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Gil Kazimirov
Gil Kazimirov

317 Followers

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Jan 5, 2022

7 Books I Didn’t Read in 2021

It was a huge year — Originally posted on The Damn Optimist. Subscribe for meme-filled thought pieces on the intersection of life and tech. Like many internet writer types, I have a tendency to publish an annual reflection. Results have been mixed: my most popular post this year was 8 Things I Didn’t Learn in 2020…

4 min read

7 Books I Didn’t Read in 2021
7 Books I Didn’t Read in 2021

4 min read


Published in

The Startup

·Nov 30, 2021

Read the Damn Documentation

It’s the Secret to Innovation — In 2013 I was a financial analyst chasing the American dream. Which, as we all know, is to build a SaaS business and then retire to a life of angel investing and tweeting blue-checkmarked opinions at the masses. But to do that, I had to learn to code. My process…

Technology

9 min read

Read the Damn Documentation
Read the Damn Documentation
Technology

9 min read


Oct 10, 2021

A Doped Up Elvis and My 30th Birthday

What I learned watching one of the King’s final live performances — I wasn’t planning on writing a reflection for my birthday. I was hoping good company and some chocolate cake will put my soul where it’s supposed to be. Then I landed on a grainy video of one of Elvis’ last live performances, which changed my mind. First, some context. By 1977, Elvis was…

Self Improvement

6 min read

A Doped Up Elvis and My 30th Birthday
A Doped Up Elvis and My 30th Birthday
Self Improvement

6 min read


Jun 14, 2021

How Tall People Actually Are

And other surprising things about moving from Zoom to the real world — In March 2020, video conferencing became my new reality overnight. Colleagues that were once full-fledged, living and breathing organisms snuck their way into laptop screens, appearing in their full pixelated glory with kids and partners and plants in tow. We showed up for each other, day after two-dimensional day, talking…

Technology

6 min read

How Tall People Actually Are
How Tall People Actually Are
Technology

6 min read


Apr 28, 2021

What A Rap Subgenre Can Teach Us About Foreign Cultures

I listened to popular Trap music from Russia to South Africa for strictly educational purposes. Here’s what I found. — Trap is the new pop. What started out as a fringe hip-hop subculture in the South has, undoubtedly, taken over the world. If you’ve listened to any radio play in the last five years, you’ve probably heard it’s stuttering kick-drums and synthesizer melodies. …

Rap

11 min read

What A Rap Subgenre Can Teach Us About Foreign Cultures
What A Rap Subgenre Can Teach Us About Foreign Cultures
Rap

11 min read


Mar 14, 2021

Everything Needs To Stop Being Unprecedented

It’s getting old. — Originally posted on That Damn Optimist, a newsletter of long-form writing on culture, tech and a little bit of hip-hop. Either Sun Tzu or Mark Twain or Michael J. Fox once muttered may you live in interesting times under their breath to some bad guy and damn, did that stick. …

Politics

8 min read

Everything Needs To Stop Being Unprecedented
Everything Needs To Stop Being Unprecedented
Politics

8 min read


Mar 14, 2021

What Drinking and Riding a Bike Have in Common

And no, they don’t go great together. — Originally posted on That Damn Optimist, a newsletter of long-form writing on culture, tech and a little bit of hip-hop. I have a theory backed by almost no research. As we grow older, there is a lot of societal pressure to mature, to become less child-like in our activities. This…

Personal Development

6 min read

What Drinking and Riding a Bike Have in Common
What Drinking and Riding a Bike Have in Common
Personal Development

6 min read


Jan 1, 2021

8 Things I Didn’t Learn in 2020

It was a weird year. — Originally posted on That Damn Optimist, a newsletter of long-form writing on culture, tech and a little bit of hip-hop. Being the paragon of enlightenment that I am, I’ve written a grand total of two articles reflecting on years past. One was 19 lessons I learned in 2019, which was…

Culture

8 min read

8 Things I Didn’t Learn in 2020
8 Things I Didn’t Learn in 2020
Culture

8 min read


Published in

OneZero

·Jul 27, 2020

How the Custom Ringtone Industry Paved the Way for the App Store — and Then Vanished

Why I miss Crazy Frog — Before the iPhone, Venmo, or Spotify, there were ringtones. You might remember them fondly as those lo-fidelity sounds we used to communicate our highly refined music tastes every time someone called our cell. But ringtones were so much more than that. A billion-dollar industry silenced seemingly overnight, ringtones laid the…

Technology

10 min read

How the Custom Ringtone Industry Paved the Way for the App Store — and Then Vanished
How the Custom Ringtone Industry Paved the Way for the App Store — and Then Vanished
Technology

10 min read


Feb 5, 2020

Why Millennials Will Be This Decade’s Corporate Watchdogs

Consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional businesses and looking for alternatives to exploitative or destructive practices — In the process of creating stuff people want to buy, businesses also create a vast medley of byproducts and aftereffects that are decidedly less good. They add to what feels like a pretty depressing state of affairs: the climate crisis is reaching intimidating, unprecedented heights, millions of people suffer daily…

Empathy

11 min read

Why Millennials Will Be This Decade’s Corporate Watchdogs
Why Millennials Will Be This Decade’s Corporate Watchdogs
Empathy

11 min read

Gil Kazimirov

Gil Kazimirov

317 Followers

A Damn Optimist | Newslettering @ damnoptimist.substack.com

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