Pavel Durov

Restrictions are important.

I think, though, that they should be coming from within.

It should be self-restriction rather than a restriction in order to create purpose and meaning in life.

In a way, I was lucky in a very counterintuitive way because I grew up poor.

I didn't have money when I was a teenager.

I had the same jacket for years.

which was bought on a second-hand marketplace.

My father wouldn't receive his salary as a university professor for months because the Russian state was almost bankrupt back then.

My mom had to juggle two jobs to take care of us.

It was not easy, but it also created purpose.

It created meaning.

It created priorities.

It allowed us to focus on things that mattered.

It allowed us to develop our character and intellectual abilities.

Now, if we had everything, why do anything?

And this is not an accident.

This kind of experiment has been repeated countless times.

At a certain point, social dysfunction and the erosion of social roles becomes contagious.

And the society gradually degrades into a chaotic collection of individuals unable to take care of the next generation or even to produce the next generation.

And it goes extinct.