6 ms·

I found that Lex interview enlightening for two reasons. Firstly, Keller is a profoundly talented and interesting guy. And secondly, Lex is a truly painful and

I found that Lex interview enlightening for two reasons. Firstly, Keller is a profoundly talented and interesting guy. And secondly, Lex is a truly painful and incompetent interviewer; virtually every time Lex spoke I begged my screen for him to stay quiet and let Keller speak.

djmips 3y ago
You need an interviewer. Lex isn't that terrible.
hebrox 3y ago
I had the same feeling with a lot of interviews from the past, but somehow, about a year ago, something changed. Not sure if it was a conscious decision or just the result of so much practice, but for quite something I haven’t screamed at my screen when listening to Lex.
- mips_r4300i 3y ago
  I've noticed that as well. He frequently also gets distracted thinking about taking ideas to such an abstract level they don't really make sense any longer, he looks off at the ceiling somewhere, and then the guest continues off as if they didn't see that. It makes me crack up every time, hah. This is in contrast to many other podcasters who stay engrossed in surface level details and never graduate to thinking about overarching concepts. Lex just zooms there too fast sometimes.
- localplume 3y ago
  [dead]
- comboy 3y ago
  I think Lex is a very talented interviewer. His questions often seem low quality (to me), but he pushes the discussion in the correct direction. He seem to be e.g. build sentences where after the first part there is a moment for guest to throw in something or for Lex to judge guest reaction. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, but regardless, he seem to be able to get something out of these guys which others interviews couldn't. Shining example is Stephen Wolfram who seem to be extremely hard to interview.
  - specialist 3y ago
    Agreed. Lex's done some of my favorite geek interviews. Just from memory: Stephen Kotkin, Roger Penrose, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Everyday Astronaut, Jim Keller, his own father. Many more I'm sure, if I consulted Lex's archive. I skip over the episodes with culture warriors. I've already had my fill, thank you very much.
ekianjo 3y ago
Lex is also absolutely boring to listen to. His tone of voice puts you to sleep.
- llaolleh 3y ago
  I use his podcast to fall asleep. It has never failed me.
geokon 3y ago
Does anyone have any insight into how hes managed to get such high profile guests?
- latenightcoding 3y ago
  being into AI at the right time and the MIT affiliation helped.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- aeoliun 3y ago
  I would imagine being extremely good friends with Joe Rogan helps immensely.
  - AlchemistCamp 3y ago
    He had guests more famous than Rogan before ever going on JRE. Steven Pinker and Eric Schmidt were in the first ten guests and Elon Musk wasn’t long after. I’m sure Rogan got him more high profile cage fighters and that type of guest, though.
- justin66 3y ago
  Some of the early big name guests who would be known by people outside CS and AI were MIT-affiliated (Chomsky, Krugman).
- mandeepj 3y ago
  > Does anyone have any insight into how hes managed to get such high profile guests? Once you have some, they might have introduced him to others like a chain or linked list (if that sounds better ref) Lex shared this on his podcast as well: It's not easy to find or get hold of Donald Knuth. But, he kept trying and finally got him. Persistence pays, I guess.
latenightcoding 3y ago
It's actually impressive Lex is this bad at something he has been doing for so many years.
indy 3y ago
His guests are often so interesting that it's worth persevering through Lex's un-profound musings. (Every time he uses the word 'beautiful' or 'love' it reminds me of a pretentious teenager who lacks life experience)
- systemvoltage 3y ago
  Haha, I kind of agree but I’m starting to think that dumb interviewers are a feature, not a bug. They ask obvious mid questions that are difficult to answer without giving away any tricks if you had them. He is ok. Not that bad.
  - indy 3y ago
    Asking obvious mid questions is one thing, but Lex often interjects with his own mid opinions. Or he takes what could have been an interesting line of questioning and diverts it to banal cod-philosophy often using words like 'beautiful' or 'love' in an attempt at profundity
CyberDildonics 3y ago
That's exactly what I thought. Jim Keller had a lot of deep insights that he was boiling down to simple terms. It was obvious he had thought about these ideas for a long time and that what he was saying came from a lot of experience. He would talk about things like switching lanes in driverless cars being a matter of ballistics. Lex Friedman just interrupted him in a whiny voice to say "it's not thaaat simple". He basically just got in Jim Keller's way. It would be like someone interrupting a john carmack presentation every few minutes to say "I don't know about all that". It was a shame.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  John Carmack was on his show.
justin66 3y ago
Fridman's interviews are an unusual combination of being well researched and incompetently conducted. When the interviewees are so interesting and well-chosen, and otherwise not the sort of person who would get a lot of media attention (Jim Keller is one example), it is indeed painful when he interrupts the guest or... sigh... interacts with them verbally in any way, really. Unrelated, but Fridman's proclivity for injecting Elon Musk as a discussion topic into the vast majority of his interviews is genuinely weird.
- ms-fellag 3y ago
  >Unrelated, but Fridman's proclivity for injecting Elon Musk as a discussion topic into the vast majority of his interviews is genuinely weird. Or Aliens, or asking for the meaning of life.
logankeenan 3y ago
I really enjoy Lex’s interviews. Whatever he’s doing, it brings out great content from great guests.
specialist 3y ago
If not Lex, which host(s) do you prefer?

djmips 3y ago

You need an interviewer. Lex isn't that terrible.

hebrox 3y ago

I had the same feeling with a lot of interviews from the past, but somehow, about a year ago, something changed. Not sure if it was a conscious decision or just the result of so much practice, but for quite something I haven’t screamed at my screen when listening to Lex.

mips_r4300i 3y ago
I've noticed that as well. He frequently also gets distracted thinking about taking ideas to such an abstract level they don't really make sense any longer, he looks off at the ceiling somewhere, and then the guest continues off as if they didn't see that. It makes me crack up every time, hah. This is in contrast to many other podcasters who stay engrossed in surface level details and never graduate to thinking about overarching concepts. Lex just zooms there too fast sometimes.
localplume 3y ago
[dead]
comboy 3y ago
I think Lex is a very talented interviewer. His questions often seem low quality (to me), but he pushes the discussion in the correct direction. He seem to be e.g. build sentences where after the first part there is a moment for guest to throw in something or for Lex to judge guest reaction. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, but regardless, he seem to be able to get something out of these guys which others interviews couldn't. Shining example is Stephen Wolfram who seem to be extremely hard to interview.
- specialist 3y ago
  Agreed. Lex's done some of my favorite geek interviews. Just from memory: Stephen Kotkin, Roger Penrose, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Everyday Astronaut, Jim Keller, his own father. Many more I'm sure, if I consulted Lex's archive. I skip over the episodes with culture warriors. I've already had my fill, thank you very much.

ekianjo 3y ago

Lex is also absolutely boring to listen to. His tone of voice puts you to sleep.

llaolleh 3y ago
I use his podcast to fall asleep. It has never failed me.

geokon 3y ago

Does anyone have any insight into how hes managed to get such high profile guests?

latenightcoding 3y ago
being into AI at the right time and the MIT affiliation helped.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
aeoliun 3y ago
I would imagine being extremely good friends with Joe Rogan helps immensely.
- AlchemistCamp 3y ago
  He had guests more famous than Rogan before ever going on JRE. Steven Pinker and Eric Schmidt were in the first ten guests and Elon Musk wasn’t long after. I’m sure Rogan got him more high profile cage fighters and that type of guest, though.
justin66 3y ago
Some of the early big name guests who would be known by people outside CS and AI were MIT-affiliated (Chomsky, Krugman).
mandeepj 3y ago
> Does anyone have any insight into how hes managed to get such high profile guests? Once you have some, they might have introduced him to others like a chain or linked list (if that sounds better ref) Lex shared this on his podcast as well: It's not easy to find or get hold of Donald Knuth. But, he kept trying and finally got him. Persistence pays, I guess.

latenightcoding 3y ago

It's actually impressive Lex is this bad at something he has been doing for so many years.

indy 3y ago

His guests are often so interesting that it's worth persevering through Lex's un-profound musings. (Every time he uses the word 'beautiful' or 'love' it reminds me of a pretentious teenager who lacks life experience)

systemvoltage 3y ago
Haha, I kind of agree but I’m starting to think that dumb interviewers are a feature, not a bug. They ask obvious mid questions that are difficult to answer without giving away any tricks if you had them. He is ok. Not that bad.
- indy 3y ago
  Asking obvious mid questions is one thing, but Lex often interjects with his own mid opinions. Or he takes what could have been an interesting line of questioning and diverts it to banal cod-philosophy often using words like 'beautiful' or 'love' in an attempt at profundity

CyberDildonics 3y ago

That's exactly what I thought. Jim Keller had a lot of deep insights that he was boiling down to simple terms. It was obvious he had thought about these ideas for a long time and that what he was saying came from a lot of experience. He would talk about things like switching lanes in driverless cars being a matter of ballistics. Lex Friedman just interrupted him in a whiny voice to say "it's not thaaat simple". He basically just got in Jim Keller's way. It would be like someone interrupting a john carmack presentation every few minutes to say "I don't know about all that". It was a shame.

0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
John Carmack was on his show.

justin66 3y ago

Fridman's interviews are an unusual combination of being well researched and incompetently conducted. When the interviewees are so interesting and well-chosen, and otherwise not the sort of person who would get a lot of media attention (Jim Keller is one example), it is indeed painful when he interrupts the guest or... sigh... interacts with them verbally in any way, really. Unrelated, but Fridman's proclivity for injecting Elon Musk as a discussion topic into the vast majority of his interviews is genuinely weird.

ms-fellag 3y ago
>Unrelated, but Fridman's proclivity for injecting Elon Musk as a discussion topic into the vast majority of his interviews is genuinely weird. Or Aliens, or asking for the meaning of life.

logankeenan 3y ago

I really enjoy Lex’s interviews. Whatever he’s doing, it brings out great content from great guests.

specialist 3y ago

If not Lex, which host(s) do you prefer?