In 1918, Alexander Lyubishchev, a 28-year-old teacher at the Tauride University in Simferopol, formulated the goal of his life: to create a natural system of organisms. What Mendeleev did in chemistry, he decided to do in biology — and, more broadly, in the history of evolution. In particular, to correct Darwin’s theory: he thought that stupid random enumeration does not create that mathematically verified beauty and magnificence that we see in nature.
“In order to establish such a system, it is necessary to find something similar to atomic weights, which I think to find by mathematical study of curves in the structure of organisms that do not have a directly functional significance … the mathematical difficulties of this work, apparently, are extremely significant … To accomplish this main task, I I will have to start not earlier than in five years, when it will be possible to lay a more solid mathematical foundation … I set out to write a mathematical biology, in which all attempts to apply mathematics to biology would be combined, ”the young teacher wrote in 1918.
For life, that is, for work — he set himself 90 years. Then he drew up a life plan and began to work together with the whole country on five-year plans — only for his personal five-year plans. Plan is a report. Weekly report. Monthly report. Annual report: this is already a multi-page statement, a whole notebook. Report for 5 years, plan for 5 years ahead.
Plans are detailed, with sections and subsections: mathematics, taxonomy, evolution, entomology, history of science…
How much time did these reports and plans themselves take? No more than 2% of the actual work time. A detailed monthly report took from 1,5 to 3 hours, the plan for the next month — 1 hour. Annual report — 17-20 hours.
What is the coincidence of plans and reports? In the main cases, what was planned and done by Lyubishchev converges with an accuracy of one percent.
“I turn off any breaks in work, I count the net time. The net time is much less than the amount of time that is obtained from the calculation of the gross time, that is, the time that you spent on this work.
Often people say that they work 14-15 hours a day. Maybe such people exist, but I was not able to work so much taking into account the net time. The record for the duration of my scientific work is 11 hours 30 minutes. Usually I am satisfied when I work net — 7-8 hours. My record month was in July 1937, when I worked 316 hours in one month, that is, an average of 7 net hours.
Everything was considered in detail, with an accuracy of 5 minutes, the time devoted to the purpose of life, direct scientific work, was especially carefully analyzed.
“August 1965: 136 hours 45 minutes of working time of the first category.
- Main scientific work — 59 h. 45 m
- Systematic entomology — 20 hours 55 minutes
- Additional work — 50 h. 25 m
- Org. work — 5 h. 40 m
Total 136 h. 45 m.”
He uses every minute, any so-called «scum of time»: in any walk he collects insects; when chatter begins at meetings, he solves problems. He learned English and German mainly while traveling on trams.
That was his System: cherish every minute of your life. He created his System even before he set a goal in his life.
Two years before setting the goal of life, at the age of 26, or rather on January 1, 1916, Sasha Lyubishchev made a vow to himself: to learn to track and save the time of his life. Time is irreplaceable. Since then, from 1916 to 1972, to the day of his death, for fifty-six years in a row, Alexander Alexandrovich Lyubishchev carefully recorded the time spent. Any of his actions — rest, reading newspapers, walking — he noted by hours and minutes.
His daughter said that in childhood, when she and her brother came to their father’s office with their questions, he, starting to communicate with them, made marks on paper: he noted the time.
Indeed, everything was taken into account. Report for 1938: in addition to the mandatory recording of working time (ecology, entomology, organizational work, the Zoobiological Institute and the Fruit and Berry Institute), all personal time is taken into account: communication with people, movement, household chores. Reading scientific and fiction literature in different languages - 9000 pages, 247 hours. 552 pages of scientific papers were written, 152 of them were printed. Entertainment — 65 times.
The following is a list of viewed performances, concerts, exhibitions and films.
Whatever he did, he remembered why he was doing it, for what purpose. Based on the results of reading each book — its summary: the content that corresponded to the goals of reading. Following the results of several abstracts — a critical analysis in which Lyubishchev already formulates his own vision of the subject. When the time comes for an article, Professor Lyubishchev has everything ready, he writes it quickly. And on each of his articles there is a “price”: the number of hours and minutes spent preparing and writing it (all separately).
Using this system, he could achieve goals that obviously exceeded the capabilities of an ordinary person.
When Lyubishchev realized that in order to fulfill the purpose of his life, he needed to work both in breadth and depth, to become both a narrow specialist and a generalist, he set such a task and became such a person. As friends and colleagues noted, the range of his knowledge was simply enormous. There was talk of the English monarchy — he could give details of the reign of any of the English kings; they talked about religion — it turned out that he knew the Koran, the Talmud, the history of the papacy, the teachings of Luther, the ideas of the Pythagoreans well … He knew the theory of a complex variable, the economics of agriculture, the social Darwinism of R. Fisher, antiquity … He knew all this, because he allocated time for this and used the time strictly for its intended purpose.
“Alexander Alexandrovich Lyubishchev had his own, very special relationship with Time. He was free from the desire to overtake, to become the first, to surpass, to receive… He loved and valued Time not as a means, but as an opportunity for creation. He treated Time reverently and at the same time carefully, believing that Time is not indifferent to what it is used for. It was not a physical concept, not a dial spinning, but a moral concept. Lost time was perceived as time taken away from science, wasted, stolen from the people for whom he worked. He firmly believed that time is the greatest value and it is absurd to waste it on insults, for rivalry, for the satisfaction of self-esteem. Handling time was a matter of ethics for him,” Daniil Granin wrote about him, who dedicated the book “This Strange Life” to him.
From day to day, he raised the norm of requirements for himself, did not give any concessions. He worked with pleasure, worked every year more and more and better. At fifty, he worked better than at forty, at seventy — better than at sixty: the number of quality pages and revolutionary ideas grew.
Without any computers, without a typist, write one and a half thousand pages in a year! Print 420 photos! 1967, Lyubishchev is already seventy-seven years old.
Alexander Alexandrovich Lyubishchev lived for 82 years and died in Tolyatti, where he came to read a series of lectures.
What is his account of his life?
Before asking this with Sasha Lyubishchev, it’s good to ask this from yourself …
Did Lyubishchev complete the planned program? No, he didn’t do it. He didn’t make it. The task set by him turned out to be so enormous that, with any intensity of work, the time of his human life was not physically enough. There are tasks that objectively exceed the capabilities of one single person: life has not promised anyone that it will fit into our expectations.
Another thing is that along the path of his research, he qualitatively advanced several sciences at once: biology, zoology, entomology, genetics, mathematics, systematics, philosophy, history of science, cybernetics. No one, even those close to Alexander Alexandrovich Lyubishchev, suspected the magnitude of the legacy left by him. Works on the systematics of earthen fleas, the history of science, agriculture, plant protection, the theory of evolution, atheism … Classical works on analysis of variance, the theory of systematics … Actually, he is the founder and developer of the time tracking system, today called time management.
In total, more than five hundred sheets of articles and studies: this is twelve and a half thousand pages of typewritten text.
Hear: he became not just a recognized specialist in these industries, he became the one who pushed the boundaries of these sciences and led other specialists along with him. The development of a new mathematical apparatus in relation to biology, a new understanding of the problem of the origin of species — he was one of those who prepared a new understanding of biology. He sowed — knowing that he would not see shoots. He did it because he knew that what he was doing would come in handy. It will definitely be needed by those who will live after it.
Results
He did not make money and fame, he did not receive a dacha as a gift. Lyubishchev lived modestly in distant Ulyanovsk and went about his business. Someone saw in him an unfortunate provincial professor, but he was a harmonious and happy person, and his happiness was of the highest standard.
He did not become the founder of the school, he did not have students whom he would teach. But he always had a lot of those who themselves learned from him: not in specific sciences, but in how to live and think. This is what happens when we meet a person who knows why he lives, for what …
Health is not the strongest, he, thanks to a reasonable regimen, lived a long and healthy life. He made friends with those he respected and loved those who truly loved him.
He always did what he wanted, what he chose. He alone did as much as several scientific institutes could do.
His life was not a feat. It was more than a feat: a simple right life.