
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[T2A,OT1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[default]{cantarell}
\usepackage[a4paper, top=20mm, bottom=20mm, left=20mm, right=20mm]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[russian, english]{babel}
\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{parskip}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{float}
\floatstyle{boxed}
\restylefloat{figure}
\usepackage{setspace}
\onehalfspacing
\author{Artyom Bologov}
\date{\today}
\title{Why I Am Stupid}
\makeatletter
\def\endenv{\expandafter\end\expandafter{\@currenvir}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\includegraphics[width=\textwidth,height=\textheight,keepaspectratio]{./assets/stupid.png}

I often say that I’m stupid.
Not with some grief, penance, or anxiety in my voice.
But rather with pride and relief.

Some people start trying to convince me that I’m actually smart and novel.
But they miss the point.
I am stupid and I appreciate being such.
Because my understanding of stupid differs from the typical image of a shamed simpleton.

Stupid is part of my identity, alongside being a programmer and artist.
Or, rather, augmenting that:

\section*{Stupid Simple} \label{simple}

\href{https://grugbrain.dev}{I am a grug-brained developer}.
\href{https://youtube.com/watch?v=SxdOUGdseq4}{I prefer simple solutions over complex ones}.
I also do hard things and involved architectures sometimes.
But overall, I keep things stupid simple.

I have to aim for stupid if I want to be understood.
The next reader might be overwhelmed, tired, or in a rush.
No monads, no hexagons, no spooky actions at a distance.

Basic code, obvious program flow, spelled out actions.
State, if need be.
Imperative code, if it’s necessary.
\href{run:ugly-things}{Deeply nested blocks, if the logic is ugly}.
Nothing a stupid programmer like me wouldn’t understand.

\section*{Stupid Systems} \label{system}

As a system analyst, I ask a lot of stupid questions.
We had a two-hour-long architecture session with one of my colleagues.
A session about one small feature.
We walked through all the possible paths and noted all the possibilities we can.
With me asking a lot of basic questions in the process:

\begin{itemize}\item So who’s doing this request?
\item Why would one want to do that?
\item How is this event communicated back there?
\item How does this state change influence the real world?
\end{itemize}

I want to understand.
To make the system simple enough to fit into my head.
And everyone else’s head too.
Systems have to be stupid to be reasoned about and implemented reliably.

\section*{Stupid/Stuplime} \label{stuplime}

I am an artist, but I don’t do epic, dramatic, or lyrical things.
I do stupid things.
Stupid is the same stem as in stupor and stuplimity.

\href{https://hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674024090}{Stuplimity is an “ugly feeling” coined by Sianne Ngai}.
A mix of amazement and boredom.
A feeling of something massive and astonishing, but... ultimately unimpressive.

\begin{figure}[h!]\begin{quote}
Stuplimity reveals the limits of our ability to comprehend a vastly extended form as a totality, as does Kant’s mathematical sublime, yet not through an encounter with the infinite but with finite bits and scraps of material in repetition.
\end{quote}\caption{Sianne Ngai, Ugly Feelings, stuplimity}\end{figure}

My art
\href{run:projects}{and my hobby projects}
all focus on this: I make certain things in tech that wasn’t intended for these things.
Something huge and yet infinitely stupid and useless.

This “useless” is important, actually.
By sinking my energy into something of little use, I’m working against capitalism.
Stuplimity is anti-protestant (hi Weber!)
It shows that one is not required to do meaningful things.
That one can be unproductive.
That some things don’t have an absolute monetary value.
Stupid is art.

\section*{So Why Am I Stupid?} \label{why}

I’m stupid, because I’m an empathetic programmer, a system analyst, and an artist.
And I want more people to embrace stupidity in a sense I’ve shown.
So maybe... you’re stupid too?

\href{https://youtube.com/watch?v=k1HRpzsGHQA}{Obligatory Audioslave reference: Super Stupid! [on Youtube]}

\par\noindent\rule{\textwidth}{0.4pt}
Copyright 2022-2025 Artyom Bologov (aartaka).
Any and all opinions listed here are my own and not representative of my employers; future, past and present.

\end{document}
