What is happening now is a struggle against progress. The desire to fence oneself off, to close one’s eyes and not notice the obvious. Culture is changing, technology is growing, human connections are evolving. Yes, our heritage and cultural traditions are very important. Of course, we should cherish and support them, but not accepting something new is a big mistake! The strength of the new generation has always been that they have both our heritage and new, fresh ideas. That’s why they say that children are better than their parents.

Any progress is unstoppable, and the scientific community should understand it better than anyone else. That’s why I’m eagerly waiting for the doors to open in the political system, for the fossilized pensioners to go outside to enjoy their carefree life, and for the young blood to come and take their place.

The young blood, understanding and using technology, realizing the variability of culture, and also able to use changes for good and adapt flexibly to them, without forgetting about heritage. Music, movies, painting.

Dividing people into “black” and “white” frames does not add anything to civil society. Z-patriots conservatives (we can repeat), who blindly trust propaganda, are closed to getting information from other sources and impose censorship on alternative opinions. The same story with the liberal community, which also bullying opponents, bans, mute speakers with opposite opinions. They insult and categorically reject others’ opinions.

It should be understood that each of us is unique and distinguishable, and each of us is capable of making our own contribution to society. The most productive way to progress is to listen to each others and address cultural, social, and political differences to take measures to solve the most significant problems of society.

This year I constantly catch myself thinking that things are happening that I couldn’t even imagine not long ago:

• Russia’s war with Ukraine, which is accompanied by the possibility of using nuclear weapons, primitive and flawed propaganda with inciting interethnic hatred. The freedom of speech has completely disappeared, and dissent is punished with fines and imprisonment
• The birth of children and forced emigration first from Moscow to Sochi (a two-day drive), then from Sochi to Kazakhstan with family and car
• The split in opinions in Russia has led to conflicts and quarrels, including among close people
• A global crisis in the IT industry. Many giant companies are cutting jobs and thousands of IT specialists are being let go
• Against the backdrop of the global crisis and war, many talented developers (especially single ones) refuse to leave the country (if they have the opportunity) and patiently wait until they are asked to go to war
• ChatGPT is already ready to compete with many professionals. Now it is writing code fairly well in all languages based on the text specification, identifying vulnerabilities and bugs in any code, and you can also write a good text in any language for LinkedIn
• Against the backdrop of attractive salaries in IT, education has been put on the fast track, and IT has lost some of its subculture. A very large percentage of specialists are motivated solely by money.

Some points turn the mind upside down:

• People who taught us about kindness and national unity scold us for smoking cigarettes and fighting in school – they support the war
• There are still people who are abstracted from what is happening
• Among the supporters, there are also Orthodox people
• Israel is attacking Palestine, which also does not cause any particular oppression in the Orthodox community
• The result of years of one person’s work as a manager is impoverishment of the population, an unattainable level of corruption and a third world war. But people will continue to repeat “who if not him?”.

What I have learned as a result of this

You need to stay away from any ideology, especially one that imposes exclusivity on you. The world is huge. There are countless knowledge and opportunities. The modern world gives a chance to be free, to choose a home where you feel comfortable anywhere on the planet.

Three years ago, I couldn’t understand why patriotic education was happening through militarization: the “Young Army”, concerts with military themes, periodic exhibitions of military equipment. Why do the military get such cheap mortgages instead of scientists? Today, there are no more questions left, and the government’s course is finally clear to me.

I am very sorry that Russia does not have its own Elon Musks, Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs. Obviously, they won’t grow here for at least 50 years. Aggression, the desire to take everything away from a successful neighbor, envy, rudeness, the desire for a free ride, the desire to deceive a neighbor – all of this is not close to me and disgusting.

It is already clear to me that I will not see innovative developments, advanced technologies, and space exploration in Russia in my lifetime. These will be pathetic parodies like phones from China with Google OS and US hardware, piracy, and perhaps some clones of popular services that will always lag behind in technical implementation, will be contaminated with kickbacks and embezzlement.

I have no desire to participate in a company that replaces imported services that have left Russia. I have learned my lessons from the situation with Pavel Durov and VKontakte, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, and the Nginx project. I opened and closed an individual entrepreneur, knocked on the doors of the tax authorities and Roskomnadzor. That’s enough, thanks.

I have decided to invest in education in the near future and evacuate my family and children. So that the children grow up free, without insane censorship. So that they can calmly say that 2 * 2 = 4, and the setting is for creation and not destruction.

PS: Yes, I understand perfectly well that censorship exists everywhere to some extent, and I also understand that now there will be prejudice against Russians in many places. But I believe that children have more chances to grow up open to the whole world there than here.