Why Evernote Founder Dreamt of Moving the Earth Close to the Sun

Science Writer/

As a young boy, Evernote founder, Stepan Pachikov, had an ambitious plan to move the Earth closer to the Sun.

Pachikov, who grew up in the Soviet Union where he was an award-winning math and science prodigy, was 14 years old in 1964 when he gave a speech at Siberia’s Novosibirsk State University to an audience of fellow kids.

He told them about his ambitious plan to move the Earth closer to the Sun, thereby warming the planet, says HARRY MCCRACKEN in an article for www.fastcompany.com.

He stated: “Though it sounds like something a James Bond villain would come up with, Pachikov’s intentions were only virtuous: He wanted people who lived above the Arctic Circle to be able to eat fresh fruits and vegetables from their own gardens.

“Fortunately for us, a snippet of the young scientist’s presentation made its way into a documentary that interspersed science-related clips with . . . Soviet-era pop music. Here’s a portion of that film; the Pachikov portion begins 50 seconds in, but I really advise you to watch the whole thing.

Watch Video:

https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_1153,ar_16:9,c_fill,g_auto,f_webm,q_70/wp-cms/uploads/2018/08/p-1-watch-evernoteand8217s-founder-age-14-share-his-unlikely-dream.gif

“The rest of the story: Pachikov didn’t convince the world that global warming was a good idea, but it happened even without his help. Once he grew up, he did pioneering work in technologies such as handwriting recognition and VR, relocated to the U.S. in the process, and gave us Evernote, a product he initially devised mostly to please himself. You can read more about him in my story.

“And hey, this charming video leaves me wishing that we had similar footage of other tech-industry notables at the age of 14. What’s the earliest video we have of, say, Elon Musk?”

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