Interview with Boris Ivanovsky, active participant of Free TON Wiki SG

We have already interviewed Boris once, to first meet him as a member of Free TON DevEx Sub-governance. In this interview we will now learn about Boris's activities as a member of the Wiki Sub-governance. Here’s what he will tell us about:

• His role in this Sub-governance and how and why he ended up in the Wiki SG;
• An experiment to check an article in 12 languages ​​at once;
• Wiki people who deserve special praise;
• The reasons why Boris appreciates criticism and people who directly express their disagreement with him more over members who never argue with him;
• What has changed in the Wiki since its start;
• What beginners can do in Free TON;
• Things that have nothing to do with Free TON, but help to get to know Boris better: why he never gets tired, even though he spends 14 hours a day before the screen? Who, in his opinion, is a true friend? What books does he consider necessary and why?

Svetoslav Bauer: Boris, glad to see you!

Boris Ivanovsky: Hello!

Svetoslav Bauer: Thank you for coming. We know you as the head of the development toolkit for TON at TON Labs. Can you please precise your role? What do you do in Free TON?

Boris Ivanovsky: I am a developer at TON Labs. And one of my responsibilities is to interact with the community. That’s why many community members know me -  I answer technical questions related to the work of smart contracts and their functioning in the blockchain.

Svetoslav Bauer: Thank you for sharing.We have interviewed you earlier as a member of DevEx Sub-governance. During that call, you told us about yourself, what you did before Free TON, how you ended up in TON Labs and in Free TON and about other things. And addressing those who will read us, I want to say that you can learn more about Boris Ivanovsky by reading that interview on our MOVETON channel.

Now, we want to know more about your role in Wiki Sub-governance. Could you tell us?

Boris Ivanovsky: I am now working on the analysis of articles and changes related to the specifics of the blockchain, as well as on the appointment of some parts of articles and all articles that are being written and translated or somehow get added to the Wiki.

Svetoslav Bauer: So you only work with technical articles?

Boris Ivanovsky: Actually not. So it happened that, while sorting through technical articles, I came across some aspects that I strongly disliked from the point of view of my human values. For quite a while, I have been urging members to consider the publication of such information. And that’s why most of the articles started getting sent to me for editing. I don’t always do it quickly, but always diligently enough.

Here is one of the curious experiments I did a while ago: I was trying to assess the quality of the translation of an article into 12 languages, none of which I knew. It was quite simple with Belarusian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, more difficult with French, Italian, Spanish, even harder with Azerbaijani, Hungarian, Greek and quite difficult with Farsi. When I found a couple of mistakes in Farsi, I was very proud of myself. I tested in practice what seemed unbelievable: you can evaluate the quality of a translation without knowing the language; esteem it for adequacy based on completely measurable characteristics, taken into account automatically, that can be revised and rechecked.

Svetoslav Bauer: That’s an interesting experience.

Boris Ivanovsky: It wasn’t that easy. It was mostly mathematical. The article was about the blockchain platform, there were also traps for translators. For example, there is a concept of a fictitious point, there is a concept of a fixed point. The Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages ​​were a trap for translators, they translated this term incorrectly. Such a translation changed the meaning of the term and, accordingly, made the translation incorrect.

It was very interesting to research because I myself learned a lot during it. You can translate "blockchain" as it is, or you can translate in a fair amount of other ways. It is necessary to translate things like 2 to the 60th degree, so that it does not become just 260, this error was present in several articles. This suggests that their authors and "translators" didn’t even read what they translated. This is just a pure laziness.

Anton Kholodov: Are you talking about machine translation?

Boris Ivanovsky: Perhaps, or possibly it was translated in a different way. That’s not bad if it doesn’t distort the meaning of the original text. Translations are needed so that a person who does not know the original language receives reliable, adequate information about what he or she is reading about.

Ivan Kotelnikov: You can translate it so that TON supports 2 to the 60th degree of addresses, or you can translate that TON supports 260 addresses in total.

Boris Ivanovsky: Vanya, as always, to the point. Something similar was observed there.

In addition, there is an interesting feature - readability. If a readable text written in some language is put on Google Translate, then its translation will also be readable, without unnecessary cumbersome constructions, not burdened with some unnecessary words or confusing meaning. Conversely, some complex text will remain unreadable. This is also one of the criteria by which I checked.

Another criterion is consistency. It means that the same term should be translated in the same way, regardless of the case, gender, form and time - it should not become another word or, even worse, turn into something from a biological dictionary, due to the fact that in the original language it is used in two meanings. Machine translation, of course, needs to be used to reduce the amount of work with the text. Distortion of meaning is a huge disadvantage of translation. This was what I was looking at. I identified several problematic parts that I considered difficult to understand and evaluated the translation of these fragments. It was an interesting activity which took me many, many hours. And in the field of linguistics, I learned a lot. Probably, it could have been done by someone else with a mathematical education, for example Vanya. This, of course, takes a lot of time, it is laborious work.

Ivan Kotelnikov: I believe that I wouldn’t be able to do this - simultaneously revise many, many, many languages. Moreover, at the same time helping people with smart contracts, answering their questions and writing their smart contracts, and also going to workshops and doing stuff at work. I think for myself this is just absolutely impossible. I would not undertake such a volume of work. That's why I consider you a genius.

Boris Ivanovsky: Thank you very much, I am very pleased, but I do not consider myself a genius. I was always interested in a lot of things. Philology and linguistics have always been in my area of ​​interest.

How did it all start? Once I spoke very unfairly about the quality of the translation of one of the articles. And after that I analyzed why I did it, apologized to the author, and then I noticed that his translation is so much better than all the others that it deserves reasonable praise. And it would be unprofessional to compare two random translations. So I had to compare all the translations.

Svetoslav Bauer: Do you remember the name of this translator?

Boris Ivanovsky: Rollie Guar. This person does a lot for the Wiki. He deserves great praise. He, in fact, unearths what things order the processes, and does this, rejecting any reward and recognition.

Ivan Kotelnikov: By the way, there’s a reason why he received an amount approximately the same as received by the person who deployed, created and technically provided the Wiki.

Boris Ivanovsky: Both of these people, Rollie Guar and Dmitry bitjudge, are underestimated and get much less tokens than they deserve. These are 2 hard workers who carry out a huge amount of work. And what they are doing is perfectly visible by the state of the Wiki and all the processes in the working group. These guys got to the point of slashing (excluding) the judges who are judging in bad faith - they have already implemented what others are only talking about.

Ivan Kotelnikov: There is also Nastya (Anesthesia), Nina, Ilona.

Boris Ivanovsky: They are wonderful. These are people who themselves get to what is needed. They implement processes without any financial assistance, without a lead. They are enthusiasts. Yes, maybe they didn't know much at the beginning, but they really grow very quickly and what they do gives visible results in quality, in the results of their work. I have a very high opinion of them.

I am pleased to help these guys, because they are gratefully implementing what I propose. I am glad to have the opportunity to work with them. They work as the community intended. All proposals that I submit for consideration are reasonably rejected by Dima, very consistently and very justifiably. I am happy about this, because the community should be governed by a decentralized, authoritative majority opinion. And a guy who comes and makes suggestions, no matter how cute and authoritative he is - his opinion should not be taken as instructions for action. Therefore, what Dima is doing is absolutely wonderful and correct. I will make my proposals and he will reject them, because they should not be implemented at this stage of development of Sub-governance. He is absolutely right in rejecting them and I am very grateful to him for that. I want to support Dmitry. Look, he is an organizer and everything works thanks to him, people don’t fight with each other, they don’t switch to other activities.

Svetoslav Bauer: I see that everything is running like clockwork there all the time.

Boris Ivanovsky: They work very hard to make everything run like clockwork. And the people who come and, as Rollie said, make the articles of the "sh" category - there are a lot of them. And the guys are even a little shy to deal with scammers and amateurs. Even if it can be seen that a person is behaving extremely ugly, unprofessional, openly criminally, they still give them a chance and endure them for some time. Even when they begin to insult and blame everything on them, they listen. In my opinion, the problems are usually the simplest. Problems are created by a certain, small circle of people. And they are responsible for all the inappropriate content. And, in this case, this should be considered in relation to the personality of the author. This is the only way to ensure the effectiveness of the functioning of such communities, which work with very complex technical systems.

Ivan Kotelnikov: Why, if such a small number of people create what the community does not like, then the Wiki inside itself can’t vote to exclude these people from the Wiki authors?

Boris Ivanovsky: This is what I was talking about. These can be called rigid elements of administrative control. I have 12 years of leadership experience, so I do it without thinking. For me, the arguments "feel sorry for the person" or "you might offend the person" are worthless compared to the fact that the current situation threatens the functioning of the entire system, in which many wonderful people work. This is not an issue of one person, it is a question of saving a system that is being threatened. If a person promised to give honest, objective data and did not keep his promises, then we should not think how not to offend him by telling him that he did not fulfill his promise. This is what I have been trying to tell the members of the Wiki. But this is just my position.

Svetoslav Bauer: Are you just talking about judges or about regular members too?

Boris Ivanovsky: Both about the jury and about the regular members. They are practically the same thing. The problem is simply that they chose these people as jurors. These people gave good marks to themselves and bad marks to those who ‘treated them badly’ (which is clearly prohibited by the rules), and also submitted some of the work from fake accounts in order to bypass the rules of maximum reward and at the same time submitted completely inadequate content and made a couple more indecent actions - these are the same people.

Viktor Kholodov: Boris, thank you for talking about the work you are doing. You perform a lot of functions that others would not take on themselves. But do I understand correctly that your main task is to be a technical editor?

Boris Ivanovsky: Yes. I have spoken before about such things that I’m not the one to be able to do. And the fact that I started to do them now is something that any person who has enough motivation and even without knowledge of technical features can do.

My main specialization is the assessment of the quality of technical articles, in terms of compliance with the morphology, terminology and the current state of the Free TON blockchain, with a focus on the work of smart contracts and the specifics of the blockchain itself, which provides this work. This is a very hefty piece of my work and, indeed, hardly anyone besides me will do it, because now there are contacts and opportunities to do this, so I consider it a sacred duty and my obligation to fulfil.

I can assess the technical adequacy of the article, but earlier I would have had a question what this article does here, if this is part of the White Paper, then why do I need to write an article about DePool, a description of the architecture and individual DePool contract fields, if the DePool contract has already changed a lot and this description is not only unnecessary, but also incorrect. This article not only does not need to be translated into other languages, it needs to be removed from there and this issue should be solved by another method - to write a more dynamic description, with some links and information that will not lose its relevance. And there are probably 95% of such articles, so I rarely got to direct technical editorial work. But I hope that soon this will become my main job and will be of great benefit to the community in terms of developing the technical direction.

Ivan Kotelnikov: Such a decision to exclude the old version of the article about DePool and all its translations must be made outside the Wiki, this refereeing of smart contracts must make such a decision. And just such a system can be made only after the transition to the next version of Governance.

Boris Ivanovsky: That’s great. The problem is that all these months this article will be published and other members will regularly try to translate it into other languages. People who want to translate this article into other languages ​​have to be stopped because it might be a good article to translate. I don't know how to fix this problem. But it seems to me that soon it will have to be solved, because now the payment is proportional to the number of characters. It seems to me that if the dependence were the opposite: the fewer signs, the more payment, this would be more fair. This would stimulate the authors to a clear and concise formulation. And, for example, in the case of articles about Free TON, it is, perhaps, a decisive factor. If you write a lot, this is a guarantee that the very difficult meaning contained in it will be well hidden from the reader. Writing simply and clearly is most likely the key to success. And, if the article is wrong, then it’s easier to correct it when it’s written simply and clearly.

I would like to mention one more author ... Studying one article translated from Turkish, I saw that this translation was suddenly IMPACTABLE, because there was not a single mistake in it. The secret of this author's success was that he, while translating the article, “resorted to dishonest methods” - compiled a dictionary of those terms that were used and found out all their translations and meanings, so he managed to write a high-quality piece. I would recommend this to other authors and translators. When you understand the article and understand each term, the chances that you will translate it incorrectly decrease dramatically, and the chances that you will explain such terms in understandable language increase. He still retained the original term and gave its meaning in a simple translation. And I also translated it through Google Translate - it reads like a novel. If there were more articles like that, there would be a qualitative increase in the popularity and readability of the Wiki. Therefore, at every meeting where there is some discussion, I regularly make proposals for the introduction of the category of "premium content", with ten times the usual payment.

Ivan Kotelnikov: "Terms and definitions" - in this section, such people can generate an incredible amount of content within the current system. Although I don't know the details, I am sure that such content as a glossary of terms is not paid for.

Boris Ivanovsky: It was done as copywriting, but the payment was completely inadequate.

Ivan Kotelnikov: Each term can be a separate article. If it is created in this way, when a person translates another article and brings up for discussion a list of terms that he does not understand, then the explanation of the terms is premium content, and it is not just additional, but absolutely fundamental.

Boris Ivanovsky: I absolutely agree. Vanya, thank you for your support.

I will now find the name of this author and translator ... This is Yorolmuş (his TG nickname is @Sibirli). He also wrote a great article on wallets. The fact that it’s wonderful can be verified without Google Translate. Firstly, all wallets are listed in this article, and secondly, they are clearly and simply described. Therefore, there is no doubt that this article will be useful to the reader.

I also very consistently examine the point of existence of the article, its validity. Do we need this article? Is there an audience for it? By audience, I mean at least one reader. I don't understand the argument that readers are likely to come. For example, to translate into Azerbaijani an article that is an ABI specification (that is, for very advanced developers) I think it is absolutely unnecessary. My research has shown that the Azerbaijani global Wiki contains a dozen or two articles on computer science versus 300 in English. Even a global Wiki has not yet developed in Azerbaijani. Therefore, this is a simple generation of content that will most likely never be used. You yourself understand that this is a very unpopular opinion, because it puts an obstacle on the possibility of earning. I’m grateful for the support and attention.

Svetoslav Bauer: Boris, thank you for explaining it in such detail. It's nice that we highlight and praise some people here, it's very important, especially when the community will watch this interview. Praising someone for doing something good is good practice.

Boris Ivanovsky: Thank you. I would like to praise all the participants named for their active participation, enthusiasm, consistency, impartiality and passion. And the way they do it guarantees the success of the project, as well as pleasure, experience, useful knowledge for them, and in the end - an extremely valuable information resource.

Svetoslav Bauer: Why did you decide to join the work on the Wiki? Very interesting.

Boris Ivanovsky: It just happened so. I offered my help in writing a smart contract for the distribution of rewards to the guys who conceived the Wiki. We got into a conversation and they realized that they needed a person who understands this scary blockchain with whom you can communicate normally. They even registered me as an initial member without my direct consent and I joined. I did not refuse, as I realized that I was really needed here, because the guys came from a different blockchain and they certainly do not know any peculiarities. I think it was pretty good. With Misha Shapkin, we agreed on almost everything, with Dima bitjudge, we mostly disagreed and significantly. It is clear that the second is significantly more useful than the first, because the polar point of view guarantees impartiality, objectivity and completeness. Therefore, the more people with such opposing views, the better the result will be. This can be guaranteed, since I believe that truth is born in an argument. This is where I can be helpful by giving a different perspective.

Svetoslav Bauer: You look at it in an interesting way, usually people think that if you argue with someone, or someone argues with you, then this is bad.

Boris Ivanovsky: They are mistaken, because the expression "Truth is born in a dispute" is translated from Latin, which in some way hints at what even the ancients considered wise what is still considered wise to this day.

Ivan Kotelnikov: This is how the binary system works. A binary system, for example, the US government system or a binary system, which exists even in the Eastern philosophy of Yin Yang, always leads to equilibrium and it is this system that gives stability. By the way, this is the basis of the work on stablecoin, which was written by Andrey Lyashin.

Svetoslav Bauer: Thank you for the addition, Vanya. Another question: how important is the Wiki as a resource? How important do you consider it for Free TON?

Boris Ivanovsky: Very important. This is the place where you can find out what you want to know about Free TON, but do not know at the moment. If this is taken as the purpose of a Wiki, then given how complex the Free TON system is, who can say they KNOW Free TON WELL? Probably, only a person who knows it poorly can say that. The more you know it, the more you realize that you don’t. And the more you get to know it, the more you want to get to know it better.

Svetoslav Bauer: It turns out that without a knowledge base, without a theory, it is impossible to do something meaningful?

Boris Ivanovsky: Possible, but it will take a long time.A lot of time. It will be faster and easier with the knowledge base.

Svetoslav Bauer: More than six months have passed since the Wiki appeared. Watching the Wiki, how would you say what has changed in this Sub-governance and in this area in general?

Boris Ivanovsky: There are so many that it’s probably difficult to list them all. The term "growing up" describes very well what happens to the Wiki. Firstly, the articles that are posted there now mostly make sense and correspond to the goals and objectives of the Wiki itself. At the initial stages, there were some articles, but it is not clear what they were doing here, why they were here, it was hard to understand it. This content is now relevant, adequate and, for the most part, technically correct. Also, it is rather informative, even sometimes structured and corresponds to the topic where it is posted. In my opinion, this is a very big result for such a complex system.

I have already talked about the community - it consists of people who really want everything to turn out very well. But they do not really understand how to do this, so they try different ways, watch what happens, and cut off what does not work and accept what works. These continuous improvements are a self-governing and self-regulating part of the community, no one tells them to do it anyway. They get it on their own. They discuss, vote, accept, implement. And looking at it is just a pleasure. This is how all decentralized communities should develop. This is an example for many Sub-governances. They do not dwell on what they can’t do and don’t look for an excuse to say that we will not do it. They look for ways to do this within the current constraints and always come up with the desired result, despite the fact that they are far from being technical experts. Therefore, they can be a source of inspiration and an example for those Sub-governance who experience obvious problems with functioning.

Svetoslav Bauer: Not only can they be an example, but they are. I am subscribed to the Wiki channel and group, and I always feel some kind of joy when a post appears there, because it says that everything runs like clockwork. There are a lot of notifications, news. You can feel their concern for the team, for those who work together. It's very, very cool. I take this as an example.

Boris Ivanovsky: How well is it written? Does it contain blunders or officialese?

Svetoslav Bauer: I don’t set myself the goal of evaluating this ...

Boris Ivanovsky: Do you know why? Because it doesn't. Everything is written well, understandable, accessible, clear and honest. Everything is well checked, discussed, put into tablets, then an opinion is asked and everything is discussed again. There is a tremendous amount of human work behind this. These are people who came with an ardent desire to do something understandable, having their own experience that does not give them the opportunity to use some kind of administrative decision or take a ready-made one. They do it all by themselves. This is just wonderful! Great respect for all of them. I do not take part in this, I just watch it.

Svetoslav Bauer: Is there anything you would like to improve on the Wiki SG?

Boris Ivanovsky: Yes. The question is whether the audience needs it, whether it is adequate at this stage. I am very glad that I have a chance to not ask this question, but simply put it up for discussion and it can be accepted or not accepted by an honest vote, without authoritarian influence. When I say that Dmitry rejects my proposals, this does not mean that only Dmitry does it, it means that the whole community, the most active members, do it. Dmitry conducts this through all the necessary procedures, it's very cool and every time it makes me very happy.

Svetoslav Bauer: Are there any difficulties that you face in your role on the Wiki? Which of these is the most difficult?

Boris Ivanovsky: This is from the “Drain the Sea” series. There is a HUGE amount of work to be done to keep things going as well and smoothly as before. If you look at all this, then you just want to give up and do something else, because it is absolutely unrealistic to do it so that it would be at least normal. But we do it anyway, because one person did one thing, the other did something else. What is said by one is picked up by another, brought in by a third, discussed by a fourth. Of course, there are distortions, but together we do what we can and the result is something better than before. And this is not done in an authoritarian way, but in a decentralized way, publicly. It's very nice. It really works.

Svetoslav Bauer: I would like to note that it’s exactly this kind of governance, that is, decentralized self-government, helps to release creative talents.

Boris Ivanovsky: Yes, I really hope so. It is necessary.

Svetoslav Bauer: Thanks for your answers. Next, we want to move on to questions that have nothing to do with the Wiki. We would like to get to know you better as a person. What qualities do you value in people and why? Who can be your friend? What are your requirements for your friends?

Boris Ivanovsky: Friends, these are the people whose duties include telling me everything they want to tell me. All the most unpleasant things about me, about what I do. Friends should give their opinion on this. Friends may find it unpleasant, difficult, they may not want to do it, but friends differ from non-friends in that they say it and do it.

Svetoslav Bauer: Why is it important?

Boris Ivanovsky: When a person makes mistakes, does something bad, most likely he does not understand and does not realize it. From his outside, he does not see this, someone must tell him about it. It is a friend who can make a suggestion and help correct mistakes, although it can be frustrating. This is the duty of a friend.

Friends are those people who will support you in difficult times, even if you are wrong, and then explain what you were wrong about. And another important criterion in friendship is when you ask for help, a friend will first help you and only then ask why you need it.

Honesty and responsibility - I appreciate those qualities in friends. I cannot be friends with a dishonest person, it would be difficult with an irresponsible person.

Svetoslav Bauer: Who is the "responsible"?

Boris Ivanovsky: "The guy said, the guy did", without a remark that these were not two different people. A person who made commitments and fulfilled them, either came and said that he could not fulfill them.

Svetoslav Bauer: Thank you very much for sharing this with us. Next question: do you have a hobby?

Boris Ivanovsky: Yes, now it's writing smart contracts. I used to do many things: I played football  for about 25-30 years, for some time even professionally,I danced for some time. I had so many hobbies that it will take a long time to even list them. I am interested in the world in all its manifestations - I read a lot. Everything that happens and is connected with people attracts me. My hobbies ARE NOT money, material values, savings, home improvement, gadgets. I'm NOT interested in technical innovations at all.

Svetoslav Bauer: How old is your laptop?

Boris Ivanovsky: It was produced in 2011. It works great, by the way. I switched to a smartphone about 5 months ago, before that I had a push-button phone. By the way, a smartphone is no better than a push-button one. I can only note that it is more convenient to call a taxi using it and watch YouTube on the couch. Calling from it is very inconvenient. I am extremely disappointed with the technical progress in this area and, in general, am not interested in gadgets, people are more interesting to me. I prefer live communication.

Svetoslav Bauer: What books do you read?

Boris Ivanovsky: Those that are interesting. My favorite writers are Victor Pelevin, Jan Banks, Strugatsky brothers, Philip K. Dick.

Svetoslav Bauer: What most interesting works of these authors can you highlight?

Boris Ivanovsky: When Elon Musk was asked: "What book by Ian Banks would you recommend?" - he replied: "Every one of them, but especially the Surface detail." To people who have read the Strugatskys' work “Monday starts on Saturday”, I say that a smart contract is a “double”, that is, the same thing. Thanks to this, a clear and sufficiently deep understanding of what it is appears immediately. The Strugatskys wrote about almost everything happening now: both about good and bad, and they did it in a very pleasant and accessible form, in a language understandable to all, 50 years before this happened. How did they do it? I have no idea. By the way, Ian Banks also wrote a book about blockchain smart contracts in 1994, accurately describing their principles of functioning, goals, objectives and meaning, down to any smallest technical details.

Svetoslav Bauer: What genre does he write in?

Boris Ivanovsky: He writes mostly science fiction and novels. After his works, it is difficult to read books by other authors, because the language he uses when writing leaves vivid impressions and gets deeply imprinted in the heart.

Svetoslav Bauer: Have you read these books in Russian?

Boris Ivanovsky: Partly in Russian, partly in English. For example, the last book, "Hydrogen Sonata" by Ian Banks, was not translated into Russian, and therefore I had to read it in the original language. This, by the way, is the favorite writer of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos - some of the richest people on the planet at the moment. In particular, Elon Musk named one of his space platforms “Of course, I still loving you”, and the other “Just Read the Instructions”. These are the names of two ships from the book by Ian Banks. Personally, I am very consistent in the choice of my literary passions, because it allows people to understand my spiritual values.

Svetoslav Bauer: What works of Viktor Pelevin can you highlight?

Boris Ivanovsky: I have read his books many times and I believe that they not only describe the current political, economic and social situations very accurately and predict what will happen in the near future, but also promote universal human values ​​that are close to him. I think we can talk about this for a long time. One book even contains the propaganda of biblical values ​​in an understandable and accessible language: “How can you become immortal and go to eternity? Everything is very simple - do not lie, do not steal, do not kill, not only at a certain moment, but always. "

Svetoslav Bauer: What is your attitude towards biblical values?

Boris Ivanovsky: I have not read the Bible, so it will be difficult for me to answer this, but to be as honest as possible, I do not think that it is suitable for public use, that is, its principles are hardly applicable to our daily life at the moment.

Svetoslav Bauer: I want to add something about the Bible. Since childhood, my mother instilled in me the interest in the Bible and therefore I am familiar with its content and I can confidently say that it contains fundamental universal human principles that can help to become successful in any field.

Boris Ivanovsky: I agree with you, because I have a friend who is very familiar with the Bible, and the way he acts in different situations corresponds to your words. He is living proof that the Bible is useful. If it were more accessible to the masses, then, I think, life would be easier, although this is just my amateurish statement based on statistics of human happiness. When I went to a public toilet, being in India, a country where religion plays an important role in people's lives, I saw how a Hindu began to sing and dance right in this place, thinking that there was no one else there. I think this case speaks for itself. This Indian was certainly happy.

Svetoslav Bauer: There’s something I want to tell you in addition to your story. One day I decided to look for photos of the faces of people who look the happiest and most beautiful to me, and, to my surprise, most of these people turned out to be Hindus.

Boris Ivanovsky: I am absolutely not surprised, because when I was in the USA, my colleague invited me to his family celebration, which was attended even by his distant relatives. I counted about 80 Indians, of different age and genders, in their traditional dress. There were children playing, and respectable elders, and a table on which there was a huge number of traditional dishes. As it turned out, they celebrated the birthday of Lakshmi, the goddess of well-being, abundance, prosperity, wealth, luck and happiness. Although she is not one of the main goddesses of Hinduism, this did not stop the cheerful family from celebrating this event for 4 days. Hindus certainly know how to enjoy life and get pleasure from it, and we can learn this from them.

Svetoslav Bauer: We still have a couple of questions.

Anton Kholodov: Boris, my question may seem unusual to you, but when we were preparing for this interview, we decided that we really wanted to ask it. While we were talking with you, we realized that you work really hard. Therefore, we want to ask how much time you spend before the screen and how do you restore your forces?

Boris Ivanovsky: Yes, it's true, I work a lot. I want to note that this question was asked absolutely correctly and can be considered the best of this entire interview.

I spend about 14 hours a day before my screen, but my work does not exhaust me, I love what I do so much that it only makes me happy. I never do anything that would be unpleasant to me, incomprehensible or would not bring satisfaction, and my work brings me a huge return in the form of useful communication, as, for example, now, with you, it helps me to reach new heights. This is something like personal growth. I think it is not achieved through some paid trainings, with which you soon forget about the goal, the pursuit of which was so important to you. You get personal growth when communicating with the professionals - people who understand the essence of their work so well that, after talking with them, you do not have any questions. So, my work allows me to communicate with real geniuses in my field, thanks to which I also grow in these areas. This “bonus” eliminates all sources of fatigue, adds a lot of energy and, in general, helps me a lot. Thanks to it, I quickly restore strength in a dream or when communicating with people close to me in spirit without a computer.

Anton Kholodov: Do I understand correctly that being passionate about your work allows you to get tired only physically, that is, emotionally you do not feel tired?

Boris Ivanovsky: Yes, it’s true. I get charged with positive emotions and filled with energy.

AntonKholodov: That is, for you it is like food - without it you can no longer imagine your life. You just need to restore your physical strength in time.

Boris Ivanovsky: Quite right, but I need to sleep, go for walks, communicate with people outside the Internet to share ideas.

My mother is 79 years old, we call each other literally every day and I always tell her what I do, that is, what smart contracts I write, what I research in the blockchain. If she doesn’t understand what I’m talking about, then most likely I did some nonsense. And if I can explain to her in simple words, as a result of which she will understand me, then this is a good sign. We can say that this is a kind of test that helps to understand that I’m on the right track.

Anton Kholodov: It's quite interesting! I think that for those who are new to the blockchain industry, and in general for those who will watch or read this interview, we have outlined a VERY IMPORTANT moment - you need to find something for yourself that would fascinate them here. This can drastically change their lives, so the passion for this or that occupation needs to be found.

Boris Ivanovsky: These words need to be put in a gold frame and hung in a place where people will see them constantly, because, in fact, this can change their lives for the better as much as they can’tt even imagine. WITHOUT hobby it is not worth doing any business, but WITH IT everything will run “like clockwork”. There are tons of people ready to help you and a huge amount of varied work that still needs to be done. No need to be afraid, because you will succeed!

Anton Kholodov: Great advice! We have one more question. It summarizes all of the above. What advice do you have for newbies?

Boris Ivanovsky: I would advise them to take a closer look at what they like, try one thing, another, the third. All information is publicly available and so are contacts of those who can help, advise and instruct on the right choice. If something does not work out, immediately give it up and take on something new. If something is difficult for you and you feel yourself in this complete zero, which does not understand anything, it is VERY good, it means that you are on the right path, it suits you and you have something to strive for. This is a bit paradoxical, but this experience was obtained over the last 1.5 years, when I was responsible for communication with the community.

Svetoslav Bauer: Thank you very much, Boris, for everything that you told us, we managed to get to know you much better, get acquainted with your activities in the Wiki, as well as with the Wiki itself. The community will learn a lot from this interview.

Boris Ivanovsky: Thank you too! The last thing I would like to say is that all information about the TON blockchain is verifiable based on documentation, logs and records that are publicly available. If you are in doubt, check it out for yourself. As a result, you will not only be 100% convinced of this, but also tell others about our platform.

Svetoslav Bauer: Were these your wishes for beginners?

Boris Ivanovsky: Yes, advice for anyone who has doubts. Never take it on trust, but instead check everything carefully!

Svetoslav Bauer: Great, we were very pleased to spend this time with you, thank you! See you!

Boris Ivanovsky: Mutually! If you have any more questions, then ask me - I will answer to the best of my capabilities! Good evening!

Prepared by MOVETON Team