Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:03:24 · Lenny Rachitsky, Emmanuel Ameisen
[01:03:24] S0: Just what a fun what a fun job this is just studying this thing and trying to understand what the hell is going on. How is it getting this smart? How does it think? [01:03:32] S1: Yeah. [01:03:33] S0: How many... Like, how many people are even how many people are even in this space? Just like how large is this field? [01:03:39] S1: The field itself is, is, you know, is getting pretty large. Would say maybe hundreds, not thousands. There's, you know, different inter people at the different labs. And then there's, there's in academia, quite a few labs putting out great work. [01:03:54] S0: Is the best, if someone were to get into this space, are they, is it like an ML person usually, or is there like a neuroscientist sort of track to get into this? [01:04:04] S1: Yeah, there's actually a surprising amount of, you know, ex neuroscientists. I do think in order to get in the field, you know, there's a, there's actually, it doesn't require a lot of prior knowledge because it's such a new field. So it's actually, you know, the on ramp is mostly, I would say like self studying and reading some of the key papers. And then there's actually, you know, yeah, maybe I should give a plug. There's actually like websites like nerdpedia.org, I think is the URL, which are sort of like open source interp. So they like host, you know, a bunch of models and let you sort of do interpret experiments on them. And so, you know, people have just been doing that on their own. And I think that there's so much to explore that if you're at all curious, you should just give it a try.
01:04:04 · Emmanuel Ameisen, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:04:04] S1: Yeah, there's actually a surprising amount of, you know, ex neuroscientists. I do think in order to get in the field, you know, there's a, there's actually, it doesn't require a lot of prior knowledge because it's such a new field. So it's actually, you know, the on ramp is mostly, I would say like self studying and reading some of the key papers. And then there's actually, you know, yeah, maybe I should give a plug. There's actually like websites like nerdpedia.org, I think is the URL, which are sort of like open source interp. So they like host, you know, a bunch of models and let you sort of do interpret experiments on them. And so, you know, people have just been doing that on their own. And I think that there's so much to explore that if you're at all curious, you should just give it a try. [01:04:52] S0: That's awesome. We'll link to them in show notes in case that's not the right URL. Cool. Well, Emmanuel, with that, we've reached our very exciting lightning round. I've got five questions for you. Are you ready? [01:05:01] S1: I am as ready as I'll ever be. [01:05:03] S0: Here we go. What are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people?
01:05:03 · Lenny Rachitsky, Emmanuel Ameisen
[01:05:03] S0: Here we go. What are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people? [01:05:07] S1: One I read recently and is A Brief History of Intelligence. It's this really cool book that walks through the history of like basically brains and five key moments in our evolution that sort of bootstraps these brain systems on top of one another. It's super accessible. Like you don't need any neuroscience knowledge or anything. Another one is story of your life and others. This is Ted Chiang. Is maybe my favorite sci fi book of all time. It's a bunch of short stories. It does what I think is the the like high art version of sci fi where it's just take one weird idea, like what if, you know, this happened and then write a story of just, like, what would the world look like if that happened? It's truly excellent. [01:05:55] S0: I think I have that on my bookshelf behind me too. Also, highly recommend that one. Favorite recent movie or TV show? [01:06:05] S1: Okay. One popular one, one deep cut. Obsession was my favorite movie of the year. It's a horror movie, so don't don't go if you don't... If you hate horror movies No. [01:06:16] S0: Thank you.
01:06:16 · Lenny Rachitsky, Emmanuel Ameisen
[01:06:16] S0: Thank you. [01:06:17] S1: Oh, no. Even if you're if you're not screaming... If you're open to a horror movie, you should go because it's... It was just so fresh. You know how movies... I feel like if you've seen a lot, sometimes you're like, oh, it's another I've seen this many times. This one was just so new, so fresh. And I'll say one thing about it, which is that it takes a lot of rom com tropes and, like, subverts them to instead be spooky. And I think that that's just a a brilliant, brilliant way to to make a movie. And then I'm French. So there's a TV show that came out this year called is French for brief. Brief used to be this cult classic in France, ten, like, fifteen years ago. And they came up with came up with a sequel many, many years into the making. And you can watch it. I had a bunch of American friends that have watched it. It's got subtitles and it's just this incredibly... Again, it's like novel. Like the editing is crazy. They are just extremely creative and is very short. So I would recommend that. [01:07:14] S0: Favorite product you recently discovered that you love? [01:07:17] S1: I love my Apple Watch and I hate that it charges or I have to charge every day. So I bought the Apple Watch Ultra just recently and man, that is so nice. If you've ever been frustrated by this good product that somehow we can't figure out how to give a good battery to, well, it turns out if you make it bigger, the battery's better. So I've I've been happy with that.
01:07:17 · Emmanuel Ameisen, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:07:17] S1: I love my Apple Watch and I hate that it charges or I have to charge every day. So I bought the Apple Watch Ultra just recently and man, that is so nice. If you've ever been frustrated by this good product that somehow we can't figure out how to give a good battery to, well, it turns out if you make it bigger, the battery's better. So I've I've been happy with that. [01:07:39] S0: Do you have a favorite life motto that you find yourself coming back to often in work or in life? [01:07:43] S1: There's like one non fiction book that really is like probably my favorite ever. It's four thousand weeks. It has a lot in it that that I think is cool. One of the cool things is this sort of thing that was really relevant to me, which is that like the, when I finally mentality is a common mentality and it's kind of toxic. So what does that mean? It's sort of this like, when I finally, you know, check off this, all the items on my to do list, I'll finally be able to chill. When I finally get like married, I'll be happy. When I finally get a promotion and then this is sort of, I mean, you were talking about meditation, right? This is like almost the opposite of meditation and that, you know, at the end of the day, your life is like all of the moments you lived in the moment and that there's the sense of which you should just like try to always like be, you know, in the moment and not projecting yourself towards like a future that seems better. Like probably if you're telling yourself when I finally do X, I'll be happy. When you do X, will not be happy.
01:07:43 · Emmanuel Ameisen, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:07:43] S1: There's like one non fiction book that really is like probably my favorite ever. It's four thousand weeks. It has a lot in it that that I think is cool. One of the cool things is this sort of thing that was really relevant to me, which is that like the, when I finally mentality is a common mentality and it's kind of toxic. So what does that mean? It's sort of this like, when I finally, you know, check off this, all the items on my to do list, I'll finally be able to chill. When I finally get like married, I'll be happy. When I finally get a promotion and then this is sort of, I mean, you were talking about meditation, right? This is like almost the opposite of meditation and that, you know, at the end of the day, your life is like all of the moments you lived in the moment and that there's the sense of which you should just like try to always like be, you know, in the moment and not projecting yourself towards like a future that seems better. Like probably if you're telling yourself when I finally do X, I'll be happy. When you do X, will not be happy. [01:08:41] S0: Is there a better phrase to use or is it just don't do that? Like, do they say?