✈️ Will a Bitcoin Be Worth $1 Million? Lex Fridman Speaks to Pavel Durov

Telegram founder and owner Pavel Durov gave Lex Fridman a four-hour interview about his values, lifestyle, and the future.

Highlights:

✅ Durov grew up poor and wore the same second-hand jacket for years. He believes that scarсity boosts creativity, while overabundance paralyses motivation and willpower.

✅ His main source of income is not Telegram, but bitcoins purchased in 2013 at their peak price of $700. Durov considers cryptocurrency to be the most reliable medium of exchange when governments "keep printing money like no tomorrow." Therefore, he does not rule out that bitcoin will be worth $1 million in the future.

✅ Mathematics is the most important subject in school because it shapes your brain and teaches you to rely on your logic. And the main driver of success is competition: by removing competition in schools, "you eliminate the losers, but you end up eliminating the winners as well." That is why Durov looks for employees at coding competitions rather than through interviews.

✅ "The main muscle you can exercise is self-discipline," says Pavel Durov. He does 300 push-ups and 300 squats every day and goes to the gym 5-6 times a week. He doesn't take pills, eat sugar, fast food, or red meat, and doesn't drink soda or alcohol, preferring seafood and vegetables.

✅ He hardly ever uses his smartphone, only picking it up to test Telegram's features: "I don't think a phone is a necessary device. I remember growing up, I didn't have a mobile phone. The more connected and accessible you are, the less productive." Durov thinks gadgets violate freedom: "I don't want other people or companies to tell me what's important today and what I should be thinking."

✅ The core Telegram engineering team consists of only 40 developers. Durov believes that employees should always be busy and there is an incentive for automation. If there is not enough work, people will be demotivated and start looking for something else to do.

📱 The full interview is available on YouTube.

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