[HN Gopher] Brendan Eich on the Lex Fridman Podcast [video]
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       Brendan Eich on the Lex Fridman Podcast [video]
        
       Author : bekantan
       Score  : 136 points
       Date   : 2021-02-14 10:15 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | typon wrote:
       | Is worse really better though? Imagine C was designed the MIT
       | way. Sure it would have taken a few more years, but maybe we
       | could have avoided the billions of damages in security bugs and
       | productivity loss. I think worse is better if you want to win the
       | Silicon Valley race, but not if you want to design something
       | useful for society.
        
         | ZitchDog wrote:
         | The problem is that something worse will always get made more
         | quickly and gain traction.
        
         | BrendanEich wrote:
         | Richard P. Gabriel observed WiB in era of Lisp vs Unix, MIT vs
         | New Jersey. Silicon Valley on the other coast and small then.
         | Also see Dorothy Denning, talking about the Windows PC era.
         | 
         | https://faculty.nps.edu/dedennin/publications/National%20Com...
         | 
         | Redmond is in WA not CA. If your point is about commercial
         | pressure, not just SV bashing, then please listen to my tale of
         | David Hyatt and grad school friend (Hyatt writing draft code
         | and rewriting five times) from the interview with Lex. That was
         | an academic assignment, not commercial work.
        
         | adolph wrote:
         | _The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how
         | little they really know about what they imagine the can
         | design._
         | 
         | https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/670307.Friedrich_A_H...
         | 
         | Did you listen to Eich's statements acknowledging the errors
         | and also the hypothesis of what would have been if not
         | JavaScript? Since you have done some accounting, what have been
         | the productivity gains and new frontiers opened by C? What is
         | the amortization of damage over the length of delay?
        
         | bsdetector wrote:
         | Ada was designed a few years before C and it could do much more
         | than C and without the problems you mentioned.
         | 
         | So we don't have to wonder at all, it would have turned out
         | exactly the way it did and the reason is because things like
         | undefined behavior, zero terminated strings, null pointers, etc
         | have positive utility underappreciated by academics.
        
           | csb6 wrote:
           | That's not really a good comparison. The reason C has been so
           | prevalent is because it was used to make Unix, which was
           | distributed widely for decades, and because it was relatively
           | simple to write compilers for it/port it to new platforms.
           | Ada doesn't exist in the same context; compilers were
           | expensive and not widely distributed, there wasn't a free,
           | open-source compiler until GNAT in 1995, and Ada was never
           | the default systems language for any widely distributed OS. I
           | mean the circumstances could not be more different.
           | 
           | If C had been designed as a safer language (with even just
           | small improvements that would not have been hard to
           | implement), it would still be widely used and there would be
           | fewer security problems associated with it. It is the Just
           | World Fallacy [0] to assume that the most widespread language
           | became so on its merits and not based on its historical
           | context.
           | 
           | [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis
        
             | jecel wrote:
             | The connection with Unix was indeed a huge factor in the
             | popularization of C.
             | 
             | About Ada, it is actually a decade newer than C. In 1982 I
             | was part of a group that was keeping track of its
             | development and had learned C from old Bell Journals. I was
             | able to a buy a book on Ada and the famous K&R C book and
             | decided I preferred simplicity, so I donated the Ada book
             | and dropped out of the study group. It is ironic that the
             | even more complex (than Ada) C++ was what eventually became
             | popular.
        
       | mjgs wrote:
       | I really liked this episode.
       | 
       | I think Brendan Eich has got to be one of my favourite people to
       | hear anecdotes about early web history. He was around at some
       | pivotal moments, was in with the business side of things but also
       | super technical. He's also just very good at talking, he never
       | appears to talk himself into a corner, somehow always avoids
       | getting into the weeds, there's a lucidity to all his answers
       | that's somehow very impressive. I wonder how much preparation he
       | puts into his interviews.
       | 
       | As for Lex, personally I really like his style. He operates at a
       | different pace to many of the people he's interviewing, but I
       | find this often enables him to see interesting parallels and
       | analysis. It's not always perfect, and maybe there's room for
       | improvement, though it gives the whole show an authenticity that
       | it might not otherwise have if it were too polished.
       | 
       | I feel like his style works very well with all the guests he has
       | on. They all seem to get on very well, which has a massive
       | positive effect on how the guest interacts. Sure he has some
       | prepared questions, but he also goes off piste quite a bit, and
       | when he gets back to the prepared questions, I generally find
       | they are well researched and very relevant.
       | 
       | I'd also like to know how he gets so many great guests on the
       | show.
        
         | galfarragem wrote:
         | Bill Gates, Alan Kay and Steve Wozniak would fit perfectly in
         | this format. Other missing guests (yet) - from the top of my
         | mind - Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and even Mark Zuckerberg.
        
           | spaetzleesser wrote:
           | I usually prefer to listen to slightly less famous people.
           | The really big names usually are too used to public speaking
           | and not saying anything wrong that they come across as too
           | slick and guarded.
        
             | tomthe wrote:
             | Yes, but if someone with a big name says something stupid,
             | that is interesting because of who says it. If some nobody
             | says something stupid, it is just a podcast.
        
               | spaetzleesser wrote:
               | I don't find it very inheriting when somebody trips over
               | something. Must of our media already consists of trying
               | to catch somebody saying something. We don't need more of
               | that.
        
         | pen2l wrote:
         | > somehow always avoids getting into the weeds
         | 
         | I hate to bring this up, but no, he's been given plenty chances
         | and he does not behave responsibly as a person of his intellect
         | and position should. I'd have hoped that he'd learned a lesson
         | or two from the previous fiasco he was involved in,
         | unfortunately he's still spewing some strange stuff on twitter
         | and elsewhere, like saying masks don't work, Fauci is a liar,
         | etc.: (https://twitter.com/brendaneich/status/13374961696902307
         | 84?l...).
         | 
         | I don't doubt his lucidity when it comes to his technical
         | prowess, but it's just hard for me to square this with the fact
         | that he keeps falling along party lines in his public
         | presentation which is divisive and unneeded.
        
           | pull_my_finger wrote:
           | > he does not behave responsibly as a person of his intellect
           | and position should
           | 
           | He actually tried to doxx[1] me right here on HN because I
           | spoke out against Brave.
           | 
           | [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442203
        
             | mendelmaleh wrote:
             | How is that a dox attempt?
        
               | ttul wrote:
               | Outing someone's Twitter handle is a form of doxing.
        
               | goatinaboat wrote:
               | _Outing someone's Twitter handle is a form of doxing._
               | 
               | That's literally a link to his own Twitter, not yours
               | whoever you are??
        
               | BrendanEich wrote:
               | I cited a twitter thread (et seq) relevant to our
               | exchange. You then doxxed yourself in reply on HN. I
               | don't care who you are or what your twitter handle is,
               | honestly.
        
             | chownie wrote:
             | That doesn't read as him accusing you of being that person,
             | but of repeating an argument someone else made.
             | 
             | He literally links it and writes "et seq" ("and the
             | following") ie: read this person who agrees with you and
             | then my reply to them.
        
               | BrendanEich wrote:
               | Thanks for reading and thinking.
               | 
               | I don't doxx. Words matter.
        
           | specialist wrote:
           | > _it 's just hard for me to square this with the fact_
           | 
           | I don't think that's fair.
           | 
           | I just scanned his twitfeed. It's abundently clear to me that
           | Eich's ethics are _just as good as_ his technical acumen.
        
           | nobodyandproud wrote:
           | One of the most important things our adversarial system does
           | is provide misstep feedback, when nobody else is willing to.
           | 
           | Fauci likely stated the mask trope with the best of
           | intentions, but its also true that it was (in hindsight at
           | the very least) a mistake for the current pandemic.
           | 
           | Most people who like what Fauci is doing would be too polite
           | to call him out on it, but that's a disservice in the long
           | term. Not just to us but even to Fauci.
        
           | BrendanEich wrote:
           | Fauci said he lies often, right after the NYT tried to smear
           | me for noticing that Fauci, indeed, lies often.
           | 
           | https://twitter.com/philwmagness/status/1342349517669228544?.
           | ..
           | 
           | The party-lining here is from you, not me. I gave Fauci
           | credit for giving long-standing advice against mass masking
           | for the whole population in March, 2020. That matched advice
           | over decades from WHO and CDC.
        
             | pen2l wrote:
             | You are a star and a titan, and I hold incredible respect
             | for what you've given to the world. Understand however that
             | you casting aspersions upon a man leading the fight against
             | this pandemic isn't a constructive thing to do. Back when
             | he was iffy about masks in that 60minutes interview, it was
             | because there was actual concern that frontline medical
             | staff might not have enough for themselves. He revised his
             | stance on what public policy should be in an evolving
             | situation as he well should.
             | 
             | He's one of the people leading this battle now, and for
             | this battle to be won the public has to have trust in him,
             | the public has to listen to him when he says wear masks,
             | get vaccinated, etc. For folks in NIH and sciences, he's
             | long been known to be a man of integrity, no doubt his
             | scientific output has been pristine, no doubt he's the man
             | for this job, yes that whole bout with the masks was an
             | unfortunate happening, and I think I even agree he did not
             | handle that situation in the most ideal way, but you're
             | smart enough to know what a mucky situation that was and he
             | deserves a pass for that.
             | 
             | edit: I misread you. You're still arguing against mask-
             | wearing as public policy. Come on man, what is going on
             | here? This is not up for debate, there is strong consensus
             | from just about all medical scientists and medical
             | organizations that mask-wearing is very important and
             | effective in fighting coronavirus.
             | 
             |  _Please_ give this a read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F
             | ace_masks_during_the_COVID-19...
             | 
             | Numerous prestigious peer-reviewed journals have confirmed
             | this studies. There is no conspiracy here. Masks work. It
             | is dangerous for you to say otherwise with the platform you
             | command.
        
               | itbeho wrote:
               | > for this battle to be won the public has to have trust
               | in him
               | 
               | But many don't, for reasons of Fauci's own making. You
               | can't rally people around a person that lies and flip-
               | flops on issues as important as this.
        
           | blub wrote:
           | Fauci is a liar or incompetent. He claimed that masks do not
           | work.
        
           | bzb6 wrote:
           | If you're on Twitter you will see 99.9% of tech people spend
           | all day posting left wing political takes. Just a bit of
           | counterbalance is not going to hurt you lol
        
         | mda wrote:
         | You like his style? Dunno, I watched his interview with Jim
         | Keller, it was terrible and I cringed several times (And Keller
         | rolled his eyes mostly).
        
       | galfarragem wrote:
       | I really like Lex Fridman podcast because his guests don't feel
       | under threat. In the end they open up more than if he had asked
       | loaded questions "a la journalist". Probably this is the main
       | reason why so many illustrious guests accept his invitation.
        
         | tomComb wrote:
         | Yes, but he is poor at challenging his guests and I think that
         | is a valuable part of a good interview. I enjoyed the recent
         | interview with a prominent American objectivist (Ayne Rand) but
         | some of the stuff he said really need to be challenged and
         | since it wasn't we didn't the opportunity to really be
         | convinced.
        
       | lordgrenville wrote:
       | Great interview, what a brilliant guy.
       | 
       | As an aside, I wish there was a simple/standard way to link to
       | podcast episodes.
        
         | MaxBarraclough wrote:
         | > I wish there was a simple/standard way to link to podcast
         | episodes
         | 
         | Seems to me the way it should work is that a podcast has its
         | own website with a URL for each episode, but makes the episodes
         | available through many different platforms. The indieweb folks
         | have a term for this sort of thing, _POSSE_ , Publish (on your)
         | Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. [0]
         | 
         | Many podcasts upload to YouTube, which naturally supports
         | linking to a specific time in an episode.
         | 
         | Related: it's a pity so many podcasts seem to view it as a
         | their duty to obscure the URLs of the audio files.
         | 
         | [0] https://indieweb.org/POSSE
        
         | adolph wrote:
         | Here you go
         | 
         | https://lexfridman.com/brendan-eich/
        
           | jessaustin wrote:
           | Much better link! Mods, please substitute this one at the top
           | of the page.
        
             | adolph wrote:
             | As I listen to this podcast I think there should be several
             | HN threads due to its range:
             | 
             | - Browser and JS history - Adtech and trying better with
             | Brave - Has SV run it's course
        
       | TOMDM wrote:
       | I've found myself enjoying these less since Lex rebranded the
       | podcast. I can't quite put my finger on why and I haven't watched
       | the previous few.
       | 
       | Is it worth jumping back in for another try?
        
         | blueboo wrote:
         | Yea, there's definitely been a decline. Conspicuous injection
         | of Lex talking about himself, poetry/love, and (sigh) cancel
         | culture. All feels awfully Joe Rogan-wannabe-ish.
         | 
         | The MIT AI podcast => AI podcast => Lex Podcast worked out
         | great for him, though...but it feels kind of gross. There are
         | some fascinating guests, but it feels like the content is good
         | in spite of Lex and his "journey".
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | x86ARMsRace wrote:
         | He's had a few guests on that are outside the realm of a
         | computing/science/ect podcast (IE: Michael Malice, Yaron Brook,
         | Joe Rogan), so I can see where you might be coming from. That
         | being said, I think he's pretty good at doing what he does, and
         | his interviews are engaging. And to an extent, he's an
         | apolitical interviewer, even when his guests are not.
         | 
         | Might be worth another shot, but maybe just pick the podcasts
         | in the areas you're interested in. I can see how some guests
         | may be a turn off.
        
         | libertine wrote:
         | I haven't seen any change, he just takes the liberty of
         | inviting other type of guests not connected directly or
         | indirectly to AI - which was his main ideia, to expand beyond
         | that.
         | 
         | So now he brings people who study quantum physics,
         | philosophers, thinkers, writers, and he's free to ask more open
         | ended questions.
        
       | blackrock wrote:
       | This was a pretty good interview. Really wish he didn't create
       | the === implicit equivalence function. And made JavaScript
       | stricter from the beginning.
        
         | BrendanEich wrote:
         | It's == that has implicit conversion semantics. === was the
         | backward-compatible (because extension into formerly illegal
         | syntax, which is reserved to future versions) operator we added
         | that does no implicit conversions.
         | 
         | As I said, in the beginning (Mocha in ten days), == was just as
         | strict if operand types differ: false result. The lesson is to
         | say "no" by default and reflex to RFEs, consider only on
         | repeated request and be willing to find what they truly want
         | that's not a hole in the head ;-).
         | 
         | The other sloppiness in JS is `var obj = {prop:42}; obj.prep`
         | where you get undefined instead of a thrown exception (as you
         | would get in Python). That was due to 10 day rush and little
         | time after for core language work leaving 0 time to add try-
         | catch-finally.
        
       | roenxi wrote:
       | Just watching the start of the part on BAT tokens (2:20 - 2:22) -
       | I have a prediction.
       | 
       | Brendan Eich is going to be attacked by Google somehow for
       | something, maybe through lobbying in Congress around
       | cryptocurrencies. These ideas are a credible threat to their
       | advertising revenue.
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | Google is under attack from all sides. Antitrust scrutiny at
         | home, regulations from Australia and Europe. Apple anonymizing
         | iPhone users. Brave picking up steam...
         | 
         | Is their moat as wide as they think it is? They don't exactly
         | have a healthy revenue diversity.
        
           | simias wrote:
           | They own android and chrome, that seems like a very good moat
           | for the time being.
        
         | phreeza wrote:
         | Do you want to put a timeframe on the prediction to make it
         | falsifiable?
        
         | mupuff1234 wrote:
         | I believe Google has something pretty similar called Google
         | contributor, not sure what's it's status.
        
           | BrendanEich wrote:
           | Not similar, and it flopped. It requires the user to pay, for
           | one. We pay users. See
           | https://twitter.com/bcrypt/status/706597283219963904.
        
             | ibeckermayer wrote:
             | Hey Brendan, I bought $500 worth of BAT a few days ago
             | under the impression that line would go up, but thus far
             | line has gone down. Think I should sell? Or is it suicide
             | stack time?
        
       | mongol wrote:
       | I enjoyed this. The only thing I was missing was to hear Eich's
       | view of his departure from Mozilla. It's absence from the podcast
       | made me wonder if leaving questions about that out was a
       | condition or request from Eich.
        
         | BrendanEich wrote:
         | I cannot comment on anything about my exit. You should not
         | assume this is my choice, or assume anything really. Sorry,
         | can't say anything specific at all.
        
           | mongol wrote:
           | Thanks for mentioning that, it is understandable and just
           | good to know.
        
       | charliebrownau wrote:
       | They might find out the true number is 275k , not 6m
       | 
       | Check out * podcasts * Bitchute * Gab/minds/alt tech
       | 
       | If Jews have lied about
       | 
       | - Non white immergration
       | 
       | - Equal outcome
       | 
       | - fait currency + Interest loans
       | 
       | - Anti whitism
       | 
       | - Anti Male
       | 
       | - Anti Merit/hard work
       | 
       | - Feminism
       | 
       | - Diversity
       | 
       | - LGBT
       | 
       | - Globl homo (Depopulation)
       | 
       | - Trans (real name - mental illness + Mulation + Brainwashing)
       | 
       | - Multi culturalism (real name Multi racial)
       | 
       | Is it really a suprise they lied about
       | 
       | - ethnic nationalism - Hilter
       | 
       | - WWII
       | 
       | - Death count
       | 
       | to guilt trip whites into funding their corruption and illegal
       | formation of the state of israel
        
       | superbcarrot wrote:
       | I would love to know what Lex is doing to get the guests that
       | he's had on. It's an impressive list of people and he certainly
       | isn't attracting them with his charisma or interviewing skills.
        
         | jasode wrote:
         | _> 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
         | 
         | 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 wrote:
           | I 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 wrote:
             | Yes I wonder about that too. It is really impressive. Was
             | he well connected and famous among the famous before
             | starting his podcast?
        
           | itsoktocry wrote:
           | He'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.
        
             | newsclues wrote:
             | Not 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 wrote:
             | Hi! 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 wrote:
               | Not going to lie, I would subscribe to this show.
        
               | vulcan01 wrote:
               | As long as we're not the commenters being interviewed, am
               | I right? ;)
        
               | lrvick wrote:
               | Sounds fun. I volunteer.
        
             | pen2l wrote:
             | No 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 wrote:
               | Why does agreeing to disagree and moving on seem like
               | such a radical idea?
        
         | zarkov99 wrote:
         | Just being a decent human being with no agenda but trying to
         | ask interesting questions. It is shocking how rare and precious
         | simply being genuine is these days.
        
           | itsoktocry wrote:
           | Having an agenda is sometimes the only way to get powerful
           | people to answer for controversy.
           | 
           | It's crazy to me that people are now claiming that asking
           | "hard questions" is what is ruining journalism. As if we need
           | more of Cuomo interviewing Cuomo on CNN.
        
             | dmatech wrote:
             | Both styles have their merits. That's why we have both
             | adversarial debates as well as collaborative panel
             | discussions.
        
           | bostonsre wrote:
           | Yea.. I'm surprised how negative the comments are here. He
           | seems to be genuinely interested in a wide range of topics.
           | He is able to have intelligible conversations across this
           | wide spectrum and approaches it all with the incredible
           | humility required to learn and teach well. His style is
           | different but I would be hard pressed to think of anyone else
           | that could have these conversations so well.
        
         | sieste wrote:
         | > certainly isn't attracting them with his charisma or
         | interviewing skills.
         | 
         | As a counterpoint, watch the end of his podcast with Elon Musk,
         | where he made him read the Carl Sagan quote [1]. This was quite
         | brilliant I thought.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVsZD2wF1vw&t=144
        
         | spaetzleesser wrote:
         | I think he took Joe Rogan as a template. Be curious, let people
         | talk, maybe know something about the topic, don't judge, don't
         | have an agenda, make the interview about the guest and not
         | about the interviewer. It's kind of interesting that this is a
         | rare thing today.
        
         | casi wrote:
         | I really enjoy his interviewing style and calm voice. It is a
         | conversation rather than a list of prepared questions. I get
         | much more from these than say a techcrunch interview.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | Grustaf wrote:
         | I think he's got excellent interviewing skills, but I am still
         | amazed by his guest list, and I would really like to understand
         | how he has managed to pull this off! Very impressive work.
        
         | ChefboyOG wrote:
         | Lex is a pretty unconventional interviewer, but I actually
         | think he's pretty fantastic at what he does. In particular, he
         | is one of the best at thinking like a beginner and asking
         | clarifying questions as his guests talk. He interviews a lot of
         | brilliant people who can speak at some depth about topics that
         | need context, and he does a good job of in real time figuring
         | out where they need to clarify without obstructing their
         | explanation. For example, I think he got one of the best
         | interviews I've seen out of Wolfram.
         | 
         | I don't know if you've ever interviewed someone, but that kind
         | of awareness and quick thinking is really really hard.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | alexashka wrote:
         | Credentials + persistence + convenient location to get the ball
         | rolling.
         | 
         | Large number of views/listens thanks to Joe Rogan + extremely
         | safe interviewing style to keep the momentum going.
         | 
         | It's really not all that impressive given the absence of
         | alternatives (try searching Wolfram on youtube and see how many
         | other podcasts show up) - it's more surprising how bad the
         | podcast discovery scene is that almost anyone who self promotes
         | through Joe Rogan and puts in the work becomes a top 100
         | podcast worldwide.
        
         | ianai wrote:
         | Watch where he interviews his dad. Connections, I think.
        
         | dogma1138 wrote:
         | I would think he is rather well respected and well connected in
         | the academic and "corporate R&D" world.
         | 
         | He isn't the best interviewer because he doesn't have the
         | experience yet but the podcasts are very good because he gives
         | the guests an open stage, he is never adversarial and he never
         | seem to push the interview into a specific direction.
         | 
         | Overall it wouldn't surprise me if many of the guests would
         | just enjoy to sit down and talk to someone who is without
         | sounding too elitists a smart as they are, being able to reach
         | to a lot of other people is just a bonus.
        
           | TOMDM wrote:
           | Because he doesn't have the experience yet?
           | 
           | He's been running the podcast for two and a half years, and
           | this episode makes 160.
           | 
           | How much experience do you reckon it takes to get "good" at
           | interviewing?
        
             | bob33212 wrote:
             | Some people don't like his style. I don't think they will
             | ever think he is that good. Someone like Oprah would be
             | considered to be far more talented at driving the
             | conversation where she wants it to be. Personally I a huge
             | fan of Lex, I think because the people and topics are what
             | I'm interested in.
        
               | type0 wrote:
               | So much for his style that it makes his podcasts hit or
               | miss (depending on the topic). For some personalities his
               | conversational demagoguery feels nauseating, for others
               | it fits the conversation. In my opinion Sean Carroll
               | (Mindscape) has much more consistent conversational theme
               | that borders on philosophical but still makes it engaging
               | for the listener, where Lex often misses the red thread
               | and rambles in unrelated territory. I don't think his
               | podcasts are bad, just inconsistent, and thinking of how
               | many he manages to do doesn't actually make it that
               | strange. In order to improve Lex needs to curate his
               | ramblings better and learn to read the motivations of his
               | guests.
        
               | dogma1138 wrote:
               | I think the biggest thing that Lex "needs" (that's a bit
               | strong wording because I do like his podcast) to change
               | is that professional interviewers tend to drive the
               | interview towards the benefit of the audience and the
               | guest (the interviewer very well may have a hidden agenda
               | but the good ones hide it well), Lex's style is more
               | about his own personal interests and anecdotes his uses
               | this interviews primarily to benefit his own curiosity
               | than to the benefit of the of viewership which why he
               | tends to go on so many tangents I think.
        
             | dogma1138 wrote:
             | Look (or we'll listen) to Larry King's early years
             | interviews vs later in his career, so I would say probably
             | a life time.
             | 
             | Also keep in mind Lex isn't a professional journalist he
             | isn't even what one would call a science communicator.
             | 
             | His podcast is still mainly two people having a
             | conversation than a structured interview but he has gotten
             | better at it overall. His early podcasts had quite a few
             | wired moments where you can see that Lex was somewhere else
             | thinking about something these are rarer now.
        
         | gigatexal wrote:
         | You think his interviewing skills suck? I think he's doing a
         | great job. Brenden sure doesn't seem to think the questions are
         | terrible.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | blackrock wrote:
       | He said he had originally wanted to implement Scheme as the
       | scripting language. But was over-ruled by his managers, and
       | forced to make it look like Java.
       | 
       | I wonder how things would've turned out differently, had he
       | implemented Scheme instead. Lisp in the browser.
        
         | AzzieElbab wrote:
         | He pretty much answered that. If they were going for 'perfect'
         | we'd ended up using some form of vb from ms instead of anything
         | from Netscape
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | dano wrote:
       | This is a great interview. The early history of exposure to the
       | Internet at the beginning is exactly as I remember. Brendan is a
       | brilliant man and good conversationalist. He's has the ability to
       | make tough technology simpler, adoptable, and do the right thing
       | for the consumer. I recall several positive encounters with
       | Brendan over the past 35 years, including help over Usenet on an
       | NFS issue while he was at SGI. His impact has been tremendous.
        
       | irockzz wrote:
       | Netflix isn't working with brave browser? Anyone else?
        
         | BrendanEich wrote:
         | You may have missed or dismissed the prompt to enable WideVine
         | (DRM). Please check brave://settings/?search=widevine.
        
       | gigatexal wrote:
       | I really, really enjoyed this interview. Such an illuminating
       | history of JavaScript and such.
        
         | christocracy wrote:
         | Seatbelts weren't a thing in the first cars. People weren't
         | thinking long-term about how fast these things might one day
         | go.
        
       | bsaul wrote:
       | Funny how i only now discover the inventor of JavaScript is
       | behind the brave browser. I've seen a few stories about brave on
       | HN, but it always looked like a semi-scammy project. This adds a
       | lot to the credibility of that projet...
        
         | tomComb wrote:
         | That's because it is a scammy project. I don't think that
         | creating a popular technology should grant you a pass on the
         | ethical issues of future endeavors.
        
           | BrendanEich wrote:
           | I would not want anyone using Brave because they blindly
           | trust me. On the other hand, you libeling Brave without any
           | evidence (to avoid rehashing, onlookers should see
           | https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1360780527100338177
           | and do their own research) reflects poorly only on you.
        
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