Book · recommended on 5 episodes
The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Fyodor Dostoevsky
Find it on AmazonAffiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
This book by Fyodor Dostoevsky has come up 5 times on Lex Fridman. 5 of those mentions were genuine on-air recommendations, not just passing references. The people who brought it up: Barry Barish, Lex Fridman, host. The earliest mention we indexed is from 2021-02-05 and the most recent from 2023-09-01. Every occurrence below links to the episode page and to the exact second it was said on YouTube.
“Dostoevsky said Beauty will save the world in the idiot one of my favorite books of his”— Lex Fridman
The guest here is Neri Oxman: Engineer, scientist, designer, architect and artist who led MIT's Mediated Matter group and now runs OXMAN, a company pioneering biology-driven design and fabrication that works with nature rather than against it. Neri Oxman explains her vision of growing products with nature instead of building them, and connecting AI's intelligence to nature's wisdom.
“for the longest time the idiot was my favorite book uh of all because i identified with the ideas represented by prince michigan”— Lex Fridman
The guest here is Jordan Peterson: Influential clinical psychologist, lecturer, and podcast host; author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules for Life, and Beyond Order, known for his lectures on psychology, religion, and meaning. Jordan Peterson and Lex Fridman roam across God, beauty, death, fame, power, marriage, diet, and the meaning of life.
“my favorite novel of his is uh the idiot first of all i see myself as the idiot and an idiot and i love the optimism”— Lex Fridman
The guest here is Sean Kelly: A philosopher at Harvard specializing in existentialism and the philosophy of mind. Co-author with his mentor Hubert Dreyfus of 'All Things Shining,' he teaches existentialism in literature and film. Harvard philosopher Sean Kelly traces existentialism and nihilism and argues meaning comes from aliveness, listening, and responding well to a groundless world.
“one of my favorite books of his is the idiot and his which is a christ-like figure in there well there's prince miskin”— Barry Barish
The guest here is Barry Barish: Theoretical physicist at Caltech and 2017 Nobel laureate in Physics for his leadership of the LIGO detector that first observed gravitational waves. Nobel laureate Barry Barish explains how LIGO measured gravitational waves with the most precise instrument humans have ever built.
“you should read the idiot by dostoevsky by instinct um i love being naive and seeing the world from a hopeful perspective”— host
The guest here is Zev Weinstein: A precociously thoughtful young man and son of mathematician Eric Weinstein, invited by Lex Fridman for the depth of his first-principles thinking despite his youth. A teenage Zev Weinstein argues that radical philosophy is humanity's only escape from stagnation, while bravely facing the fear of thinking publicly.
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