Pavel Durov

That is extremely valuable.

And of course, once you're good at math,

You can apply it in physics, in engineering, in coding.

And it's not surprising that most of the most successful tech founders and CEOs are very good at maths and coding because ultimately it's the same mental skill that you rely on.

But back then in the school, I realized something else as well.

It's that competition is really important.

Competition is key.

This is what motivates a lot of teenagers when they're at school.

And if you remove competition out of the education system, you end up

forcing kids to start competing elsewhere, for example, in video games.

It's a trend you see now in many countries, including in the West, when well-meaning authorities or parents say, we don't want our kids to be too stressed.

We don't want them to feel anxiety.

So let's just get rid of all the public grading system, all these rankings of who won, who lost.

We don't want any of that.

And part of it is justified, but as a result, some kids lose interest.

Yes, you eliminate the losers, but you end up eliminating the winners as well.

And then if you are overprotective of the kids in that age, they grow up, graduate schools or universities, and they are still not prepared for real life because real life is constant competition for jobs, for promotions.

for customers, and it's more brutal.

What you have as a result is high suicide rates, high unemployment, all the things and negative trends you see now in many countries which thought eliminating competition from their education system was a good idea.

They still persist.