Vitaly Pecherskiy

This is my 8th year writing on my birthday, and this year I traveled in time.

When your brother was born I wrote him a letter. I didn’t hold back any insights because after the dramatic, bombshell experience of having our first child, your mother and I were pretty sure he would be our only one… until he wasn’t, and now we have you :) Everything I said to him then and what I want to tell you now applies to you both. 

This is the 7th year I’ve written on my birthday. Every year the format of my birthday article changes, and this year is no exception. In the past, I've focused on lessons learned, but this year I will just share things that are on my mind. 

Christie Lake Kids’ mission is to enrich the lives and prospects of economically disadvantaged children by providing quality year-round community and camp programs to develop physical, social and character skills. CLK believes that all children should have the chance to experience the beauty of the natural world – to swim in a lake, paddle a canoe, sit by a campfire.

This year I was blessed with the birth of my son. Though I anticipated that becoming a father would be life-changing, I could never have predicted all the profound ways in which this tiny human would change me. So this year’s article is a Thank You to him for unknowingly teaching me many valuable lessons that I am grateful for and excited to share with you.

You are born during interesting times. In some ways, life on Earth has never been better – we are at the peak of innovation in science and technology, we have instant connectivity across the globe, literacy is on all time high and poverty is at an all time low. But, we still have many problems, and our future has never been more uncertain. You will likely live through many challenging times, and I hope you can contribute to some solutions.

My interest in the topic of diversity and inclusion started in 2016 when we at StackAdapt produced a documentary exploring the issue of diversity in the technology industry. The documentary included an examination of the “pipeline problem” – namely, how comparatively low numbers of people of color and women study computer sciences and engineering, in turn, contributes to the lack of diversity in these areas in the workforce.

Here are a few documentaries that I enjoyed watching over the last 3 months. All of these are available on Netflix.

The film follows the elections for class monitor in a 3rd grade class of eight-year-old children in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China. The seemly trivial premise for this film, will leave you introspecting.

It is now my 3rd year writing a birthday post recapping my past year and summarizing the things I learned.

“So, what did you think of your safari?”, our guide casually asked me at the end of the trip. Over the 6 days prior to the question, he had taken my now-wife and I around Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania.

 I was told the other day that there are five reasons why people don’t eat meat. I found it very well-put. The reasons are, in no particular order…

The World Economic Forum recently published their 14th annual Global Risks Report. Environmental issues took front row in the discussion - three of the top five risks by likelihood and impact are extreme weather, climate change, and natural disasters. There is no better time to talk about, and act on, more ways we all can reduce our environmental footprint.

I was born and raised in Saint-Petersburg, Russia – not a particularly diverse city, and I would not be identified as a visible minority. So, I hadn’t spent much time thinking about diversity until a relatively recent trip to San Francisco.

Last year I wrote an article covering the main lessons I learned by the age of 30. This year I decided to do it again. This year I finally wrapped my head around how people become adults.

“I remember the first Baskin Robbins to come to Saint-Petersburg, Russia.  It opened in the mid-90s when I was about seven years old, and was located on Nevsky Prospect, right in the heart of the city. My younger sister and I walked past it at least once a month, and every time, we dreamt of tasting the ice cream there. Particularly, the ice cream cake. Unfortunately, at the time, my family simply couldn't afford it.

That's my grandfather above (second on the left). The title reads "1981 USSR State Prize Winners from Leningrad."

Biohacking has been an interest of mine for a long time. I have been experimenting with lucid dreaming, cold showers, intermittent fasting, various exercise regimes, no-carb diets and many more. Hacking sleep has been a subject of curiosity for a long time. 

Growing up is interesting. It’s interesting because you still remember yourself when you were younger but can recognize the changes that are happening to your body, mindset, and view of the world.

I started July with a 30-day challenge to help me reduce stress. You can read my article on completing the challenge here. After the month was done I decided to just keep going. I have not had a drop of alcohol in the last three months and I want to give an update of where I am at.

You will rarely find founders talking about stress. Everyone tries very hard to come off more successful, more confident, cooler, more collected than their peers. But I think it would be helpful to discuss the topic of stress as it applies to founders.