💬 "Dr. Lex Fridman: Navigating Conflict, Finding Purpose & Maintaining Drive"

Podcast’s Essential Bites:

On War:

[17:06] LF: "In February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, [...] one of the most painful lessons is that war creates generational hate. We sometimes think about war as the thing that kills people, kills civilians, kills soldiers, takes away lives, injures people, but we don't directly think about the secondary and tertiary effects of that, which last decades. Which is anyone who's lost the father or mother or a daughter or a son they now hate the not just the individual soldiers of the leaders that invaded their country, but the entirety of the people. So it's not that they hate Vladimir Putin or hate the Russian military, they hate Russian people."

[18:50] LF: "There's so many painful ways in which things will never be the same, which we've seen that it is possible to have a major hot war in the 21st century. [...] China is watching this, India is watching this, the United States is watching this [...]. And I think the lessons learned from that might be the kind that lead to a major World War III in the 21st century. So like one of the things I realized, watching the whole scene is that we don't know shit about what's going to happen in the 21st century."

[47:41] LF: "Science goes on. Before the war, Ukraine had a very vibrant tech sector [...]. Kyiv has a lot of excellent universities, and they still go on. The biggest hit, I would say, is not the infrastructure of science, but the fact, because of the high morale, everybody is joining the military. Everybody's going to the front to fight."

On Twitter & Social Media:

[1:16:01] LF: "I think there is this viral negativity that can take hold. And I tried to find the right language to add good vibes out there. And it's actually really, really tricky, because there's something about positivity that sounds fake. And [...] I can't quite put my finger on it. But [...] there's an assumption that is not genuine."

[1:17:13] LF: "[In certain aspects] I was really inspired by Elon's approach to Twitter. Not all of it, but when he just is silly. [...] Herman Hesse said something, to paraphrase, [...] learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest. I think I try to be silly, laugh at myself, laugh at the absurdity of life. And then in part, when I'm serious, try to just be positive. [...] Your actions create the community. So how I behave gets me surrounded by certain people."

[1:24:42] LF: "One of the things I really don't like to see on Twitter, on the internet, is how many statements end with lol. [...] You think just because something is kind of funny or is funny or is legitimately funny, it also doesn't have a deep effect on society. So there's such a difficult gray area, because some of the best comedy is dark and mean, but it reveals some important truth that we need to consider. But sometimes comedy is just covering up for destructive ideology. And you have to know the line between those two. Hitler was seen as a joke in the late 20s and 30s in Nazi Germany, until the joke became very serious. You have to be careful to know the difference between the joke and the reality."

On Excuses & Failure:

[1:48:34] LF: "When you fill your day and you're busy, that busyness becomes an excuse that you use against doing the things that scare you. A lot of people use family in this way, my wife, my kids - I can't. When in reality, some of the most successful people have a wife and have kids and have families, and they still do it. [...] I'm unlikely to fail at anything in my life currently, because I've already fallen into a comfortable place. With a [launching a] startup, it's [...] most likely going to be a failure, if not an embarrassing failure."

On Relationships:

[2:01:15] LF: "I'm a huge believer in [...] getting into a relationship at a low point in your life. [...] I just think that it's easy to have a relationship, when everything's good. The relationships that become strong and are tested quickly, are the ones [that last] when shit is going down."

On Advice for Young People:

[2:33:25] LF: "In your 20s, I think you should find one thing you're passionate about and work harder at that than you worked at anything else in your life. And if it destroys you, it destroys you. [...] I don't know how universally true that advice is. But I think at least give that a chance, [...] real sacrifice towards a thing you really care about and work your ass off. [...] Some of the most accomplished people ever, I think if they're honest with you, they're going to talk about their 20s as a journey of a lot of pain and a lot of really hard work. [...] Unfortunately, a lot of those successful people later in life will talk about work life balance. [...] I think [...] those people have forgotten the value of the journey they took to that lesson. I think work life balance is best learned the hard way. [...] The highest thing that we can reach for us human beings, I think, is [being] excellent at a thing."

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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