Lecture · September 9, 2025
The Strugatsky Brothers
For engineers
/ Strugatskys for engineers · 2025
For engineers
For engineers
Technical Director & Fellow, large fintech
Engineer by profession, reader by calling
@book_cube channel about books and ideas
Code of Leadership podcast
From the Strugatsky tandem to a reading route
How two authors achieved one voice
How the Noon World became more complex
Which ten technologies the talk discussed
Why engineers recognise NIICHAVO
Strengths and roles changed during the work
When a disagreement deadlocked, a coin could decide
Historical fact and modern metaphor are different layers
A shared plan resembles design review
Mutual editing resembles shared ownership
Changing roles resemble driver / navigator
Short cycles provide early feedback
Abundance does not remove the risks of intervention and control
IEH, COMCON and Progressors turn utopia into a decision system
The stronger the tool, the costlier an intervention error
A Progressor can accelerate another history
Consequences cannot be modelled completely
Later books make the dilemmas harsher
The AI parallel is interpretation, not plot
Science fiction explores possibility; it does not issue precise forecasts
From the videophone and Informatorium to cloned food and virtual worlds
Videophone ≠ smartphone; virtual world ≠ Vision Pro
The writers described a user-visible effect
Modern products are only possible analogies
Do not count the Informatorium twice
E-books were absent from the recorded ten
Creative joy coexists with bureaucracy and pseudoscience
The title describes an atmosphere, not a culture of overwork
Privalov enters an unfamiliar magical institute
Teams pursue large goals autonomously
Science and fairy tale share one system
Humour makes the organisation recognisable
The broken computer and reversed time are the final act, not a side joke
A targeted measure stops being a good measure
The ideal consumer consumes without end
Pseudoscience earns a dramatic demonstration
The experiment ends in failure
An engineer must accept an unpleasant result
Two work modes, not an abstract ability to 'see the horizon'
The behaviour shown in the text is enough
Privalov — an engineer captivated by novelty
Junta — a brilliant and principled researcher
Vybegallo — reporting without scientific honesty
Janus — researcher and administrator
And provides language for the ethics of complex systems
Systems thinking grows through the consequences of decisions
Distinguish 'can' from 'should'
See society as a sociotechnical system
Recognise bureaucracy and metric gaming
Explore uncertainty without a ready answer
Roadside Picnic is a strong bonus, but outside the cycle
Engineering parallels are explicitly labelled as interpretations
VK recording and human-authored Russian subtitles
Primary texts by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Yevgeny Migunov's illustrations for Monday
Lifehacker's source list of ten analogies
polomodov.tech
All links and books — in the Telegram channel
Alexander Polomodov, Technical Director & Fellow, large fintech
@book_cube