Hi, my name is Kirill Pertsev
It's spelled like krill, but with ee after k. Cyril works too (it's the same name)
One of two Bulgarian (or Greek, the jury is still out) monks who invented Cyrillic alphabet was Cyril/Kirill
What do I do for a living
I make your software run outside your laptop. I build infrastructure, I make the tests run, I make the deploys, I make the rollbacks, I manage how much does it cost, I make all of the above testable and committable into git. I monitor and observe all of it so that it runs how it's supposed to run. If it doesn't, I fix it and make sure it's not happening again. I hire people and reluctantly delegate them any and eventually all of these functions and duties, prepare budgets, conduct performance reviews, lead people through hard times, help them progress their careers, listen to their aspirations, promote them, give them raises and bonuses, and sometimes have to let them go.
Even if I run a large team I still can't get away from the urge to write something and make it run, so I code in my free time. Currently my favorites are Flutter on the frontend and Rust on the backend. This is where I can do risky stuff that's not appropriate for a larger organization.
What I did for a living
Hobbies
- I program computers. I jokingly say "I don't have a life, my primary hobby is my job". As any good joke it's only a half joke. And not a good one.
- I sail boats. I don't do it competitively (but my daugther does!) but leisurely. I like to moor the boat in a lonely place and watch sunsets and sunrises for a few days and then sail to next such place. I sailed Caribbean, Mediterranean and French Polynesia.
- I started my professional career as a self-taught electronics engineer and still have a soft spot in my heart for electronics, so I sometimes build a tiny computer to do something.
- I cook a lot
Trivia
- I have a very thick skin. Every time I join a new company and someone starts beating around the bush trying to avoid to hurt my feelings I offer this person a $1000 check if they will be able to offend me. So far nobody was able to claim this check. There's only one person in the world who can offend me and for safety reasons I married this person (it didn't solve the problem completely though).
- I have very strong opinions on very many things. If someone is making a mistake I'll fight tooth and nail to talk reason into this person, but once the decision has been made, it's made. I don't say "I told you so".
- I prefer clear separation of duties (occupational hazard). If I'm responsible for something, I'm responsible for it and my decision is final, although I can engage in a very long conversations about possible options, etc. If someone else is responsible for something, being asked I'll offer my strong opinions (see above), but I'll go with the decision of the responsible person.
- My opinions are usually based on some direct or indirect knowledge. Usually if I have no knowledge I have no opinion as well. I have good intuition and it helped me innumerable times, but it's not a replacement for knowlege.
- I hired a lot of people over the course of the last 30 years, and I can barely name 2 mishires. I progressively built better and better teams. Probably the most mastered skill I have is hiring.
- I can't learn traditional way. Handbooks and video courses make me fall asleep (literally, when I have trouble getting asleep, I watch some educational video on Youtube). Maybe it's some mental disorder, I don't know. I learn a lot and I learn quite fast by jumping head first and start doing. Then I get stuck and buy a book. As soon as I unstuck myself I keep doing. Etc. (I just found out that is not a disability but known problem: https://mkremins.github.io/blog/doors-headaches-intellectual-need/)
- As a consequence of the above it doesn't make any sense to ask me if I can do something, because the answer is always "yes", even if I don't have a slightest idea of what it is. So given the previous it's safer to ask me if I know something.