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>and he certainly isn't attracting them with his charisma or interviewing skills. Your criticism is an example of taking your personal opinion that he has no c
by jasode 6y ago
>and he certainly isn't attracting them with his charisma or interviewing skills.
Your criticism is an example of taking your personal opinion that he has no charisma or interviewing skills and then incorrectly projecting it on to guests that don't share your opinion.
Think about how the guests must voluntarily agree to be interviewed by Lex. Some might go through these steps:
1) get inquiry email from Lex : "Hi, I have a podcast and I'd love to interview you. [... blah blah blah ...] For reference, here are some links to interviews with previous guests [...]"
2) hmmm... who is this Lex guy?!? Let me look at his previous interviews...
3) Ok, he's non-threatening, engaging, and intellectual with his questions. I can sit down and chat with him for few hours.
People oversell the "connections" angle. Yes, he has some connections (Drexel, MIT, ex-contractor at Google, etc) but that just means some warm introductions and a potential guest will politely reply to an email inquiry. Guests can still decline the podcast. Connections don't guarantee the guest will actually agree to talk for 2 hours on camera.
E.g. Chris Lattner has been interviewed by Lex 2 times. Unless he's lying, his comment doesn't seem like he shares your opinion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24831157 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24831157
EDIT to reply: "just by cold emailing."
I didn't say he was only sending out cold emails. (I mentioned "warm introductions.")
In any case, the main point of my comment is that you are (inadvertently?) insulting some of his guests. In other words, have you considered the possibility that many of his guests enjoy Lex's interviewing style?
- superbcarrot 6y agoI don't know why you're assuming that he's just sending out emails and finding receptive people on the other end. In my opinion that's the least likely scenario considering the range and calibre of his guests. You don't get to cold-email Eric Schmidt as a relatively unknown person and have him be the guest on the 8th episode of your newly started podcast. You don't get Elon Musk, Ray Dalio, Jack Dorsey, Roger Penrose and the creator of just about every big programming language just by cold emailing.
- mongol 6y agoYes I wonder about that too. It is really impressive. Was he well connected and famous among the famous before starting his podcast?
- itsoktocry 6y agoHe's a non-threatening insider, that's how he gets these guests. For better or worse, the titans of Silicon Valley don't want to be challenged, so they seek out or start their own safe spaces.
- pen2l 6y agoNo he challenges his guests, he's just not an ass when he does. E.g. see his Jim Keller interview, when he disagrees with Keller when Keller talks about machine learning. And after a couple minutes of back and forth Friedman just lets it go by saying 'yeah we'll just agree to disagree' and moves on instead of making it personal or drawing the point of contention to a long hour because you have to be right! (as some of here may be guilty of doing :))
- adolph 6y agoWhy does agreeing to disagree and moving on seem like such a radical idea?
- newsclues 6y agoNot just a non-threatening insider, but someone who understands what they say and speaks the tech language. I think the technologist first, interviewer/journalist second is important.
- stickfigure 6y agoHi! I'm starting a podcast where I interview totally random commenters on HN and ask them uncomfortable, hostile questions with the intent of embarrassing them in public. Would you like to be my first guest?
- petercooper 6y agoNot going to lie, I would subscribe to this show.
- vulcan01 6y ago