AlanTuring

Thank you sincerely for the kind words and for understanding the toughness of getting in front of the camera as an introvert. The criticism on top of that is TOUGH to take, but in moderation it helps long-term. With this HN thread, I told myself I'll meditate on critical advice, consider action items to take in order to improve, and then move forward letting the more personal destructive (as you say) criticism fade from memory. That last part is easier said than done, but that's life.

Thank you. Exactly! I ask these questions in hope to inspire the rare gems of brilliance. Sometimes those come from deep technical questions and sometimes from silly philosophical questions. Both have potential. I fail often with striking the right balance, but hopefully less and less over time.

Thank you! To me, asking philosophical questions of world-class mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, engineers is eye-opening and inspiring. It's taking a break at looking up at the stars. I love the messy details of engineering, but every once in a while it feels great to pause, and reflect on the big picture of our incredible, unlikely existence here on Earth.

As Oscar Wilde said: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

I love the gutter and I love the stars!

Lex here. The amount of positive and thoughtful comments here is humbling. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Here are things I didn't realize is the role of the interviewer (my role) but I now know they are:

1. Push towards depth, because not all people go there naturally themselves.

2. Ask for clarifications if I don't understand something. This can make me sound stupid, but it's a worthy sacrifice. I will always sacrifice ego for the chance to understand something basic or hopefully fundamental. In fact, I play dumb sometimes just to force explanation of basics on which the technically deep ideas are built.

3. Disagree respectfully (at times playing devil's advocate) to give a chance to the interviewee to argue their point.

4. Speak whatever question or point I have clearly, concisely, quickly, and then shut up and listen. My role is to give the other person a break and to throw up ideas that spark their passion. I really struggle with this (especially the concise, clear part).

Thank you again for the kind words. I'll keep improving!

Thank you for the kind words. I think it's important to think both about the mathematical/technical foundations of an idea and its place in the big picture of human civilization.

Thank you. Truly. I hope to live up to this.

Lex here. Thank you for this. Words of criticism can hurt pretty bad these days, so this kind of support really helps. Thank you.

Thank you for the kind words. Some people love the philosophy, some the technical details. I try to mix it up, and have fun with it. But it's good to know that people have more patience for technical depth than I realized. So I'll try to do more of it in the future.

Lex here. Thank you. I realize I sometimes miss opportunities for depth or insight with these brilliant folks, but I work hard to improve. The comments on this post, positive and critical, help. So again, thank you.

Lex here. Yep. Russian. Underneath the cold stare and the suit is possibly some personality and a bit of humor. Then again it's like past or present life on Mars. Many astrobiologists believe it was at least once there, but no proof has been found yet.

I just did. I'm more of a lurker on HN, but might as well be open. I get criticism sometimes, but I it's probably good to just take it, accept it, and grow from it.

Thanks for the comment and the kind words about me being nice. I'll try to live up to that.

On the technical depth point, I agree. A lot of folks tell me they love the "meaning of life" questions. I love both the technical and the philosophical. My hope is to more and more try to go deep technically with the ML, CS, math, physics folks on the topic of their expertise, and find productive points of passionate disagreement or insight. This isn't easy, and I fail often, but I'm working hard to improve.

Thank you. I try my best to ask good questions and then shut up ;-)

Lex here. This is a point I think about a lot. I hear conflicting advice from brilliant folks I really respect. Some say "go deep on the philosophy" and others "go deep on the technical details of the person's expertise." The latter is something that surprised me, and something I'll definitely do more of in the coming months. In general, one of the things the internet pleasantly surprised me with is that people like depth (even those outside the field). I obviously love the details, especially in ML, CS, math, physics, and psych.

Thanks for the kind words. I work hard on this thing, and hopefully will improve with time.

Lex here. I hear you. I'm working hard to improve. The parts about arrogance and disingenuousness I hope are not true, but I appreciate comments like this because they help me reflect on it, and see that there might be truth to it. Your words hurt but in the end are a gift, so thank you. I'll do my best to improve.