A midlife crisis does strange things. The thirst for ephemeral independence prompted a fairly famous and refined, but slightly naive, liberal Moscow journalist to start a business in 2006. Of course, he quickly went broke and went bankrupt. But he didn’t give up. He was not even killed or sent to prison. But the author traveled around the world: he looked at people and showed himself. The third time I achieved modest success. True, he stopped being a liberal and became a Russian liberal-nationalist (a rare animal). And he left journalism, becoming a writer. Now a private person, a layman, a rentier, sits in an armchair, smokes a pipe and writes books. An aging lonely reasoner. But people like it: the publication of this book was paid for in advance by readers through crowdfunding (online fundraising). In the Year of Literature, Russian readers made their choice. Which naturally aroused anger, envy and hatred among modern Soviet writers. What is the secret of success, and does it exist? The answer is in this book. Read!