5 ms·

Jim is a tour de force: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA

texasbigdata 6y ago
This was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. The sheer mind puzzle exploration of "well..if we had a CPU the size of the sun, here's why it still wouldn't work". Guy seems unbelievably brilliant.
newbie578 6y ago
The part at 01:24:00 shocked me... Couple of books per week for 50 years... Damn man, that is a whole another scale. I loved also how he explained why books are good, some takes 20 years of his experience and writes it in 200 pages...
arkj 6y ago
This requires a post of its own. This is a must watch for anyone interested in cpu architecture. The clarity with with he talks about some of the complex problems in cpu design is brilliant. The interviewer does a decent job to make it more palatable for a larger audience.
ZephyrBlu 6y ago
Had no idea this man was so prolific, and Lex had interviewed him. I'm sure it'll be a very interesting interview. Thanks for the link!
TheAlchemist 6y ago
Very very impressive interview - thanks !
PartiallyTyped 6y ago
Thank you. This is definitely one of the best interviews I have read. The precision of the statements and the usage of analogies to explain the topics is astonishing.
- umvi 6y ago
  Is there a transcript of it?
  - PartiallyTyped 6y ago
    I very much doubt so. You could always the podcast and listen to it while you commute.
- PartiallyTyped 6y ago
  I meant listened to. Sorry.
Merman_Mike 6y ago
His comment about technology being a long, unbroken chain of abstraction layers changed the way I look at a lot of things in life. Absolutely fascinating interview.
redisman 6y ago
He also had the best answer to Lex's meaning of life question (last few minutes of the interview). Really made me stop and re-listen. It's very rare for someone on a podcast to think about every word they say.
aero-glide2 6y ago
I'm not really a fan of Lex Fridman's style but this was a great watch
agumonkey 6y ago
and his career a history book
mhh__ 6y ago
I wish the interviewer was more technical. He doesn't do interviews very often. Lex has a PhD in machine learning but doesn't seem to be familiar with branch prediction, apparently.
- wenc 6y ago
  I don’t see a problem with that. Lex’s podcast is aimed at a general technical audience of different backgrounds, so he often asks questions on behalf of listeners who are technical but might not be experts in the field. To be fair, machine learning and CPU design are vastly different fields with little overlap. I mean, I have a PhD and had no idea what branch prediction was until I listened to that podcast.
- specialist 6y ago
  If I was a curious noob, how would I tackle this? My provisional answer is that I'd host a conversation between experts. For example, I'm now very curious about Apple Silicon M1 wrt to Java's Memory Model and Project Loom (structured concurrency). But I don't know nearly enough to even ask smart questions, much less understand the answers. So my dream future perfect interview would have Ron Pressler, Doug Lea, and one or two people really smart about M1 (the only name I know is Dan Luu) sit around and chat it up. I'd ask them open ended questions, like "What's new and different?" "What happens next?" "What are you excited about?" The conversations would likely happen over multiple sessions and different mediums. Because the experts would share and ask each other stuff which would prompt followups. As podcast host, I'd try to be catalyst, try to remove myself from the convo as much as possible. I can't think of any examples, role models. While I'm a huge fan of Ezra Klein and Adam Gordon Bell (Corecursive), I'm not confident I could lean in like they do. One tactic both Lex and AGB do really well is prompt their guests to explicitly define jargon. I suspect that some of the perceptions of Lex's ignorance are him trying to make topics more accessible. eg Working close to the metal with AI, I'm quite confident Lex knows about branch prediction.
  - agbell 6y ago
    I think you are right about Lex and also thanks for the compliment! Even if you know about branch prediction, then asking the guest to explain it, maybe even pretending not to know about it, is a great way to have concepts introduced and make things more approachable. Lex wouldn't be as popular as he was if he didn't have a good sense for the level of knowledge his ideal listener has about the subject.

This was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. The sheer mind puzzle exploration of "well..if we had a CPU the size of the sun, here's why it still wouldn't work". Guy seems unbelievably brilliant.

newbie578 6y ago

The part at 01:24:00 shocked me... Couple of books per week for 50 years... Damn man, that is a whole another scale. I loved also how he explained why books are good, some takes 20 years of his experience and writes it in 200 pages...

arkj 6y ago

This requires a post of its own. This is a must watch for anyone interested in cpu architecture. The clarity with with he talks about some of the complex problems in cpu design is brilliant. The interviewer does a decent job to make it more palatable for a larger audience.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago

Had no idea this man was so prolific, and Lex had interviewed him. I'm sure it'll be a very interesting interview. Thanks for the link!

TheAlchemist 6y ago

Very very impressive interview - thanks !

PartiallyTyped 6y ago

Thank you. This is definitely one of the best interviews I have read. The precision of the statements and the usage of analogies to explain the topics is astonishing.

umvi 6y ago
Is there a transcript of it?
- PartiallyTyped 6y ago
  I very much doubt so. You could always the podcast and listen to it while you commute.
PartiallyTyped 6y ago
I meant listened to. Sorry.

Merman_Mike 6y ago

His comment about technology being a long, unbroken chain of abstraction layers changed the way I look at a lot of things in life. Absolutely fascinating interview.

redisman 6y ago

He also had the best answer to Lex's meaning of life question (last few minutes of the interview). Really made me stop and re-listen. It's very rare for someone on a podcast to think about every word they say.

aero-glide2 6y ago

I'm not really a fan of Lex Fridman's style but this was a great watch

agumonkey 6y ago

and his career a history book

mhh__ 6y ago

I wish the interviewer was more technical. He doesn't do interviews very often. Lex has a PhD in machine learning but doesn't seem to be familiar with branch prediction, apparently.

wenc 6y ago
I don’t see a problem with that. Lex’s podcast is aimed at a general technical audience of different backgrounds, so he often asks questions on behalf of listeners who are technical but might not be experts in the field. To be fair, machine learning and CPU design are vastly different fields with little overlap. I mean, I have a PhD and had no idea what branch prediction was until I listened to that podcast.
specialist 6y ago
If I was a curious noob, how would I tackle this? My provisional answer is that I'd host a conversation between experts. For example, I'm now very curious about Apple Silicon M1 wrt to Java's Memory Model and Project Loom (structured concurrency). But I don't know nearly enough to even ask smart questions, much less understand the answers. So my dream future perfect interview would have Ron Pressler, Doug Lea, and one or two people really smart about M1 (the only name I know is Dan Luu) sit around and chat it up. I'd ask them open ended questions, like "What's new and different?" "What happens next?" "What are you excited about?" The conversations would likely happen over multiple sessions and different mediums. Because the experts would share and ask each other stuff which would prompt followups. As podcast host, I'd try to be catalyst, try to remove myself from the convo as much as possible. I can't think of any examples, role models. While I'm a huge fan of Ezra Klein and Adam Gordon Bell (Corecursive), I'm not confident I could lean in like they do. One tactic both Lex and AGB do really well is prompt their guests to explicitly define jargon. I suspect that some of the perceptions of Lex's ignorance are him trying to make topics more accessible. eg Working close to the metal with AI, I'm quite confident Lex knows about branch prediction.
- agbell 6y ago
  I think you are right about Lex and also thanks for the compliment! Even if you know about branch prediction, then asking the guest to explain it, maybe even pretending not to know about it, is a great way to have concepts introduced and make things more approachable. Lex wouldn't be as popular as he was if he didn't have a good sense for the level of knowledge his ideal listener has about the subject.