Ян Петров

The sound design is a love of its own. Wind, the crunch of snow under the board, distant forest sounds - with headphones, the game turns into a full audiovisual experience. Plus, the generative music reacts to your tricks, speed, and crashes. Pull off a clean combo and the music builds; fall into an abyss and there’s just silence and the wind

One of the best "less is more" examples in mobile games. Tap to jump, hold to flip in the air, long hold for a grind landing. That’s it. No virtual joysticks, no combo buttons. The responsiveness is perfect - no noticeable input lag even on older devices, and the physics are so predictable that after 10 minutes you stop thinking about controls and just get into the rhythm

There is a nuance here. The first 10-15 runs feel like the slope is endlessly changing - rocks, towers, forests. But later you start recognizing patterns: "oh, this descent with three towers in a row", "here’s that rock on the left again". The generation is there, but it’s built from reusable blocks that become noticeable over time. Not a big issue for casual sessions, but if you’re chasing high scores, after 30+ hours you’ll want more variety. Dynamic weather and time-of-day changes help a lot - the same slope at sunset versus in a snowstorm feels completely different

The soundtrack alone is a reason to play. After 20+ hours it never once felt repetitive

I gave Azimutt a shot when I joined a new project with a massive, tangled database of several hundred tables. In that sense, the tool was a lifesaver - it helped me visualize the relationships and grasp the system logic in just a couple of evenings without getting lost in endless diagrams. But now that I’m comfortable with the project, I’ve almost stopped using it. For daily maintenance, my standard IDE is enough, so Azimutt has stayed as a cool tool for one-off deep dives

It lacks active notifications or real-time "live" sync for schema changes. Right now, the update process feels a bit too manual, which breaks the flow during active development

Unlike standard tools that turn a schema into "spaghetti" made of hundreds of lines, everything here is very smooth. Even with my massive database the interface didn't lag, and navigating through the graph was surprisingly comfortable

There are no issues with support for major databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL

The barrier to entry is low enough to start exploring a database, but it takes some getting used to if you want to make it part of your daily routine

For me, as someone with a competitive streak, segments are Strava's killer feature. There's nothing better than competing for the "King of the Mountain" title on a local hill. It pushes you to give your all during workouts. The tracking is stable, and the post-workout analysis is detailed enough

Periodically the app cuts corners on the track, which affects the final distance and pace

Yes, more than enough, especially with a subscription

The recording interface is minimalistic and straightforward

I had no idea how inefficient my sleep was until I saw the detailed breakdown of stages and the recommendations from the Sleep Coach. I'm also thrilled with the Journal feature: I was able to track how a late dinner or alcohol directly kills my recovery score - it really opened my eyes to my own habits. Within a few months, I've started waking up feeling much more rested and energetic. This is the best investment I've made in my health in recent years

I would like to see tighter integration with meditation or mindfulness apps. It would be interesting to directly track how meditation affects HRV and recovery

The smartwatches I considered mainly focus on steps, calories, and notifications. I needed something more. I chose WHOOP because it's the only device that concentrates on the Strain - Recovery - Sleep triad