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Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

lexfridman.com

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Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#121

Post by [deleted] »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #110
cblconfederate wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I m trying to figure out what is it that throws people off? There are successful podcasters that are far more clueless than Lex (e.g. Joe rogan) and he s not interrupting much. In general the interviewee is usually the center of attention, and they seem to be actually going pretty deep on presenting their theses or personal ideas (e.g. sebastian thrun, joscha bach, george hotz, lisa feldman, james gosling). As for a…

I think blinkingled below in the comments put it really well: "yes it is different and it can feel like stoned teenager with disorganized thoughts asking questions that form mid sentence"

[deleted]

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#122

Post by boulos »

7373737373 wrote: post #73
abeppu wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's an unfortunate convergence of format and questioning. He asks a lot of the same questions of almost every guest. "Are we living in a simulation? What is consciousness? Etc." This feels like a waste of these guests if it's unrelated to their area of interest. In general, it smacks of lack of preparation. But perhaps this creates the opportunity for someone to make a series of supercuts, where Lex doesn…

There's a Canadian interviewer named "Nardwuar the Human Serviette" who mainly does interviews with rappers/musicians. Before each interview, he conducts the most in-depth research on them that anyone has ever conducted, mentioning people, places, early inspirations from their childhood and musical career, things that only a handful of people, the rappers' parents or only themselves could know - which often astounds,…

Tyler Cowen (from Conversations with Tyler) does a variant of this, but a bit less creepy than that sounds :).

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#123

Post by justicezyx »

WanderPanda wrote: post #119
zapnuk wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I don't remember Julia being mentioned. Also, Elixir/Erlang isn't mentioned when they talked about actor based concurrency. Neither is Rust which has some simultaneity with swift. They also didn't really talk about problems with swift (adoption for example). Overall this talk is very surface level in my opinion, which is why I think some critique on Lex is valid. He had the opportunity to dive in deeper on some…

I personally found almost all points they were talking about interesting. Sure, I also often get the feeling that they should dive deeper on a particular topic, or that a certain point raises more questions than it answers but then again we are clocking in at almost 3h already and I am not sure how far the term „long form content“ can (or should) be stretched

They are both superficial and interesting.

My critic has always been that Lex is superficial, which is understandable, because he is targeting casual audiences.

Like some other comments suggest, he is squandering the opportunity in a certain degree. All his question can be answered by someone who is not Chris Lattner, and the content would not be too different from what's we see right now.

I personally place high regards on Chris Lattner's technical prowess in the compiler and machine-program interfacing space. That's something that he can deliver content that no other I am aware of can do better.

Yet, all I have been seeing is something that have been repeated everywhere else, and I am too tired of this blandness.

On the contrary, take a look https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZHmQk67mSJgfCCTn7xBfew, the producer does not appeal to casual viewers. It's often a deep disect of technical papers inside out. That's what I am looking for.

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#124

Post by WanderPanda »

justicezyx wrote: post #123
WanderPanda wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally found almost all points they were talking about interesting. Sure, I also often get the feeling that they should dive deeper on a particular topic, or that a certain point raises more questions than it answers but then again we are clocking in at almost 3h already and I am not sure how far the term „long form content“ can (or should) be stretched

They are both superficial and interesting. My critic has always been that Lex is superficial, which is understandable, because he is targeting casual audiences. Like some other comments suggest, he is squandering the opportunity in a certain degree. All his question can be answered by someone who is not Chris Lattner, and the content would not be too different from what's we see right now. I personally place high reg…

I actually watched a couple of videos by Yannic Kilcher in the recent days, but that is a completely different format. There is probably a reason he does videos and not audio only, why he is not interviewing (and interviewing a different person with different expertise each episode).

What I value in Lex's content is that it is not complete pop-science level, that he is very neutral and especially that he leads his guest to make opinionated statements. The last point is usually the single value nugget I can extract from the episodes. It is basically a shortcut for me watching Yannic Kilcher like videos and getting deep into a topic through the proxy of a person who is not rarely one of the best in his field. I do not have the time / energy to get deeply into compilers and programming language design I just want to get a feeling in broad strokes where the field is heading, what are the key developments and bottlenecks that have shaped the past and especially future of certain technologies and applications.

I will probably dig a (tiny) bit deeper into MLIR after listening to the podcast because it seems to me to be the 80/20 kind of way to get a better feeling for the developments happening in compilers and how ML workloads are mapped to accelerators.

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#125

Post by AlchemistCamp »

boulos wrote: post #122
7373737373 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a Canadian interviewer named "Nardwuar the Human Serviette" who mainly does interviews with rappers/musicians. Before each interview, he conducts the most in-depth research on them that anyone has ever conducted, mentioning people, places, early inspirations from their childhood and musical career, things that only a handful of people, the rappers' parents or only themselves could know - which often astounds,…

Tyler Cowen (from Conversations with Tyler) does a variant of this, but a bit less creepy than that sounds :).

I love Tyler Cowen's podcast.

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#126

Post by nesarkvechnep »

zapnuk wrote: post #115
WanderPanda wrote: post #105

I would never have guessed Lex would get so much hate here. No one forces you to listen to him and his guests. And it is probably not despite his interviewing style but because of it that so many excellent people talk to him. Can we please discuss the content? I have one hour to go and Julia has not been mentioned, though it seems to check many of the boxes they are talking about (high quality libraries that feel lik…

Yes, I don't remember Julia being mentioned. Also, Elixir/Erlang isn't mentioned when they talked about actor based concurrency. Neither is Rust which has some simultaneity with swift. They also didn't really talk about problems with swift (adoption for example). Overall this talk is very surface level in my opinion, which is why I think some critique on Lex is valid. He had the opportunity to dive in deeper on some…

Speaking of programming languages, I was amazed when Lex said to Peter Norvig he had never heard of Lisp until he started preparing for the interview.

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#127

Post by jcims »

nesarkvechnep wrote: post #126
zapnuk wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I don't remember Julia being mentioned. Also, Elixir/Erlang isn't mentioned when they talked about actor based concurrency. Neither is Rust which has some simultaneity with swift. They also didn't really talk about problems with swift (adoption for example). Overall this talk is very surface level in my opinion, which is why I think some critique on Lex is valid. He had the opportunity to dive in deeper on some…

Speaking of programming languages, I was amazed when Lex said to Peter Norvig he had never heard of Lisp until he started preparing for the interview.

I think he must have misspoke, he's talked about Lisp many times on the podcast from early on.

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#128

Post by justicezyx »

WanderPanda wrote: post #124
justicezyx wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are both superficial and interesting. My critic has always been that Lex is superficial, which is understandable, because he is targeting casual audiences. Like some other comments suggest, he is squandering the opportunity in a certain degree. All his question can be answered by someone who is not Chris Lattner, and the content would not be too different from what's we see right now. I personally place high reg…

I actually watched a couple of videos by Yannic Kilcher in the recent days, but that is a completely different format. There is probably a reason he does videos and not audio only, why he is not interviewing (and interviewing a different person with different expertise each episode). What I value in Lex's content is that it is not complete pop-science level, that he is very neutral and especially that he leads his gu…

The diagram is critical to intuitive understanding...

As for Lex, it's fine. I am just saying, like others, he is underutilizing his speaker...

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#129

Post by chrislattner »

Really sad to see how much of the commentary here is meta-commentary about Lex and not about the content. Several people asked, so here's the reason I chose to go on his show: it's because I love his work (frequent listener) and he's a great person. He asks good questions suitable to a wide audience and he's fun to talk to.

If you don't like his show or style, then you don't have to listen to it. :-)

-Chris

Re: Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages [audio]

#130

Post by ricklamers »

I just wanted to share my two cents about Lex as a podcast interviewer, given the flak he's getting from some people in this thread. I think he's fantastic. His calm style is really great for both the interviewee and the listener in my opinion.

My knee jerk reaction to Lex was to dislike him, but if you allow yourself to dig a little deeper I think you'll find he's a hard working, intelligent and humble guy that's following his passion.

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