make mistakes, miss the mark, maybe even ruin our chances. But the truth is, that mistrust wasn’t about protecting the business. It came from my need to control everything and feel important. Whenever someone on the team got something wrong, I’d jump in and tell them they were doing it wrong. But people don’t like feeling blamed and pretty quickly, our conversations would turn into blame-and-defend mode.<\/p>\n<p>It took me a while, but I finally realized there’s no point in blaming anyone. What actually helps is getting the team together and figuring out how to improve the system so we can do better tomorrow than we did today. That simple shift really worked. First, it made it clear who actually fits the team and shares our values. And second, people started to feel like they mattered, because they had the power to make a difference. <b>When you give people space to make decisions, you give them a chance to show what they care about.<\/b><\/p>\n<h2>How do you get things done?<\/h2>\n<p>People differ in how they solve problems. And there are two key traits that define your approach: first, taking responsibility; second, the ability to build systems. That means setting up parallel processes that not only help you solve the problem faster but also keep it from coming back in the same way later.<\/p>\n<p>Let’s use a simple example: you’re in a village and your cousin’s house catches fire while he’s away. What you do next shows a lot about how you deal with problems and if this were at work, it would say a lot about your professionalism. There are five levels of how you can handle a situation like this.<\/p>\n<p><b>Level one.<\/b> You see the house on fire and just start running around yelling, “Ahhh! Fire! We need to do something!”<\/p>\n<p><b>Level two.<\/b> You grab a couple of buckets, run to the pond and start hauling water back and forth, hoping you can put out the fire.<\/p>\n<p><b>Level three.<\/b> You call Nick and Mike from the next house over. You tell them what to bring, where the pond is and what they need to do.<\/p>\n<p><b>Level four.<\/b> You tell your younger son to run and call everyone from the neighboring houses. Once they show up, you organize a bucket line from the pond to the burning house. Fire’s out.<\/p>\n<p><b>Level five.<\/b> Same as level four, but you also figure out the fire started because of old wiring. You call an electrician to fix it and while they’re there, you ask him to ground the roof antennas too.<\/p>\n<p>At level five, you took full responsibility for getting results. But you didn’t do it all alone, you got others involved and set up parallel processes that kept things moving without needing your constant attention. And in the end, you made sure the same problem wouldn’t happen again. What level of fire-fighting skills do you want the people on your team to have?<\/p>\n<p><b>Takeaways:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Responsibility is split like this: 100% on you and 100% on the other side;<\/li>\n<li>Don’t look for someone to blame, build systems that work better tomorrow than they did today;<\/li>\n<li>To solve problems at level five: set up parallel processes and build systems that keep the problem from coming back.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n",
            "summary": "Responsibility, whether at work or in personal relationships is always split the same way: 100% on one side and 100% on the other",
            "date_published": "2020-06-28T19:57:10+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:57+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "entrepreneurship",
                "leadership",
                "мышление",
                "ответсвенность",
                "развитие",
                "управление"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/fire@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sun, 28 Jun 2020 19:57:10 +0200",
            "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false",
            "_rss_guid": "72",
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        {
            "id": "73",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/about-belief-responsibility-and-your-role-in-ww-ii\/",
            "title": "About belief, responsibility and your role in WW II",
            "content_html": "<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/responsobility@2x.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"320\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<h2>What a person believes in is real<\/h2>\n<p>Since each of us has our own story, we all live in different realities. Reality is how a person interprets everything that happens in their life, what they find daily proof of and choose to believe is true. Interpretation is how we explain the reasons behind our actions.<\/p>\n<p>People can interpret the exact same event in completely different ways and they can all be right. So when someone says, “Let’s look at the facts realistically,” they’re being manipulative. What they’re really doing is trying to convince you that their version of reality is more real than yours.<\/p>\n<p>We had a moment in a therapy group with two business partners O. and K. The group had just started and O. was running late. K. decided to share that things at their company were a mess: employees were quitting, clients weren’t paying, and the business was about to shut down. Right then, O. walked in. He cut in and shared his view of things: they were updating the team, which was a good thing, new people mean fresh ideas. Yes, clients owed them money, but the company was still going, which meant they’d have a lot of cash soon when payments came in. Overall, things were going well.<\/p>\n<p>O. and K. were both right. They just had different realities. A person’s reality is shaped by what they believe. And behind every belief, there’s a set of core convictions or things they rely on.<\/p>\n<h2>The ultimate expression of a person’s belief is their actions<\/h2>\n<p>How you spend your free time, whether it’s at work, at the gym or with your family. How you do or don’t build friendships. Where you choose to spend your time, energy and money. All of that is the truest expression of what you really believe in All of that is the truest expression of what you really believe in and what actually matters to you.<\/p>\n<p>People often come up with different ways to interpret the same events. But what someone does consistently says a lot more about what they believe and the reality they live in.<\/p>\n<p>For example, T. thought he was a good friend. He made friends easily and joined group hobbies, but he always ended up in a big fight and cut ties. After that, he’d start looking for new ones. For T., friendship wasn’t really about connection. What mattered most was proving his belief that people can’t be trusted and that long-term relationships don’t work. Friendship was just a way to confirm that belief.<\/p>\n<p>What we believe isn’t always easy to notice. Our habits and environment feel normal because we’ve lived with them for so long. Like fish don’t notice the water, we don’t notice our automatic reactions. Some examples: staying in a relationship just to keep proving that people can’t be trusted, or working at a job that makes you believe work-life balance isn’t possible.<\/p>\n<h2>The best way to grow is by taking responsibility<\/h2>\n<p>Who we are is like bad breath. We might want to connect with others, but they keep their distance. And we don’t understand why, because we don’t even realize the bad smell is there.<\/p>\n<p>To really see your beliefs and yourself, you need an outside perspective. But not just any perspective, it has to be a trained one, someone who can see more than just your actions. They can spot the cause-and-effect behind what you do. This kind of observer can help you notice the patterns in your behavior, the ones that keep bringing your life back to the same familiar place.<\/p>\n<p>The person you talk to should help you stay out of a victim mindset where you blame other people or outside things for what’s going on in your life. It’s easy to fall into that trap. If it’s someone else’s fault, then you don’t have to do anything to change it.<\/p>\n<p>That’s why you can take a universal approach to life, believing that you’re responsible for everything that happens. And by everything, that means truly everything: the past, the present and the future.<\/p>\n<p>For example:<br \/>\n<b>You’re responsible for the past, like the fact that World War II happened.<\/b> Your responsibility is to know history and make sure it never happens again.<br \/>\n<b>You’re responsible for the present, like when you threw out your back.<\/b> Maybe you created that situation so you could finally rest and take a few days off work. A more active approach would be to start listening to yourself sooner, so your body doesn’t have to force you to slow down in the only way it can.<\/p>\n<p>The best part of this mindset is that it puts you in the present. If you accept that you’re the reason things happen, then you can change them. If you can change them, you have a reason to act. And when you act with awareness, that’s what it means to truly live.<\/p>\n<h2>The role of nature and the brain in changing belief<\/h2>\n<p>You have your past experience and it tells you that the way you’ve been doing things keeps you alive. You’re still here, so your old way must have worked. But change is unknown. It’s risky. It means stepping into something new and that can feel scary and unsafe.<\/p>\n<p>Change takes energy and energy is limited. Changing a habit takes even more. One of the brain’s jobs is to explain why you shouldn’t change your belief, so it can save that energy. Any situation can be seen in terms of pros and cons:<br \/>\nA boy got into a fight. Pro – he’s brave. Con – he doesn’t know how to solve problems with words.<br \/>\nA king took a city by tricking the enemy. Con – he didn’t prove himself in battle. Pro – he saved the lives of soldiers on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Since every situation has two sides, the brain can easily come up with explanations that keep your beliefs intact and logically justify why you shouldn’t change anything. That’s why people often say, “Just do it”, so your brain doesn’t get a chance to make excuses to keep things the same. The brain isn’t always a good partner when you want to change. You can’t fully trust it, it’s wired to protect your status quo.<\/p>\n<p><b>Takeaways:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>The reality you live in comes from what you believe.<\/li>\n<li>You can understand what someone believes by looking at their actions and the results.<\/li>\n<li>Take responsibility to grow.<\/li>\n<li>The brain fights change, don’t trust it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n",
            "summary": "Since each of us has our own story, we all live in different realities. Reality is how a person interprets everything that happens in their life, what they find daily proof of and choose to believe is",
            "date_published": "2020-05-30T14:47:00+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:57+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "выбор",
                "ответственность",
                "развитие"
            ],
            "image": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/responsobility@2x.jpg",
            "_date_published_rfc2822": "Sat, 30 May 2020 14:47:00 +0200",
            "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false",
            "_rss_guid": "73",
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        {
            "id": "74",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/?go=all\/ethnographic-journey-through-china\/",
            "title": "Ethnographic journey through China",
            "content_html": "<p>In September, three of my classmates from Skolkovo – M., K. and R. and I went on a trip through six cities in China: Guangzhou → Shenzhen → Xiamen → Shanghai → Hangzhou → Beijing. The whole trip was thoughtfully organized by M. She was the first Chinese student to graduate from the Skolkovo MBA program in fall 2019, and earlier this spring she moved back home after spending five years working in Russia.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/road.png\" width=\"634\" height=\"320\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p>It’s worth mentioning that back in December, we had an off-site Skolkovo module in Hong Kong at HKUST – the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Their business school is ranked #1 in the world for EMBA programs by the Financial Times. As part of the program, we had lectures on China’s economic development to help us better understand the local business landscape, visited several Hong Kong-based companies and spent one day in Shenzhen. Hong Kong really made an impression of a modern city full of massive skyscrapers, lines outside Gucci stores and Teslas used as taxis. That day trip to Shenzhen in December was way too short to get any real sense of mainland China.<\/p>\n<p>In my mind, that quick trip didn’t really change my impression of mainland China as I still pictured it as one giant factory that supplies the whole world. At the time, I saw Hong Kong and Shenzhen as exceptions to the rule. Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.<\/p>\n<p>This new trip completely blew me away, I had no idea what was really going on in China. Before my first visit to the US, I had some expectations and a mental image of the country. But with China, it was all pretty vague, mostly formal descriptions and growth charts from HKUST.<\/p>\n<h2>What surprised me<\/h2>\n<p><b>1.<\/b> Each city we visited had its own clear goal or strategy and was seriously working toward it. In some places, that led to clusters of companies that supported each other. For example, Shenzhen is a big tech hub. A bunch of hardware companies are based in the same area. If one company is building a new device, they can just cross the street to talk to parts suppliers. That makes everything faster and more efficient.<\/p>\n<p><b>2.<\/b> The cities are growing at an incredible pace. That means constant construction, new road and major updates to city infrastructure. For example, Beijing had 13.5 million people in 2000 and by 2015 it had grown to 21.7 million. And it’s not just about size, they’re also putting real effort into the urban environment. In some residential neighborhoods you’ll see trash bins made to look like wood. Or Shanghai – there’s a stunning waterfront with beautiful landscaping and thoughtful little details, like tiny crow sculptures built into the railings along the river.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<div class=\"fotorama\" data-width=\"2560\" data-ratio=\"1.3333333333333\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/nabereznaya.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/nabereznaya_2.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/nabereznaya_3.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">The waterfront in Shanghai<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>3.<\/b> GDP growth has been around 7% in recent years, while mortgage rates are at 4%. Inflation in 2018 was just 2.1%. Numbers like that push people to buy property, which has driven up the price per square meter, even in second-tier cities to around $15 500. There’s also a special program for Chinese citizens: every month, 12% of your salary automatically goes into a fund that can only be used to buy real estate and your employer adds up to another 12% on top of that. As a result, many people own apartments they don’t live in, they rent them out instead, which keeps rental prices low. For example, a two-story apartment in Xiamen with a large master bedroom, a kids’ room, two bathrooms and a huge kitchen-living area with a bay view can go for just 50,000 rubles a month. That said, M. mentioned she thinks the real estate market is a bubble.<\/p>\n<p><b>4. <\/b>The government plays a major role in business and interestingly, it often feels like a positive one. For example, entire cities or regions will publicly lay out their development strategies, so it’s clear what they’re aiming for and what kind of projects they want to attract. That gives people a sense of direction where to apply, how to get involved and what the bigger picture is. On top of that, the government creates large-scale strategic programs, builds processes around them and allocates real funding. One example: a region might set a goal to bring in up to a million entrepreneurs, scientists, and top-tier professionals either from abroad or among Chinese citizens living overseas by 2025, with dedicated funding to support that goal.<\/p>\n<p><b>5.<\/b> Electric cars are everywhere in big cities, I got the impression that every fifth car was electric. You can spot them by their green license plates, while gas-powered ones have blue plates. Officially, the stats say it’s more like one in ten, but still they’re hard to miss. There are also tons of scooters on the streets and they’re all battery-powered. You walk around and there’s no smell of gasoline, it’s kind of amazing.<\/p>\n<p><b>6.<\/b> There are so many services built into WeChat. It’s technically a messenger, but really it’s a whole ecosystem. Even Airbnb isn’t just a separate app, it also works as a mini-app inside WeChat. We needed SIM cards, so M. sent a request and 15 minutes later a guy showed up on a bike and delivered them. Someone cracked their phone screen, we ordered a repair through WeChat and an hour later a technician found us at a tech expo, fixed the screen in 15 minutes and that was it. At a regular (not fast food!) restaurant, we scanned a QR code at the table, picked our dishes, paid through the app and the waiter brought everything over. M. said we were also using Meituan a lot, it’s kind of like an upgraded TripAdvisor for ordering services. One more thing, there’s almost no outdoor ads on the streets, but there’s tons of ads inside WeChat.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<div class=\"fotorama\" data-width=\"2560\" data-ratio=\"1.3333333333333\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/curier.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/telephone-sobiraut.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">Mobile service for SIM card delivery and screen repair<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>7.<\/b> We mostly traveled between cities by train. The high-speed trains we took reached up to 250 km\/h and some can go as fast as 400 km\/h. The rail network is huge and the stations are massive. The trains look a lot like the Sapsan back in Russia, but with some nice touches. Each seat has a built-in power outlet and there’s a windowsill wide enough to hold a cup of coffee. All the seats face the direction of travel and when the train is about to head back the other way, a staff member simply turns all the rows around to face forward again.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-video\">\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EW9NHCLp9Qo?enablejsapi=1\" allow=\"autoplay\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">The process of turning the seats to face the direction of travel<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<div class=\"fotorama\" data-width=\"2560\" data-ratio=\"1.3333333333333\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/vokzal_1.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/vokzal.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/vokzal_2.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>8.<\/b> There’s a huge focus on children’s education. There are tons of clubs and programs for kids and teens to keep learning outside of school. In one mall, we saw a space of about 500 square meters turned into an education center, the whole area was divided into small cubicles, each with a table and two chairs. Kids come there after school for one-on-one tutoring, moving from cubicle to cubicle depending on the subject. One reason behind this is that many Chinese families feel the growing pressure of competition and that’s pushing them to invest heavily in education.<\/p>\n<p><b>9.<\/b> Tea culture is huge. It’s hard to find a Chinese person without a thermos of tea in hand. Tea shops are super popular, they look a lot like Starbucks, but instead of coffee, they serve tea in all kinds of flavors with different toppings. In Hangzhou, we went to one of these places and tried to order at the counter, only to be told the wait time was an hour and a half! And the shop didn’t even look that busy. Turns out, most people were ordering their tea through WeChat.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<div class=\"fotorama\" data-width=\"2560\" data-ratio=\"1.3333333333333\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/tea.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/tea_2.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">The interior of a “tea Starbucks”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Other things I noticed<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In China, they actually use a lean-style approach to policy: new ideas or programs are first tested in one province and if it works, they scale it up across the whole country;<\/li>\n<li>Way fewer people smoke on the streets compared to Russia. But you might still run into someone smoking in a public restroom;<\/li>\n<li>We were moving from south to north, but for me the heat and humidity were tough. I ended up relying on taxis and constantly hunting for air conditioning. In Xiamen, for example, the humidity was 74%. Nighttime was way more comfortable;<\/li>\n<li>Without speaking Chinese, things get tricky. When M. wasn’t around, we had to rely on phone translators to talk to waiters;<\/li>\n<li>A lot of places have special sinks and toilets for kids. And when landed in Guangzhou, you could even take a shower right in the public restroom at the airport;<\/li>\n<li>Tons of fruit everywhere. At a regular corner store you can buy a fresh coconut and the cashier will poke holes in it and stick in a straw for you;<\/li>\n<li>To boost local economies, cities or provinces offer special incentives, like waiving taxes for new businesses for the first three years;<\/li>\n<li>Each city we visited had its own food culture and special dishes;<\/li>\n<li>In high-rise buildings, elevators are grouped by floor range, so each one serves only a set of floors, which helps avoid traffic jams inside the building;<\/li>\n<li>In the south, houses often have cone-shaped roofs because of the rain. In the north, roofs are flat;<\/li>\n<li>In Hangzhou, where Alibaba’s headquarters are, there’s a whole business ecosystem built around serving the e-commerce industry;<\/li>\n<li>There’s barely any visual ads on the streets. M. said that most of the ads are inside WeChat. And the cities look nicer without all that visual noise;<\/li>\n<li>Each city has a massive number of shared bikes you can rent through apps like Meituan, Alipay, or Didi;<\/li>\n<li>Parking gates work automatically, cameras read your license plate and there’s no paper tickets or attendants involved.<br \/>\n明燕多謝。<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"e2-text-picture\">\n<div class=\"fotorama\" data-width=\"2560\" data-ratio=\"1.3333333333333\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/prosto_4.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/prosto_2.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/prosto_3.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/www.mazurchak.com\/pictures\/prosto.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"e2-text-caption\">A napkin that turns into a coffee carrier, seafood snacks in a regular supermarket and ads in the subway.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b> The main feeling I had after coming back was anger and frustration for Russia. As of 2019, the country’s strategy was all about “stability.” There’s no such thing as profit, only a fee for taking risks. But what’s the price we pay for stability? 缺乏增长<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, China is a rising superpower. I had a sense that it was on the rise, but I had no idea just how massive that rise really was.<\/p>\n",
            "summary": "In September, three of my classmates from Skolkovo – M., K. and R. and I went on a trip through six cities in China...",
            "date_published": "2019-11-06T09:13:28+02:00",
            "date_modified": "2026-07-21T11:54:58+02:00",
            "tags": [
                "China",
                "Russia",
                "state"
            ],
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