Wait, what’s wrong with Lex Friedman? I’m not familiar with the guy, but after briefly listening to that video & checking his background…he seems fine?
Thanks for the link! To summarize the Nassim Taleb guy's criticisms as I understand them, he:
1. Is ignorant of the Lex guy's affiliation with MIT, and speculates about how tenuous the particulars could be.
2. Thinks Lex is misusing said MIT connection in unassociated emails.
3. Points to Lex's book-per-week pacing as indigestible given the material, concluding that Lex's persona is fraudulent, and his advocates are all idiots.
4. Uses Lex's courteous response to criticism, and subsequent choice to block said critic, as evidence that Lex is a "fake." There's allegedly supporting evidence of this regarding Kanye West/Vladimir Putin? (I'm ignorant of the reference.)
Full disclosure -- I don't use Twitter and gradually lost the mental wherewithal to slog through the "discourse" within that thread. Let me know if I missed/misunderstood something important.
I'm frankly more confused now. A popular podcaster apparently likes revisiting mostly high school reading material, is polite online, and leans on their institutional affiliation. Okay? Did he also like...shoot someone's grandma or something? I feel like a restaurant patron eavesdropping on a dysfunctional couple having a meltdown over ordering an appetizer that isn't reaaaally about ordering an appetizer. What the hell did this guy actually do?
I love Lex Friedman interviews personally, he tend to just kinda let the person he interviews talk a lot and his follow up questions tend to lean towards exploring things the people he interviews are passionate about. I think the criticism is that he generally doesn't push back against those he interviews but I don't think that should be the default style for all interviewers necessarily.
I don't know why, people on here always seem to accuse him as being a bad interviewer. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. I think he is fine / good. At least he discusses important things.
