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Comment by hbn | Hacker News Reader

Yeah I've only seen a few clips of him but the questions he asks are so boring, and asking good questions is THE essential skill for a good interviewer.

He had John Carmack on his show which piqued my interest, but he was asking questions like "what's the best programming language" and "what's the best IDE." Such a blown opportunity to be asking useless first year CS student questions like that when interviewing a great mind like Carmack.

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He once asked Jim Keller 'What is Love?'. His interview with Grant Sanderson is cathartic in that Grant has very little patience for that kind of questioning, when Lex goes on about 'isn't e^iπ so pretty', Grant responds to the effect 'not if you actually understand it, it's math'. I saw a quote on reddit that does a great job helping me understand my distaste for these kinds of questions: 'The man who loves everything and everyone, loves only himself.'

Those are solid examples, you’re right. The “isn’t this math thing beautiful?” and “don’t you love love?” digressions are banal, but I give him a pass because a) the guests are interesting people who say interesting things and b) in Lex’s world I guess it’s unusual to slow down and smell the roses.

It makes sense to get touchy-feely with Bert Kreischer, who’s basically an alcoholic gigantic third grader. Or with Michael Malice because they’re goofy best buds.

Still it’s nice when a serious guest kind of shrugs and sticks to the topic.

I can’t listen to Neil Degrasse Tyson talk because of that same kind of “the wonder of the poetry of the cosmic ballet” nonsense.

What would you have asked Carmack on Fridman’s show (with Fridman’s audience) if you were Fridman?

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