Jobs: Ruslan Fazlyev known startups, the author of «Ecwid» and «X-Cart»

Our first guest in the new year - a famous programmer and Internet entrepreneur Ruslan Fazlyev. After winning the contest start-ups "Business Project - 2010" Ruslan often have to give interviews to various of IT-resources. Readers' Layfhakera "he will speak about his work.

What do you do in your work?

I - startups with the experience, and more than 12 years I have been developing e-commerce platforms. The most famous - X-Cart and Ecwid.

X-Cart - the world's first PHP platform for online shopping. The company has grown from three students to staff in more than 150 people at a time when the word "startup" yet no one spoke in Russian.

Ecwid - cloud widget e-commerce, with more than 200,000 registered sellers. It allows you to quickly and free of charge, without involving a programmer to add online store to any website, blog or social network page.

How does your workplace?

5 months a year I spend traveling, so my working place - a favorite MacBook Air 13 ". Agile, easy, fast machine. Even relatively lightweight MacBook Pro 13 "Retina heavy afterwards.

Physical ease of this machine creates a feeling of lightness in the work. Lock yourself in a room with a laptop - it's very me, so I manage to come without a tan from the sunny California.

In 2008, I had forgotten laptop to control at Paphos Airport (later organized sending it through a friend in London) - and realizing the security risks associated with the mobile device, I always encrypted file system laptop.

In 16 years, I for the first and hopefully the last (I am now 32) times, lost all its data. Leaving friends, he took with him a hard disk. We all then well done - flash drives were not, and on diskettes wear gored. Put the drive in an antistatic bag and felt a dull blow on the toe of a boot: it turned out, was not the package bottom. Games and library that I wrote all my childhood, were valuable to me, but to allow data recovery service then I could not imagine. Therefore, I am very serious about backups: everything on the encrypted disk Time Machine.

When I was 31 years old, RSI, Professional programmers disease, caused by my sudden and very painful blow. Yesterday I was the mayor of the gym on the Foursquare, and all of a sudden can not open a tube of toothpaste, press or keep a kettle of water on an outstretched arm. After six months spent on the recovery, I started very seriously to ergonomics. I only use the type of Microsoft Natural keyboard. The slope of the keyboard - also ergonomic from me, not to me. On my two desktops three mouse: ergonomic semi-erect from Microsoft, Magic Mouse, and an external touch pad from Apple. The use of different controllers for the mouse also helps minimize repetitive activity, leading to RSI.

I live 30 meters from the office and switch between systems by simply transferring a notebook. So I have two identical Apple Cinema LED Display: I disconnect and connect again without opening the cover Macbook, so the window arrangement is saved when you change the office.

Before my eyes on the poster hanging with calligraphy "may all your dreams and wishes come true." It usually happens, so I call it the ancient Chinese curse.

As a child, I was convinced that Lenin was - a superhero, so I always wanted to study yourself from the table with the green upholstery, like his. In Lenin, I bitterly disappointed, but the table "like Lenin" I fashioned in England, and now he's in my office in Russia.

Photo-up poppy era - is now "iron" more. But that's not a photo, and a lesson - do not make a table like Lenin. Thick cover neergonomichna, ostavlet little legroom.

What hardware are using?

Most of the already listed. But I started my career as a system administrator, so the Internet at home gives my Mini-ATX server running FreeBSD - mess around with him, so as not to lose skills. But the constant upgrades of the system, carried out by hand, takes time. I'm thinking to abandon this machine. WiFi-point - Apple Airport Extreme, it is better to only Time Capsule. The setup process - just nuts! With WiFi-routers from other manufacturers I have always had a problem, a little earlier or a little later.

But layfhaker from me, probably worthless, because I put the server on the uppermost storage shelf, climb to very uncomfortable, and if I need something to reboot, I just reach for the button to mop. Therefore, treatment of iron stale I call "shvabroterapiey".

I can not stand when a top-level provider's problem, so just in case I have a direct fiber to the office. It is sometimes used as a backup Internet link.

I started very early to use mobile devices: Palm III, Palm V, Sony Clie, different devices on Windows Mobile. When they are part of me, configuration and reconfiguration eat up so much time that it is not clear: you have to phone or phone to you? I do not need "tamogochi" (a variety of "tamogochi" I have enough in life), so now I have a iPhone, which I just can not play with Interface: The interface is only one possible, and I chose it for the professionals, and I can concentrate on what I'm a professional - the company and own life.

What software use?

I respect the author's right and I do not like to hang with the Trojans keygens, so I have only licensed software.

License "Photoshop" is expensive, so I bought it second-hand... On eBay. :)

Part of the software I bought back in the Windows-times, and do not want / can not take the Mac-version, so I should Parallels Virtual Desktop with Windows. Therefore, to me a bit lacking SSD size (256Gb): have to conduct a "clean" more often than we would like.

desktop

Each month, Smashing Magazine publishes a set of cool desktop wallpapers. Each month, I find them on request «smashing magazine desktop wallpaper " and put on the desktop.

Regular change of background acutely feel the passage of time and progress.

OS

The last three years I was completely on the apple ecosystem: Mac OS, iPhone, iPad. The latest OS from Microsoft has Windows 7 Release Candidate. Actually, not so: I had Win7RC, I really like it, has been a reliable, easy to use, all the drivers have worked out of the box.

And then she ran out of the period of validity, and despite the fact that I bought a license, I had to demolish the Release Candidate and put bought "box". It was the Widows 7 Rus. And she was miserable! It was an order is less stable than the RC, and in general, I vybeshivaet kirillisticheskie Western version of software.

I'm torn down and moved to the Mac OS. The move is unlikely to have ended well if not for Jack Treasurers, evangelist Ecwid. He said: "Ruslan, you should be good expectations from Mac OS X. You hate her! But then a paradigm shift, and you can not without Mac OS ».

"Jack, I've used a lot of different operating systems, I had RedHat Linux and FreeBSD as a desktop system - somehow manage" - I retorted.

The first two weeks I sometimes just wanted to throw the laptop out of the window. Day buzz, and then 14 days of fierce hatred. Simple, familiar tasks become suddenly difficult. I did not just want to return the Macbook: I wanted to break it down, break this reptile physically.

But, fortunately, remembering Jenny warning doterpel two weeks, trying to understand the differences in approach. In fact, right now I can not imagine returning to the PC.

Mail, calendar and organizer

A significant part of the day I spend in the mail client Gmail. Many people are surprised that I am using the web version, but it seems to me it is most convenient.

Calendar - by itself, the standard calendar Mac OS, integrated with Google Calendar and devices on iOS. To my calendar has access secretary, and, as a rule, the time for all calls defines it. In the evening, every day I look at the tough terrain of the next day, and planning than the loan unpainted at the meeting.

Flow problems I run technique Getting Things Done Paul Allen (by the way, he - the client of our company, its Web site sells books and seminars with the help of X-Cart).

Since GTD does not regulate the instruments, but only processes that have to work in the management of the day, my GTD implementation did not use any software. Projects were simply directories on the file system. The name of each directory is defined as the desired outcome of the project, in perfect shape. Each directory has been actions.txt file with a list of project activities. Could be the same files and directories related to the project.

Catalogs projects were in the context of the catalogs: "Office", "Home", "Moscow", "The Road", etc. For the individual, not components of the project activities rather than the directory I created a blank text file named that describes act. Those. Right click -> "New Text Document" -> I enter my name - so I created a new task.

Depending on the context of the next steps, I threw the project directory between the directory context - just the mouse, as the file system objects. I want to put the project on pause - drag it to the directory "We are waiting."

Catalog of "The Road" is synchronized with Windows Mobile, and so if I threw something in "The Road", I got it on a mobile device. «Dropbox» was not there.

It all worked well, and I remember this time as a peak performance. But when I switched to Mac, Sergei Bulaev (@sbulaev) dragged me OmniFocus: Excellent task management system, sharpened by the GTD, and maintains synchronization between applications Mac OS, iPhone and iPad.

OmniFocus - very good software and I use it for two years. But for some reason I'm not so happy with my performance and with nostalgia about the "old" system. Perhaps, then, there was simply less tasks per unit time, and therefore it was easier to handle.

Or maybe the fact that in a system with a task list to a text file were a lot of flexibility, and it was not possible to specify a deadline. The system does not change the state of the software, it changes state only when I did it by hand - it gave a greater sense of control.

I try to minimize the use of instant messaging systems. I use only iMessage (with him come out and corporate Jabber-server) and "Skype".

I - a fan of "Skype". With it I can connect and network subscriber to a voice call from a few people, and to call on his own mobile phone is lost. Sometimes so lazy to go for a phone in another room, I even just colleagues in Russia to mobile calling to "Skype", so as not to break away from the computer.

I generally strive to minimize any distractions. Just like that's how people - to respond to events that I can hardly forbear to click on a bold new posts in the inbox, or a light bulb appeared responses on Twitter. Therefore, I limit the number of launches Twitter clients per day, and in the mail made a two different tabs: "Write a letter" and "read the letter." "Write," leads me past the box "Incoming", so as not to provoke a distraction if he saw something interesting.

Incoming mail is checked on the basis of not less than once a week, but not more than necessary, so as not to lose touch with the world completely. Ideal - 3-5 times a week, but when dumped in frequent checks, waiting for events - falls productivity.

At the same time messengers I always run - I want to be accessible to those who urgently need it. But I was very annoyed by people who use it recklessly, and pushing to the decision "effectively shut down the flow of communication."

Every evening, eager to spend a small retrospective and planning: "What made the day tough?", "What did not?", "What lesson learned? "," What should of made to repeat on a regular basis? "," What shall I do tomorrow? "," What a pleasant and / or sports will schedule themselves to tomorrow?".

Not always have the discipline to comply with all of the above described principles, but if I keep everything, pleased with himself, productive and happy. Not observed - I dumped "into a tailspin": a lot of tired, a little time to, and kleymlyu themselves bad words.

In recent years, the number of distractions has grown so much that saves only the machinery "Pomodoro"And the programm"Pomodorable». It's Getting Things Done - compatible concept taymmenedzhmenta, the main value of which - the simplicity and absolute concentration.

Is there a place in your paper work?

I love to draw mind maps on paper, fountain pen. Another sheet of paper - a visualization of my strategic objectives in life for the next six months or a year. At this misoneism ends, and everything I have in the figure.

Is there a dream configuration?

Good broadband internet - that's all what I lack for configuration dreams. Unfortunately, the last mile service providers do not always do their job consistently, and mobile Internet bandwidth has not kept pace with the growing number of connected devices.