Vitaly Parnas

I’m Vitaly: minimalist, writer, life experimenter/hacker, traveler.

Head photo

The foundation

The foundation of my interest focuses on the generally slower and more conscientious lifestyle pursuit. Areas such as nutrition, movement, comprehensive exercise and quality rest play a paramount role on the physical and cognitive performance, so these I try I prioritize before all. Beyond that I strive to distance mobile devices and social platforms to whatever feasible extent despite the difficulties this has imposed on the contemporary means of self-promotion.

The cyber

Strongly driven towards digital simplification, I leverage low-resource Unix/Linux command-line-interface (CLI) tools in a significant offline modus operandi wherever possible. Beyond the minimal hardware constraints and the greater independence from the heavier, cloud-based, commercial products, this terminal-based, hacker-oriented approach fills me with that certain sense of delight I try to vainly inspire upon others.

The nomadic

Across a span of years I’ve lived as what one might call a ‘digital’ nomad in a series of countries, although I much prefer a plain nomad. During these periods I’ve arguably learned more than any book or academic program has imparted.

Language

Throughout my early thirties I’ve also reached fluency in a few secondary languages. By secondary, I mean in contrast to the ones you’d considered fairly native, as Russian and English in my case.

If pragmatically handled, I find secondary-language fluency one of the most rewarding investments socioeconomically; not to mention the notable expansion of cognitive pathways, possibly to the extent of ‘culturoethnic mutation.’

Reading

Consistent reading has characterized a severe portion of my life. Though after a certain point I began to prioritize literature over non-fiction, classics over contemporary, and often esoteric or ancient dialect over the more accessible.

Which makes me not one of those 50/100/300-book-a-year readers. I’ve sometimes taken upwards of several months to get through an initial reading of a single book, although these being exceptional and the most demanding of cases. That said, I generally emphasize rhetoric before the narrative, the fragment before the whole and opt for a deliberately slow pace. This is the sort of reading I recommend to anyone in it for not merely the gist but the art.

See my book aggregator.

Writing

Despite this site making pace since only late 2017, I’ve written personally over a couple of decades and then probably some. I’ve journaled and captured notes throughout a vast portion of my experiences and recommend the practice to anyone. Document everything.

Now not only that, do aim to make your content maximally indexable, searchable and generally accessible. I’ve taken incremental steps to exercise the due diligence across both paper and digital, and have even shared applicable strategies throughout various writings.

The Wiki also showcases content that developed organically from consistent documentation.

As with other matters where I take less than a practical approach, this site is no exception.

Sometimes I write to divulge applicable and pertinent material, and really do try to give it a digestible shape. On other occasions I simply indulge in a way that likely violates every best publishing practice.

Learning style

Formal academic programs I’ve viewed with skepticism over the years insofar as their cost-benefit factor. They carry mild leverage in corporate employment. Pursue them also for their own sake if academia defines your goal. (I’ve entertained academic interest for years.) If, however, entrepreneurial or plain independent lifestyle is what you desire, I consider street style of learning second to none.

Much impactful knowledge I’ve attained independently via mostly trial and error methods, a handful of examples being life hacking, nutritional insight, languages, travel, financial intelligence, the Linux OS and the terminal environment, the VIM editor, minimalist teachings, stoic philosophy.

To summarize

I write on these and a variety of other subjects. See categories or the highlights to narrow to your taste.

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