How IT professionals work. Ilya Safonov, Senior Research Scientist at Schlumberger

We continue to ask specialists about the mode of work and rest, professional habits, the tools they use, and much more.

It will be interesting to find out what unites them, in what they contradict each other. Perhaps their answers will help to identify some general patterns, useful tips that will help many of us.
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Today our guest is Ilya Safonov, Senior Research Scientist, Moscow Schlumberger Research Center (Schlumberger). We spoke to him at the ZeroNights'16 conference, where he represented Intel. But Ilya pays no less attention to communicating with himself. This is one of the important life hacking, allowing him to work more efficiently.

What do you do in the company?

Image processing, machine learning. At the previous place of work at Intel, he was still engaged in formal verification and testing methods.

One phrase (phrase) best describes how you work:

Dig until you dig up your disruptive research (smiles).

How many hours a day do you spend on work?

I have three children, so it’s not always possible to devote too much time to work. Previously, 10-12 hours worked, now - less.

How many hours do you sleep?

On average 7 hours.

Do you have breakfast

Yes, most often milk porridge or scrambled eggs.

How long does it take to go to the office?

From half an hour to 50 minutes. It all depends on traffic jams. Usually I travel by car, sometimes by public transport. By the time about the same turns.

How do you spend your time on the road?

I listen to the radio.

What kind of todo-manager do you use personally?

I use Outlook and a paper notebook.

What issue tracker'om / repository do you use?

Different groups use different tools. I personally prefer git.

What tools, frameworks do you use for development?

Since this is a scientific organization, we use a lot of scientific and mathematical software Matlab, Maple and so on. Now a lot of modeling is done in Python. Any projects are on C ++ and C #. In general, a lot of things. And, of course, office applications are used for presentations, reports and articles.

Do you have any internal projects or libraries in your division, and why were they created?

Our division is focused on internal projects. One of the tasks - to give the results of research in production.

What annoys you most when you work?

When you can not agree with colleagues. There is a misunderstanding because of different views on these or other issues, and this leads to delays in projects, discontent with each other. In my youth, I firmly defended my position. Now I try to find a compromise: it turns out more efficiently.

What professional literature would you recommend?

For image processing, I recommend Digital Image Processing, R. Gonzalez, R. Woods. Now you can buy the third edition in Russian

What do you prefer: electronic reading rooms or paper books?

Houses - paper. In public transport - electronic.

What technology (computers, tablets, smartphones) and operating systems do you prefer at work and at home?

One of my previous jobs was Nokia. Therefore, I still have Nokia phones and smartphones in my family. Although some have already crashed, this is why the replacement for Android smartphones is proceeding smoothly. Personally, I do not use the tablet, my wife prefers the iPad.

If we talk about computers, then at home and at work are laptops with Windows. Sometimes I go to a server with Linux.

Do you listen to music when you work?

Previously listened, but now - no.

Which life hack allows you to be more efficient?

We must be interrupted, walk. If I have something wrong, I walk. At the same time I can talk to myself. About 20 years ago, passersby turned around, now everyone is accustomed to using headsets for phones, they think they are talking on their mobile phone (smiles).

What applications and services can you do without in your work or in your personal life?

Email and instant messenger.

What would Ilya Safonov write in a letter to the future to himself?

To not give up. If something does not work - we must continue. You can not throw.

You have come a long way. And someone is now at the beginning of this path. What would you recommend to a person trying to go the same way?

Think more, develop a critical view of things. Now many young people are too much hope on the Internet. Of course, many individual facts and examples can be found on the Internet, but this does not eliminate the need to constantly and systematically study, systematize knowledge and look for causal relationships.