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Every time I run across an episode of this podcast I need to weigh in my interest in a great guest versus having to listen to Lex's monotone voice and meaning-o

• liquid153 6y ago
  Yeah he’s not a very good interviewer
  • 2wrist 6y ago
    I don't mind him, it feels like he is figuring things out still but I like that at times it can turn in to what feels like a quiet conversation between friends. Which can be illuminating and heart warming. Quite unexpected for a podcast like this.
  • jcims 6y ago
    I've watched from the beginning, he's getting better and it's clear to me anyway that he's trying. I think it's just a difficult skill to acquire if it's not something that is naturally in your wheelhouse. I listen because I enjoy the guests he's able to land and what seems to be an authentic interest in how they think and approach the world. It would be great if there were more podcasters having these conversations, but as far as I can tell there aren't. So the question is if the world's better off with or without these interviews as-is. To me the answer is clearly the former.
• versteegen 6y ago
  I've never felt that Lex's interviewing was so poor that it was a reason not to listen to one of his interviews. He still gets interesting people to talk about interesting things. Yes, amazing guest list, I do wonder how it took off like that. Edit: in contrast, Rob Reid's After On podcast has somewhat similar guests (not an all-stars list, no AI folks except Stuart Russell & Rodney Brooks), but he's my favourite interviewer. The amount of research he does before each interview is insane, to the point he already knows what the guest will say and what are the most interesting items to talk about. But he still lets the guest tell the story themselves.
  • madbkarim 6y ago
    That can be said the same with Guy Raz. I highly recommend everyone to give How I Built This a listen.
    • mandeepj 6y ago
      Second that. He's great. His new book is also highly recommended. I listened to it via audible
    • WoodenChair 6y ago
      I’m a fan of the show for the guests but not the interviews, if that makes any sense. He asks questions that are too general. I never get a sense from the episodes of what it’s actually like to run the business. I never get an understanding of what are the important things in their industry. It’s too much “aw shucks” this hard personal thing happened and you overcame it. Which is fine on its own, but I want to learn about business on a business show.
  • crispyambulance 6y ago
    Lex is a good interviewer, he's thoughtful and goes into depth. I've enjoyed many of his interviews. It's like he's a more stoic version of Joe Rogan. Some of his guests, however, are a very bad choice. In particular I am thinking of Eric Weinstein who has been on TWICE. Weinstein is a master-class bullshtter, who opines on his theory of everything yet has NOTHING to show for it. He also manages to pull in politics, academia, culture, and the kitchen sink, all obfuscated by turgid rhetoric.
    • maroonblazer 6y ago
      On average I'd rate him a pretty good interviewer however it seems like the quality has declined recently. E.g., his interview with Michael Malice a few weeks ago, where he (Lex) confessed to pulling an all-nighter before the interview, and so wasn't on his game. It showed. Hopefully the lesson he took from that experience is he shouldn't pull all-nighters before an interview. As the commenter above said, lots of 'meaning of life' questions that just aren't that interesting.
• dan00 6y ago
  > The disparity is amazing - the list of guests is easily the best out of any podcast that has guests that I've ever come across; and the delivery of the host is just about the worst I've come across too. If the guests would feel in the same way, then they wouldn’t be talking with Lex. So it's most likely an issue you have. I personally don't mind Lex at all and really like his style, especially his "simple" questions, because how great minds answer these "simple" questions can be quite interesting.
  • iguy 6y ago
    > If the guests would feel in the same way, then they wouldn’t be talking with Lex. I am often reminded of this anecdote: "Von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us." (Teller) > how great minds answer these "simple" questions can be quite interesting Yes for sure. But rather than directly ask the naive question which we simple listeners want to ask, I want a smart interviewer to give us some quick signposts about schools of thought on this and where the interviewee probably comes from given what they've said in the past. Then you can get a deeper answer. Even, perhaps especially, when they disagree with the way in which the interviewer has framed the question.
    • dan00 6y ago
      > But rather than directly ask the naive question which we simple listeners want to ask, I want a smart interviewer to give us some quick signposts about schools of thought on this and where the interviewee probably comes from given what they've said in the past. Then you can get a deeper answer. Even, perhaps especially, when they disagree with the way in which the interviewer has framed the question. If you don't like Lex's style, well, then don't listen to him. A lot of people seem to like and enjoy him. Asking someone to change to better fit your own expectations, honestly, seems quite a bit to ask, and at the end might not work that well, if it doesn't fit himself. Sure, you can critique whatever you want, but Lex doesn't really has to listen and also shouldn't, if he has that many listeners by just doing his thing.
• CodeGlitch 6y ago
  > and the delivery of the host is just about the worst I've come across too. I like Lex's style - the guests always deliver on interesting conversations, which is the point of the podcast. Lex is playing a role that I think facilitates this.
• deathlessgod 6y ago
  Thank you for saying this! Good to know that I'm not alone.
• fnord123 6y ago
  I get this with Kara Swisher's Recode. Great guests but she talks over them and interrupts them to tell anecdotes about herself.
• hansjorg 6y ago
  His list of guests is amazing and he sometimes has interesting lines of inquiry, but too often he very clearly has his own axe to grind which can get quite annoying. The endless "I am so very humble" spiel also gets tiresome, especially when punctuated by claims like "all journalists are trash (except those with a unique scientific curiosity, like me, of course)".
• janvdberg 6y ago
  Maybe listen at 1.5x speed?
• cblconfederate 6y ago
  Different culture / expectations. Most people evidently like him and almost all of his interlocutors reportedly enjoy it.
• auggierose 6y ago
  After 3 minutes of commercials and this voice I had to switch off. Too bad, I am sure CL had interesting stuff to say.
  • adwn 6y ago
    This is not a radio broadcast, you can skip ahead to the interesting stuff (there's an outline with timestamps lower on the linked webpage). You can even download the episode and listen to it in your favorite player.
    • auggierose 6y ago
      Yup, I realised that as well :-) By then I was too tired of this voice.
      • christmm 6y ago
        ever considered it is you, who you are tired with?
        • auggierose 6y ago
          Nope. But maybe it was just the diabetic coma I was slipping into after my morning Nutella bagel. But this voice certainly didn't help.
• petercooper 6y ago
  As someone who occasionally interviews people, what are you really looking for? That is, what could Lex do better in your opinion?
  • iguy 6y ago
    I feel the same way at OP, amazing guests, but can't he push them a bit? What I'd like is more like what Tyler Cowen does, on non-tech subjects [1]. He gives the impression of having read all their books (and their opponents') not just having skimmed Wikipedia over breakfast. He keeps it moving, and often gets people a little bit off-balance, not aggressively, but enough to make people think afresh and not just repeat what they always say. Besides people's work, he'll ask them serious questions about (say) their known interest in some kinds or Jazz, or unrelated things about characters they would have run into at MIT in the 70s, or about the Russian education system. (I presume he has people helping him prepare, but maybe he's just like this all the time.) [1] https://conversationswithtyler.com/ https://conversationswithtyler.com/
    • gen220 6y ago
      Tyler is an exceptionally good interviewer, in a way you can only get by exceptional preparation. We’re lucky to have him. I haven’t heard a better interviewer since Charlie Rose (who had a team working for him, of course). Does anyone know of similar interviewers in this vein? Long form and exceptionally-prepared?
      • st1x7 6y ago
        > I haven’t heard a better interviewer since Charlie Rose Really? Rose is a serial interrupter. Might as well have Gary Vee interview people if you think Charlie Rose is any good.
        • gen220 6y ago
          Yeah, they obviously have different interview styles, but a lot of the difference can be explained by the mediums, and their respective backgrounds. Personally I appreciate them both, but I can respect that you wouldn't find his style enjoyable. However, I'll defend Rose, in that he always picked interesting guests, and did good prep work. It's true that he steered the conversation in the direction he wanted it to go. But, of course, he had 60 minutes, and was recording for a broad television audience. The constraints were/are very different from Tyler's, personality differences notwithstanding. If you listen to the interviews where he gets to break out of the normal 60 minute boundaries, I think you'll find his style shifts with the medium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOUzTd-Ge_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOUzTd-Ge_g I've never heard of Gary Vee. However, based on a cursory search, I don't think a hyperbolic comparison helps your argument! :)
• gigatexal 6y ago
  It’s unfortunate that this is your take. I find his questions to be out of sincere wonder. He’s finding himself in life and the podcast is a journey we are joining him on as he finds out. I find his podcast amazing and this one especially great given how cool Chris Lattner is. And if it means anything it seems Chris and Lex are legit friends.
  • jcims 6y ago
    Same. It's my favorite podcast right now, I enjoy Lex's demeanor and line of questioning. I think it really helps understand the mental model with which these folks approach life. I think it's a good example of 'you can't please everybody'. For my part I hope he stays the course.
• abledon 6y ago
  you don't like thinking about the meaning of life?
  • rcgorton 6y ago
    Well, Mr. Creosote is annoying
• zarkov99 6y ago
  I keep reading this complaint and I do not understand it at all. For me Lex's delivery is refreshing. He is sincere, naive, full of wonder and never interjects himself as a subject. His obvious decency is for sure part of the reason he can get such wonderful guests. I hope he changes very little about his delivery.
• mark_l_watson 6y ago
  We can agree to disagree. To me, Lex is the “whole human” in the sense that he lets his humanity hang out there while talking with very interesting people. I have mostly worked in the field of AI (practical projects, not much research) since 1982. I feel strongly that AI systems that work with us, augmenting what makes us human and unique, is great. AI systems that aim to forcing human behavior into tight and strict protocols are simply bad. AI helping exploitive surveillance capitalism systems is bad. The human and basic humanity comes first.
• melling 6y ago
  I’ve done a couple of his surveys and mentioned that I think those questions are a waste of time. Donald Knuth handled it well. Do we live in a simulation? Hanging out debating unanswerable questions all the time has zero value.
  • cma 6y ago
    Not to be a romantic, but what do you think of neuralink (asked to someone in unrelated field to fulfill weird Musk quota the podcast seems to have)?
    • typon 6y ago
      I don't understand the obsession with Elon Musk some seemingly smart individuals seem to have. Seems like such a waste of time.
      • cma 6y ago
        It could be in this case a kind of arranged deal. Lex made a controversial paper about Tesla driver monitoring not being needed (based on users selected from an unbiased pool of... Tesla online fan clubs), flattering to Tesla's position, and promoted it before getting peer review. A few weeks later he had Musk on the podcast and got onto the Joe Rogan podcast and brought into a kind of mutual-shilling podcast circle. https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27359/mit-study-showing-high-functional-vigilance-among-autopilot-users-comes-with-massive-caveats https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27359/mit-study-showing-high-f...
      • Paradigma11 6y ago
        Starship, it's all about starship. If he succeeds with it humanity as a species can expanse beyond this gravity well in a few decades. Not sure what this fixation on mars is about, tough.
  • jcims 6y ago
    I've done the same and tell him I enjoy them. I think it's informative how the people he interviews frame the question (or not) and approach the answer. They are at a predictable spot in the podcast (the end), so it's pretty easy to just stop listening when he brings them up.
• abeppu 6y ago
  I think there's an unfortunate convergence of format and questioning. He asks a lot of the same questions of almost every guest. "Are we living in a simulation? What is consciousness? Etc." This feels like a waste of these guests if it's unrelated to their area of interest. In general, it smacks of lack of preparation. But perhaps this creates the opportunity for someone to make a series of supercuts, where Lex doesn't need to appear, but we get the appearance of a series of luminaries discussing a recurring question, and the differences and similarities among responses can be more apparent. A virtual panel, smeared across time.
  • 7373737373 6y ago
    There's a Canadian interviewer named "Nardwuar the Human Serviette" who mainly does interviews with rappers/musicians. Before each interview, he conducts the most in-depth research on them that anyone has ever conducted, mentioning people, places, early inspirations from their childhood and musical career, things that only a handful of people, the rappers' parents or only themselves could know - which often astounds, confuses or even frightens them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZP8OwCdO1E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZP8OwCdO1E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RKbSi87J5Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RKbSi87J5Q I agree with the previous comments, Lex' guests are really great, maybe the above can serve as inspiration :)
    • boulos 6y ago
      Tyler Cowen (from Conversations with Tyler) does a variant of this, but a bit less creepy than that sounds :).
      • AlchemistCamp 6y ago
        I love Tyler Cowen's podcast.
• raptortech 6y ago
  Totally agreed. It's so frustrating to me that out of the thousands of brilliant interviewers out there, we got this guy somehow bubbling up to the top. Maybe he brings the conversation down to the masses? His "philosophical" questions are often so bad that they don't even parse for his interviewees!!!
  • tachyonbeam 6y ago
    I think it's more that he puts in the work (doing and promoting the podcast) and he manages to get great guests.
    • ayewo 6y ago
      It doesn’t hurt that his father is a highly respected plasma scientist—a small but not insignificant factor in his ability to land great guests. https://drexel.edu/engineering/news-events/news/archive/2019/January/alexander-fridman-earns-plasma-fields-highest-honor/ https://drexel.edu/engineering/news-events/news/archive/2019...
      • kaesar14 6y ago
        This is not why he gets these guests. Lex is very famous in his own right. His episodes on Joe Rogan's podcast are some of the most popular he's put out. He's a well respected researcher in his own right. Chris Lattner did not go on this podcast because Lex's dad is a physicist.
        • jcims 6y ago
          I think his affiliation with MIT probably helped to start with, but you still have to shoot your shot. He interviewed three billionaires before episode 20 (none of which would give a shit about plasma physics btw, lol).
          • kaesar14 6y ago
            Kyle Vogt and Elon Musk are explainable with MIT, being a researcher heavily involved with self driving. Schmidt, yeah dunno how he got him so early on. He seems pretty well connected in technology in general to be honest. Still has nothing to do with his dad.
• BenGosub 6y ago
  I have also unsubscribed because of Lex's monotone voice.
• rezeroed 6y ago
  I just refuse to listen to a three hour podcast. I have a one hour limit, and even then I have my finger on the skip button. I also usually listen at between 1.5x and 2x, never slower than 1.2x because they sound stoned at 1x. I've wondered if they deliberately slow them down a bit. Life is short, and there are many podcasts.
• PascLeRasc 6y ago
  I feel the same with with Sam Harris's podcasts. He always has super interesting guests on but I feel like he's barely putting in effort to even speak, almost like vocal fry, and somehow ends up complaining about social media in every interview.
• scumcity 6y ago
  Well if you are such a badass just listen to it in 2x speed or faster like the rest of us.
• deleted 6y ago
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• pierrefermat1 6y ago
  Gotta be hush hush with these comments, I think most long term listeners who have a science background will agree with you here, but before you know it you'll be banned by him
• Falcotech 6y ago
  Every time a run across an episode of this podcast I am inclined to press play, often when I've never even heard of the guest. Yes his voice is very monotone but I find it calming. He challenges his guests with philosophical questions while most interviewers stick to the subject material. He adds just enough humor to lighten the mood, but not too much to derail the conversation. He takes that extra second before speaking to make sure his response or next question is genuine. Lex, since you disagree with Joe Rogan's advice on not reading the comments, I know there's a slight possibility that you read this. I want to thank you for the fulfilling content, congratulate you on your success as a podcast host, and tell you that you are an inspirational person.
• UncleOxidant 6y ago
  I have the same issues with Fridman. I wonder how he's able to get these A-list guests? Is it just that he's the only one in the space doing these kinds of podcasts? I heard his interview with Jim Keller (chip designer extraordinaire) and Fridman did ask some good questions, but there were also some very cringey questions and others that seemed to indicate he was out of his depth (at least with the topic at hand). In spite of it, Keller had a lot of good things to say. So I'll probably listen to this Lattner interview and cringe at points and find what Chris has to say interesting in spite of it.
  • cblconfederate 6y ago
    I m trying to figure out what is it that throws people off? There are successful podcasters that are far more clueless than Lex (e.g. Joe rogan) and he s not interrupting much. In general the interviewee is usually the center of attention, and they seem to be actually going pretty deep on presenting their theses or personal ideas (e.g. sebastian thrun, joscha bach, george hotz, lisa feldman, james gosling). As for a few cringey questions in 1.5 hours, it's like a restful interlude, after all talking can become exhausting. Do people think the interviewees are offended by Lex's (few) obsessions (Musk,dostoyevsky,his soviet past)? It certainly doesnt seem so judging from their reactions during the interview and after (in twitter etc). Being in MIT probably gave him easy access to the interesting people that started off his podcast, but beyond that i think his affable , empathetic and easy style is rather attractive, so people don't say no to him, and many have returned back.
    • UncleOxidant 6y ago
      I think blinkingled below in the comments put it really well: "yes it is different and it can feel like stoned teenager with disorganized thoughts asking questions that form mid sentence"
      • deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  • ffggvv 6y ago
• tsegratis 6y ago
  Tip no.1 for getting great guests Not denigrating people in public... Many great things about Lex. One I like most is his quickness to ask basic questions. Chris Lattner mentions it as a great trait of his own -- sincerely trying to learn, rather than impress you So well done Lex