The article that follows is not quite standard and differs from the previous ones. It lacks substance, is more convoluted, but has the same conclusions, and I hope it's no less interesting than the previous ones. So, here we goโฆ
At what age did you first encounter dark periods in your life?
Until recently, I didn't believe in their existence, probably because even while living alone and solving my problems independently, they never came to me all at once.
It's hard to say which of the 5 levels of social environment I belong to (the 5 levels from the book ๐ "Leader and Tribe"), but I definitely exhibit many traits of the highest ๐ 5th level. I am extremely satisfied with my life, my family, my friends, and I enjoy my work. I sit in my comfort zone, develop, do my job, and hope that the world around me becomes a little better. I don't compete or compete with anyone, whether in life or at work ๐ง๐พโโ๏ธ.
But not long ago, after a rather successful trip โ๏ธ to Novosibirsk and Altai, I had two not-so-great months. While I was away from Minsk, upon returning to the city, I already had to resolve 3-4 minor issues that required me to step out of my comfort zone and daily routine. When I arrived in Minsk, my car broke down ๐. Right in front of my house, already in the parking lot. And that would have been fine, but I had just passed the technical inspection and was ready to conquer even Everest with it. The breakdown was such that I couldn't start the car to drive to the nearest service station. All the mobile mechanics refused to help me because they weren't sure what the issue was out of the 3-4 possible options, as it was hard to check without a pit or a ramp. But even this problem seemed trivial compared to what happened to me a few days later. My bank ๐ฆ blocked all my money and accounts. Neither the mobile app nor the web version of my personal account worked. Of course, I couldn't withdraw any money, nor could I pay for purchases. Firstly, I didn't have much cash on hand at that moment, and secondly, the bank froze around $8,500. The amount may not be huge, but it's still my hard-earned money that I didn't want to lose. To add to this, a couple of days later, I learned that the health of several of my relatives ๐จ๐ปโ๐ฆณ๐จ๐ป (thank God, not immediate family) had suddenly worsened. If you think that this was the end of my troubles and misfortunes, you are mistaken. In addition to the 3-4 minor problems, the broken car outside my window, my relatives' health issues, and the fact that I was almost out of money, another unexpected problem arose. My rather quiet neighbors upstairs flooded my apartment ๐ง. And that would have been fine, but the flooding occurred around the switches and outlets. The outlet and switches started making loud and strange buzzing noises, and it seemed like they were about to spark ๐ฅ. To prevent that, I quickly turned off all the breakers (of course, only mine, not the neighbors').
It was a very strange feeling: without a car, without money, without electricity, and on top of that, not having resolved any of the problems I initially planned to tackle ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ๐จ. But even at that moment, despite the fact that hysterical laughter ๐คฃ wouldn't leave me for a long time, I still understood that things could be worse. The apartment didn't catch fire, and no one died.
One must always look for the positives. I tried to restore the electricity from time to time, but the sounds from the outlet didn't go away, and I had to carefully figure out which breaker controlled which rooms/switches. This didn't help much, as one main breaker controlled the entire apartment, so I couldn't leave part of the apartment powered ๐ ๐ก while turning off the flooded outlets. To speed up the drying process, I had to completely disassemble both the outlet and the switches. Thus, thanks to this problem, I learned about the power supply system in the apartment and how to disassemble and assemble switches and outlets. I didn't stay without electricity for long, and soon, after about 5-6 hours, I was able to turn on the lights and no longer hear those horrible sounds.
The next problem I rushed to solve was unlocking my bank accounts ๐ฐ. At the beginning of the workweek, for 2-3 days, I went to the bank about 5 times, bringing them the required documents ๐. I approached the girl who was serving me without waiting in line; she took the documents, I returned home, and waited for a call ๐. It also took her quite some time to understand and determine which department had blocked me, and she managed to call 2-3 places. She couldn't unlock anything herself, even with all my documents in hand, because she lacked the authority. I, in turn, was also heavily dependent on my company, which provided me with the documents. The communication happened in a chain like this: our operations director -> me -> the girl at the bank branch accepting documents and contacting the department that blocked me -> the foreign transfers department that had blocked me. After any information appeared from the last element of the chain, it would follow back through the chain in reverse order. It might have resembled the game "broken telephone," and perhaps that's one of the reasons I had to go to the bank about 5 times ๐๐ฝ. However, they didn't want to cooperate directly with our firm and the operations director (apparently, they're not allowed to talk to grown men from abroad). Some of the documents I provided were utterly absurd. Firstly, because contracts need to be signed by both parties, they had to be printed ๐, signed, photographed or scanned, and sent to the other party ๐ฎ, which was me. I needed to print them, sign them, take them to the bank (or again scan/photograph them and send them via email to the bank). Of course, the quality noticeably deteriorated with each step. Sending original documents took too long. Express mail would take about 4 days. Regular mailโtwo weeks. Sometimes, due to poor quality, they had to redo the documents twice, which, of course, frustrated me. The first time I signed almost blank sheets with barely visible screenshots of my work and code (there were about 20 sheets), I caught myself thinking about how absurd the task I was engaged in at that moment was. Secondly, the documents I provided contained code and images confirming the code and the work as a whole. One must understand how ridiculous and pointless this looks:
- I am not allowed to disclose, according to the contract, the source codes ๐ค that I write for the company (not even to the bank). But okay, the company made concessions and allowed it.
- None of the reviewers have any understanding of the code ๐ค, the screenshots, or the listed work (you could put any code from the internet in there).
- The application for work must be submitted before the work is performed, and since I have monthly payments, it needs to be structured at the beginning of each month, describing the planned work to be done ๐ง. Even those who follow Scrum and other methodologies, where a sprint is clearly planned for a month or another period, understand that there are often many spontaneous tasks. There are instances when the CEO or general director comes in and says that an urgent task needs to be done instead. Because of this, you realize that the list compiled in the application (on which you then have to report with code and images to the bank) does not always match reality. Moreover, the level of trust between me and the company is such that I know what needs to be done and in what priority without any applications.
In short, the maximum level of discomfort, which is done by the bank employees just for the sake of formality, because it has become necessary. Nevertheless, after 4-6 days without money, all my accounts and cards were unlocked, and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The problems with the car also started to be partially resolved. First of all, I managed to disassemble what I could in the parking lot (though I didn't find any faults, I reassembled it). Secondly, I finally figured out how to start the car from under the hood, thereby checking the starter and ruling out its malfunction. I must say, this was not easy: getting to it was quite difficult. Additionally, when short-circuiting, the starter sparks and leaves decent scars on the object with which it is connected. And if you forget to take the car out of gear, it could roll and crush you. So, the first couple of times starting it this way was, to put it mildly, nerve-wracking. However, I was already able to drive it to the service station ๐ .
After arriving at the service station the next day, I picked it up, but they hadn't fixed it, claiming that there was no electrician at their current location (they have 4 service stations), and I needed to go to another place. Nevertheless, they inspected the starter for me, replaced the brushes for some reason, and I paid for the repair, which may not have even happened, and drove to another service station. I could have gone to a completely different service station, but then I would have needed to know for sure that they had an electrician available. So I was already confident and heading almost to the other end of the city to leave the car there. I arrived successfully. The next day, they called and said everything was ready for pickup.
Smaller problems, which I won't describe in detail for various reasons, also gradually resolved โ within a week from the moment the black streak started to turn around. The health of my relatives also improved.
However, it was still too early to celebrate. One day, I decided to glue my shoes ๐ (which I had done several times before), and the tube of glue, which was overfilled after being opened carelessly, not only spilled but dripped onto my white sneakers that I intended to fix. Instead of repairing them, the sneakers became unwearable, as the glue wouldn't come off. You might call me clumsy, and you might be right, but during that period when it seemed that all problems were resolved, I was alarmed by how awkwardly this happened, as it had never occurred before. Jokingly, I thought that perhaps the streak of bad luck wasn't over yet. Surprisingly, I was right. The next day, I received a call from the bank, informing me that if I didn't submit the contract within a day, they would block my accounts again. And by the way, I still hadn't withdrawn the money that was blocked last time. So, I had to quickly resend the necessary documents. As luck would have it, their employees call around 6 PM, no matter when you send the documents. Plus, they can't open a regular archive and ask you to send the document again. It seemed like the situation was under control, but not entirely. The risk of blocking my accounts hadn't been fully eliminated. Only after two additional resends of the signed documents did they finally leave me alone.
I'm not Tarantino, and certainly not Nolan ๐ฅ, to play with time in my stories. But now let's go back a little to the car. When I received a call from the second service station saying that everything was ready, it was just after the incident with the sneakers and after the renewed issue with the bank. So now it was time to fully reveal this "storyline." It seemed like everything was resolved. There was still an open issue with the bank, and during the day (the bank only called in the evening), I went to pick up the car, hoping they had fixed it. I arrived, sat down with the service station manager to start the car. And lo and behold: it wouldn't start again ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ. I could see that work had been done; I saw the old parts, a new key, a new ignition cylinder, and even a contact group. But when I turned the key, just like before, nothing happened, and the car made not a single sound. First, the service station manager tried, then even the electrician who had replaced everything. It seemed they were even more upset than I was, as I was already prepared for anything, and the only thing I wanted to jokingly tell them was, "Guys, it's not you, it's me" ๐ . Nevertheless, just a couple of days later, I picked up a working car.
I hope I have revealed all my "storylines" of problems to their final resolutions. Do I believe in streaks of bad luck? There's no definitive answer. More likely no than yes. But since various events, both good and bad, happen in a person's life in a random order, no matter how much one tries to control their life, it is statistically possible for a series of bad events to occur one after another. Have I become less optimistic about life and dropped from level 5 straight to level 2 with thoughts of "my life sucks" ๐ or even to level 1 with thoughts of "life is crap"? Of course not. Good events will follow the series of bad ones. It's important to be able to recognize and notice them, as people often perceive something good as ordinary, while the bad immediately stands out and ruins all plans. However, I can say for sure that any series of bad events can be very demotivating and hinder daily and weekly planning ๐. It disrupts concentration on work and personal life. Therefore, it's essential to try to get out of any streak of bad luck as quickly as possible and not to despair if you feel like you haven't escaped it yet, as its traces may still be visible for some time.
