A day in my life | Lex Fridman

00:00:00.000 | Good morning. A bunch of folks asked me to make one of these a day in the life videos to talk about

00:00:06.080 | how I do time management in the day, how I structure the routine to maximize productivity.

00:00:11.600 | So here we go. The day starts now after about 68 hours of sleep. Now there's periods of my life

00:00:18.240 | where I do sprints where I'll pull all-nighters or crazy hours and so on but regularly I try to

00:00:23.680 | get 68 hours of sleep plus the mythical epic 30-minute power nap. I think sleep, diet, and

00:00:30.000 | exercise are essential for productivity just under I would say passion and whatever the heck you need

00:00:37.200 | to do to be happy and keep every single day low stress. I might give a shout out to a few products

00:00:42.800 | that sponsor the podcast for no reason except that I love using them and that's why I agreed

00:00:48.400 | for them to sponsor the podcast so click their links in the description to support the videos

00:00:54.160 | I make. I'm really fortunate to have way more sponsors than I need so I get to choose only

00:00:59.360 | the ones I really love. I'm generally a minimalist guy. I don't like material possessions but this

00:01:05.760 | AC bed has been nice. It lets you set the temperature throughout the night so for me what

00:01:11.840 | I like is for it to cool the bed and then warms up as I wake up. It's been helping me get some

00:01:16.720 | restful sleep. So I start each day when I get out of bed first thing there's a mantra a list that I

00:01:22.480 | have on a sheet of paper that I go through so I start by reminding myself of the current set of

00:01:27.360 | rules and constraints on the various addictions things that drain on my time so that includes

00:01:33.680 | social media. The current rule is I only check social media when I post which is one two or three

00:01:40.160 | times a day for no more than 10 minutes so that that's it. It's very strict. That's one of the

00:01:45.840 | main addictions I think that's important to control. Some people completely remove themselves

00:01:50.160 | from social media. I think that's one of the possible solutions but to me that's a little

00:01:55.440 | bit of an easy way out. The hardest thing to do is to really moderate the use of social media

00:02:01.520 | because when you use it in moderation it actually can bring you joy. It can really connect you with

00:02:05.360 | other people. It kind of makes me feel amazing when I only check it once or twice a day but you

00:02:10.400 | have to be strict and then the other rules are diet and exercise so I make sure I exercise every

00:02:18.400 | single day no matter what even if injured I find a body part any body part that's not injured and

00:02:24.240 | exercise it and then diet I just have a strict diet that I follow within the constraints of

00:02:29.360 | which I can enjoy myself so for me that's been keto which is very low carb diet so the first part

00:02:35.920 | of the mantra is I remind myself of those rules it kind of sets the constraints within which the

00:02:41.360 | game is to be played. The second part of the mantra is gratitude. I visualize and meditate

00:02:48.080 | on the idea that I might die today at any moment today so I kind of try to accept

00:02:56.080 | the notion that today is my last day on this earth and it's mostly just a breathe in and out

00:03:04.480 | and a pause and a meditation on the fact that it's freaking amazing that I'm alive that life is

00:03:13.920 | amazing. Third is I list out loud by the way unless I'm with somebody then it's in my head

00:03:21.920 | but I list a set of goals for the next five years a set of goals that I have and these are ambitious

00:03:28.080 | big goals that I would like to achieve in the next five years. Fourth is I list more near-term goals

00:03:34.480 | for me that's by the end of 2020 I want to do these kinds of things they're just out of reach

00:03:40.240 | but achievable so if I really work my ass off and with a bit of luck I can get it done I mean that

00:03:47.520 | really starts to get me amped up like let's let's get to work. Fifth part of the mantra zooming in

00:03:53.280 | even further I actually focus in on the day I visualize going through the rest of the day all

00:03:58.720 | the things I think I need to get done this is really quick but I literally visualize myself

00:04:03.600 | like in a game of sims like on fast forward running around getting all the stuff done

00:04:08.560 | successfully like I visualize both the struggle of it I visualize the hardest part of the day that

00:04:15.680 | I have on my to-do list and getting them done crushing it but really sort of focusing on the

00:04:23.440 | timing of it the beat of the day and getting it all done just like a game of sims except for the

00:04:28.960 | part where when you're cooking you set yourself on fire and you run around I miss sims I miss video

00:04:34.160 | games in general. Finally I go through a set of principles that I strive to live up to as a man

00:04:40.480 | now there's a particular set of phrases that are a little bit cliche but I think fundamental to who

00:04:45.360 | I am but they center around compassion empathy love and on the other side of it is character

00:04:54.160 | integrity and strength both physical and mental so today is a little bit different because I'm also

00:05:02.560 | making this video I don't like it it's uncomfortable it's a distraction it takes away

00:05:09.280 | from my focus but I'm going to get the job done I said I'm going to do it I'll do it so I'm going

00:05:14.480 | to do the mantra now and next thing hit hard the deepest work of the day for four hours a four hour

00:05:20.240 | session that I'll probably film behind the desk all right so I did the mantra then I drank about

00:05:25.200 | a liter of water went to the bathroom made a coffee and now ready to hit the day hard with a four hour

00:05:31.600 | session of deep work focused on a single thing no interruptions if interesting ideas come into my

00:05:36.880 | head to try to trick me into pulling on the thread of that idea I gently set it aside write it down

00:05:44.000 | in google doc to address later so I bring my mind gently back to the focus of the task because ideas

00:05:50.720 | keep coming but you really want to focus on the task so the only interruptions that are allowed

00:05:55.120 | is water coffee bathroom and I try to minimize those usually try to be just once in that four

00:06:00.960 | hour session I stop the timer when I take that break but I don't do anything during that break

00:06:06.240 | like social media or any of that stuff it's really my mind is still focused on the task at hand

00:06:11.760 | and hitting it hard when I return to the desk the desk by the way is a standing desk they don't

00:06:18.240 | sponsor anything but I still love them it's autonomous you should check it out pretty

00:06:22.160 | inexpensive I sometimes I sit sometimes I stand not wearing a suit I sometimes wear a suit especially

00:06:29.600 | I'm going to film I wear a suit when I go outside I just enjoy the way I feel when I wear a suit but

00:06:35.840 | at home I'm wearing a t-shirt and jeans right now I'm not wearing any pants just kidding I'm wearing

00:06:41.760 | jeans but you wouldn't know it if I didn't which is the magic of the internet if you pointed to it

00:06:47.840 | I can do a separate video on my setup I optimize the heck out of everything but my first love my

00:06:56.320 | home is the kinesis keyboard it's this weird ergonomic keyboard that's probably way too

00:07:01.760 | expensive but I still love it I'm surrounded by things I love and emacs editor although I use a

00:07:10.960 | lot of modern ids like today I'm working on tensorflow lite on a samsung galaxy s20 doing

00:07:20.560 | some deep learning on the smartphone there's a bunch of tricky undocumented things that I'm

00:07:24.720 | trying to accomplish not looking forward to it because it's going to be just a lot of debugging

00:07:29.600 | and trying to figure out obscure things but that's the hardest part of the day that's the hardest

00:07:34.960 | thing on my to-do list that's what I'm going to focus on no distractions that's what this four

00:07:39.840 | hour session is about I'm usually drained but happy at the end of the session I mean I'm happy

00:07:47.120 | throughout but I kind of dread this four hour session every day which is why I hit it hard

00:07:52.880 | early on without reflecting without thinking almost like a machine I just get the job done

00:07:58.400 | that's the way I think about it and I feel good afterwards but I don't want to do it and I do it

00:08:03.120 | anyway so here we go I'll see you on the other end of the four hours all right the four hour session

00:08:09.120 | is done I did not get as much done as I wanted but it's nevertheless a big success because I just

00:08:15.680 | grinded it out zero thoughts about anything else only took a single bathroom and water break so it

00:08:22.480 | took about four hours and 10 minutes next up I'm going to do a little bit social media now which

00:08:28.480 | I need to post a podcast conversation with David Eagleman brilliant neuroscientist so I'm just

00:08:34.880 | going to post that check the comments from the previous day trying to keep the whole experience

00:08:39.360 | under five minutes and definitely under 10 minutes and after that like I do every single day no

00:08:45.200 | exception is guitar or piano or music usually these days it's been guitar in the human world

00:08:53.040 | I'm currently single but in the music world I'm in an open relationship with this beautiful guitar

00:09:01.840 | open relationship because I sometimes cheat on her with the acoustic but mostly electric

00:09:07.840 | Fender Strat the warm bluesy sound of a Fender kind of like the Eric Clapton

00:09:14.720 | Jimi Hendrix as uh brings joy to my heart so I look forward to this moment it's an escape it just

00:09:24.960 | makes me happy like a lot of things do but this is kind of a private moment of joy and after that

00:09:33.760 | is about an hour and a half to two hours of a private set of moments of suffering aka exercise

00:09:42.960 | so here we go social media guitar keep the social media under 10 minutes no exceptions

00:09:49.920 | and the guitar sometimes I'll let it slip but usually just 20 minutes all right got the social

00:09:54.720 | media and the guitar done actually there was a bunch of moments which just brought a smile to

00:09:59.440 | my face both the hilarity and the love I always really appreciate it when I check social media

00:10:04.880 | moderation it really does bring me joy so thank you for that now it's time to face the demons

00:10:12.480 | in my mind going on a long run all the things I don't want to think about I usually start out

00:10:17.920 | listening to brown noise as I run it really focuses my mind lets me think deeply and then

00:10:24.080 | about two three miles into the run when I start feeling a little better I'll switch to listening

00:10:28.880 | to an audiobook I'm currently listening to the rise and fall of the third reich recommended highly

00:10:37.040 | great book rough but important for our times if you don't study history you're doomed to repeat it

00:10:44.400 | my current exercise routine is around a minimum of six miles every day and then when I'm about

00:10:50.480 | three or four miles in I decide how far more I want to go I usually don't feel like running

00:10:55.840 | but once I actually get out there once I put some of the miles in you start feeling good sometimes

00:11:01.120 | sometimes not sometimes it's the drag but sometimes you feel really good and then I'll do the

00:11:06.560 | eight ten maybe even twelve miles my hope one day is I'll just keep running and do an ultra marathon

00:11:12.480 | just on a whim now for the usual 67 mile run it should take about an hour and afterwards I do

00:11:18.000 | a short but intense session of body weight exercises after the whole crazy push-up pull-up

00:11:23.520 | squat challenge that I did I now do the david goggins inspired nickel and dime workout that

00:11:28.960 | he talks about so every single minute you do five pull-ups and ten push-ups minute on a minute and

00:11:35.520 | usually it kicks my ass to do about 15 to 20 minutes of that that's enough my hope one day

00:11:41.360 | is to get up to like one hour which is really tough your muscles just drained exhausted but

00:11:47.680 | I find it's a really great intense way to get the exercise in without taking too much away from your

00:11:53.360 | day hard on the mind hard on the body but good for the soul by the way all this is fasted so

00:11:59.040 | it's been about 14 16 hours since I've eaten last I feel great no food uh water and I've just taken

00:12:07.200 | a salt pill in case I do run for a long time it's important to have electrolytes in the body

00:12:13.520 | I love exercising fasted an empty stomach focuses the mind I can actually perform extremely well

00:12:19.200 | that's one of the things I've learned about myself everybody's different but I've actually

00:12:23.280 | learned for like martial arts for combat sports for intense workouts even I just personally enjoy

00:12:28.800 | working out fasted so I guess based on my diet but also my psychology I perform best when I'm

00:12:35.200 | fat adapted which means I'm a low carb diet it's probably deep somewhere in my eastern European

00:12:40.400 | genetics that my ancestors will go without food for long periods of time and then have to wrestle

00:12:46.960 | a bear to the death intensely so it seems like this is the kind of thing I enjoy doing not eating

00:12:53.280 | and then doing intense focused hard workouts makes me feel great I enjoy it both physically and

00:13:00.960 | mentally all right let's get to work all right the exercise grind for the day is done I did

00:13:08.080 | seven miles in just over an hour I think it's slow pace really losing myself in the audiobook

00:13:14.880 | to be honest and then after that I did 20 nickel and dimes that's 20 minutes every minute you do

00:13:22.880 | 10 push-ups and five pull-ups it's a great quick way to exhaust the muscle also really good test of

00:13:32.240 | mental toughness because at least for me at least at home I really want to start quitting at about

00:13:37.360 | the 10 to 15 minute mark just the muscles are exhausted you have to pause it's just unpleasant

00:13:44.240 | takes me back to the to the month and a half previously that I was doing the insane challenge

00:13:52.160 | so I love it it's really quick 20 minutes maybe 30 minutes depending on the day and the one hour

00:13:58.800 | of the running feel pretty good not so good about 1936-1937 Nazi Germany as the audiobook is

00:14:06.880 | covering but yeah really makes me think about the nature of evil it puts everything into

00:14:15.760 | puts everything else into context somehow you know studying history sometimes is a really good way to

00:14:22.720 | force me to stop and to acknowledge how weak my mind is and how much stronger it needs to be

00:14:30.320 | if I want to have a role in this world of making positive change I think about Nazi Germany

00:14:37.760 | and what it means to be a hero in those times what it means to be a person that can reverse

00:14:46.880 | the decline into evil I think it's much more difficult than people realize I think it means

00:14:54.640 | standing against the masses it requires the kind of mental toughness mental fortitude that I don't

00:15:01.040 | think I'm ready for and I need to be most likely hopefully I will never have to play a role of any

00:15:06.960 | importance but if I do have that opportunity I need to be able to step up that's what studying

00:15:14.480 | the 30s the great depression on the United States side and the decline into a state of terror

00:15:21.840 | on the European side really makes me think I know this is a day in the life video but

00:15:27.600 | that's also my days I as often as possible try to think deeply about history about the state

00:15:35.120 | of the world today about my own mind about the science that I'm fascinated with which is the

00:15:41.040 | science of intelligence and the science of engineering intelligence after the exercise

00:15:47.200 | when I jump into the shower which contains the moment of the day that I dread the most which is

00:15:52.160 | the first minute that I take a cold shower I have a bunch of songs that I know the one minute mark

00:15:58.240 | of that I usually put on it could be as cliche and cheesy as uh the rocky soundtrack we're gonna fly

00:16:04.880 | now I think it's the the first solo is the one minute mark or uh fortunate son by CCR or if I

00:16:13.520 | really need a boost I'm an old school Metallica fan as well so master puppets I think when he

00:16:20.560 | starts singing is the one minute mark so here we go and after that I'm right back into the grind

00:16:27.760 | of deep work another four hour session of where I continue on a particular task focused for four

00:16:35.040 | hours straight today I didn't get as much done on the tensorflow light side so I'm gonna probably

00:16:39.760 | dive right back in but usually during the shower and a little bit afterwards I'm thinking about

00:16:44.080 | like what's the right thing to be focusing on given what I was able to get done in the first

00:16:48.320 | four hour session all right next fun time is over we're back to the grind of deep work the second

00:16:56.080 | four hour session of the day where I remove the rest of the world and focus on a single task

00:17:01.760 | today I'm gonna continue with the tensorflow light work on the galaxy s20 for the probably

00:17:08.240 | entirety of the four hour session now depending on the day I might eat here if I'm eating twice a

00:17:13.040 | day today I don't really feel like it I'm really focused really feeling good again that's kind of

00:17:18.080 | the benefits of the whole intermittent fasting keto that sometimes you just don't feel like eating

00:17:23.600 | you feel great so I'm going to eat just one meal today which will be after this four hour session

00:17:29.680 | and I see this as a kind of sprint to the finish because the eight hours in total of deep work is

00:17:36.320 | really what I aim to do every single day the rest of the stuff there'll be another four hour session

00:17:41.440 | but it's often more relaxed more all over the place has a few more distractions a little bit

00:17:46.960 | more fun and chaos and just all over the place these two four hour sessions of deep work is

00:17:52.720 | really what my day is centered around so everything is about them this is where that war of art the

00:18:00.160 | battle for focus for gaining focus and holding on to focus that's what it's all about some days

00:18:05.920 | are really rough the first session today was easy I found the focus pretty quickly and just stayed

00:18:11.840 | with it part of it is because it's kind of a new activity it's a new phone I'm playing with

00:18:16.720 | and also doing a different kind of experiment with tensorflow lite so it's new it really pulls at you

00:18:22.560 | and even though it was difficult there was no serious stumbling blocks like I didn't have to

00:18:27.920 | spend a lot of time debugging code and so on so it was easy let's see what the second four hour

00:18:33.840 | session is sometimes it's a grind but no matter what the focus is always just to be present to be

00:18:39.760 | there if nothing is working it's not happening I still stay in that place and wait for the

00:18:47.120 | breakthrough and the breakthrough always comes everybody's different I think of how they discover

00:18:52.960 | focus inspiration motivation but I'm a big believer in the discipline of ritual so being there

00:19:02.880 | and even if you don't feel like it still being there even if progress is not being made still

00:19:07.440 | being there for the grind because sometimes just minutes later there'll be a breakthrough

00:19:12.400 | that's how I feel about deep work that's how I feel about running too just taking it one step at a

00:19:17.440 | time because some minutes are rough and others are full of bliss and that's just the way the journey

00:19:25.040 | of hard work the journey of doing anything difficult I'll see you on the other end of the

00:19:30.480 | four hours now the two big battles of the day are done the two four hour sessions of deep work

00:19:37.600 | time to break the fast I break the fast with athletic greens I sponsor the podcast but

00:19:45.520 | actually an amazing thing that I love whether they're a sponsor or not it covers all the bases

00:19:51.200 | that I need with the kind of restricted keto diet that I have it has all the things that a

00:19:56.400 | multivitamin has but a ton of other nutrients as well I don't know what it looks like to you but

00:20:01.840 | it's actually pretty delicious I look forward to it and it just makes me feel good

00:20:06.880 | in case it's interesting what I usually eat is some kind of meat some kind of vegetable

00:20:15.040 | so if I eat once a day that's going to be about two pounds of meat a total of 1800 calories 2000

00:20:22.720 | calories for the total meal if I'm not being very fancy it's going to be ground beef like this is

00:20:28.800 | grass-fed organic 85 so 15 fat ground beef in terms of keto it results in a good macro breakdown

00:20:41.040 | in terms of taste I just like it in terms of cooking it's also easier because it's just the

00:20:47.280 | right amount of fat when it's mixed with the vegetables it like it creates a non-sticky pan

00:20:52.480 | situation where I don't have to add any oil it just mixes nicely and results in flavorful veggies

00:20:58.480 | so veggies my favorite go-to is probably cauliflower not always when I really want to

00:21:07.040 | get crazy and party I go with carrots that's my that's my party vegetable my ground floor

00:21:15.360 | the place I return to often my home is cauliflower hate broccoli though love cauliflower and hate

00:21:20.800 | broccoli you know in this politically divisive world we have to pick our sides my side is with

00:21:26.000 | cauliflower against broccoli what else so if I'm fasting or not on the keto diet it's important to

00:21:39.680 | get electrolytes this is weird this is for long distance running this is just sodium pills

00:21:47.840 | I think one gram 1000 milligrams of sodium in pill form then there's magnesium glacinate

00:21:57.760 | when I first started keto I think I was getting headaches for the first few days it's the keto

00:22:04.560 | flu that people talk about the salt is what cured it for me is was the magnesium there's a bunch of

00:22:11.040 | ways to get potassium I take it in pill form it's really just to be careful to make sure you get

00:22:18.080 | enough electrolytes in your diet especially while I'm fasting especially when I'm doing a lot of

00:22:22.720 | exercise to balance with the water and everything like that finally I always take fish oil did not

00:22:31.520 | plan on mentioning another sponsor but I will public goods they sell a bunch of different

00:22:36.960 | kinds of stuff including fish oil it's all good I love the minimalist design of public good stuff

00:22:44.240 | anyway so much of nutrition science is barely a science really I like to just listen to my

00:22:51.440 | own body and do one person one subject scientific experiments of what makes me feel good that's how

00:22:59.120 | I discovered the keto diet you know I just look at the science to make sure it's not unhealthy

00:23:04.320 | and it's not and for the rest of it I just see what my energy levels are like how I feel throughout

00:23:10.720 | the day in terms of mental performance in terms of physical performance all that kind of stuff

00:23:15.680 | same with the nutrients it's pretty minimalist so I do take stuff if I miss days where I don't

00:23:20.880 | take electrolytes or fish oil it doesn't really matter but I feel good but I find it's nice to

00:23:28.080 | make sure you're getting all the nutrients at least regularly and like I said athletic

00:23:32.800 | greens help make sure I cover all bases about all the weird stuff that I should be getting

00:23:37.360 | and I'm not even aware of so this might be the first and only video I'll ever make in the kitchen

00:23:47.600 | I kind of feel like this is one of those chef shows where I should be yelling at somebody

00:23:52.720 | about their mediocre performance in the kitchen so I throw the veggies into boiling water then

00:24:00.000 | drain the water then throw in the meat and then I guess broil it or whatever the heck the term is

00:24:06.240 | the entire thing takes about 20 minutes but I only really participate in the last five minutes

00:24:12.240 | when I like when it's broiling and I mix it and sorry if broiling is not the right term

00:24:18.640 | I don't know what I'm doing okay anyway it's uh super easy I enjoy it it's delicious I throw some

00:24:26.640 | salt based spices in there and the final result kind of tastes amazing makes me happy after I

00:24:32.880 | make the meal I'll probably overlay the video of what the final result looks like I'll often

00:24:38.560 | eat it behind the desk sort of uh thinking deeply about something oftentimes about the thing I'm

00:24:45.040 | going to do in the next four hour session just kind of relaxing enjoying the food but also just

00:24:51.600 | thinking of course if there's somebody else here with me I'll be enjoying uh the meal with them

00:24:57.120 | there's nothing more beautiful than connecting with other human beings over some delicious food

00:25:02.160 | okay here we go all right I'm done eating feeling pretty good don't feel like being on video but uh

00:25:11.040 | by the way wearing a 2001 space odyssey shirt this is where I might be wearing a suit if I'm

00:25:16.800 | doing filming if I just feel like it so the next four hour session is more relaxed kind of work

00:25:23.120 | it's still really focused but there's a bunch of tasks this is where I might do the email check now

00:25:29.600 | my rule with email I check email most three times a day and the first two times is just to check for

00:25:35.280 | emergencies or respond to an email that takes like less than 30 seconds to respond to and it's kind of

00:25:41.200 | important the third session which is during this four hour period is when I actually spend try to

00:25:47.760 | spend no more than an hour but I go through the emails I read them these days I'm so freaking

00:25:53.840 | lucky to be getting just a lot of kind thoughtful messages so I just take them in brings me joy

00:26:00.720 | brings a smile to my face one of the favorite things of the day for me and I also if there's

00:26:05.920 | like some of the stuff I have to deal with I respond to those emails that's actually at the

00:26:10.480 | end of the four hour session now I would also be doing video editing any kind of filming I'm doing

00:26:15.920 | any kind of website design stuff and also the the continuation of the deep work so today I didn't

00:26:21.440 | finish the tensorflow light thing but I'm close so I'm going to probably spend one hour on doing

00:26:28.240 | some more tensorflow then I'm going to do two hours for video editing a podcast I need to be

00:26:35.200 | working on I usually try to put in an hour to a day of podcast related stuff I need to outsource

00:26:41.600 | it I really do but for now I'm doing it and then the last hour would be the checking the email and

00:26:47.120 | so on and after those four hours I do two plus hours of reading one hour paper one hour plus

00:26:54.240 | of literature but we'll get to that first this four hours I'm back to it tensorflow for an hour

00:27:00.480 | two hours of podcast editing and then one hour of email again very few distractions very few breaks

00:27:08.800 | on days like today when I'm feeling really good really energetic this third four hour session I

00:27:16.080 | try to make as good as the first two in terms of the deep focus that I achieve also this time is

00:27:21.440 | for when I don't feel great I can just lay down and watch some Netflix watch some documentaries

00:27:27.280 | on YouTube hang out with friends if I had a girlfriend this would be girlfriend time

00:27:32.960 | Netflix and chill for now I'm doing just the Netflix part of that anyway today's deep work

00:27:39.600 | but starting now on any particular day this is where the possibilities of chaos are wide open

00:27:46.240 | so I can just do whatever the hell I want I got some Jack Daniels I got some Stoli Smirnoff Vodka

00:27:52.960 | I got some peanut butter flavored whiskey so I don't drink very often pretty rarely actually

00:28:00.960 | but the possibility is always there the night is always full of possibilities I'm a big fan of a

00:28:07.040 | random adventure and just being lost in it this is the time for that to happen but today as far

00:28:14.160 | as I know it's TensorFlow, Adobe Premiere, some email, then some papers, and some just a yes key

00:28:22.320 | let's go all right I got the four hour session done took just a few minutes longer I got all

00:28:29.680 | the email done I got podcast editing and actually just got that done in just over an hour so I had

00:28:36.480 | some time to do a podcast prep where I'm doing some research for a couple of upcoming conversations

00:28:43.040 | and of course the TensorFlow thing still didn't wrap it up but put it in the hour

00:28:46.880 | that's on the plate for tomorrow to start again programming is a grind what are you gonna do

00:28:53.360 | but I feel really good I really feel good about the day I don't know if this is a good a day in

00:28:58.640 | the life video but it's a good day in my life maybe not exactly in the sense that it all went

00:29:05.440 | perfectly but in the sense that I put in a very large number of hours of deep focus I resisted

00:29:14.320 | the urge to become distracted I resisted all of the usual urges I mean that's a daily fight and

00:29:20.640 | I won it today but it's not over so next I'm going to do one hour of paper reading I have a

00:29:29.680 | whole system of papers I read there is every single day I read at least one paper today I'm

00:29:36.800 | skimming two machine learning type neuroscience papers that somebody suggested to me based on the

00:29:44.320 | Matt Botvinick conversation and then I'm also doing a deeper read still this is the second

00:29:51.920 | session of it for the GPT-3 paper I'm thinking of making a couple of videos on GPT-3 and just

00:29:58.160 | making sure I get all the details right there's there's a bunch of open questions that are not

00:30:02.720 | yet understood about GPT-3 I think and one of the things I do when I read papers is think think

00:30:10.880 | outside of what the word is just saying there's obviously all kinds of different papers the ones

00:30:16.480 | I'm reading today both the neuroscience side and GPT-3 are very easy to understand and it's more

00:30:24.480 | like a canvas on which you can project your ideas so you're taking in the approach the

00:30:31.120 | different architecture the the results you know understanding the different plots

00:30:34.560 | the intuitions like the different perspectives and the results but all that is like very literary

00:30:42.160 | like a single pass of that paper is almost enough at least so far but what the whole purpose of the

00:30:48.640 | process is for me reading a paper like that is to think deeply beyond the paper to think what are

00:30:55.600 | the deep questions to ask and that's what I do with paper reading again I have a whole system

00:31:00.880 | that's maybe for another video if anyone gives a damn that hour is usually pretty painful so I

00:31:06.480 | usually keep it to an hour like I literally sometimes I'm counting down to when I reach

00:31:10.000 | an hour because it's kind of hard work it really requires focus after that is a little bit more

00:31:15.600 | fun reading it's non-fiction or fiction depending right now I'm working through the major novels of

00:31:23.360 | Dostoevsky because I'm going to be talking to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, translators

00:31:28.640 | I don't know when exactly but in a few months maybe in a month I'll be going to Paris to talk

00:31:33.280 | to them so I'm rereading Dostoevsky I finished The Idiot I'm now working through Crime and

00:31:39.280 | Punishment reading it in English but I'm also going to try to get to listening to it in Russian

00:31:46.000 | like taking it in both languages and trying to understand the music of the different languages

00:31:51.040 | and how they interact how they connect what is the gap what are the things that are lost in

00:31:55.680 | translation that kind of thing sometimes I do it at the desk sometimes I do it on the bed going back

00:32:02.720 | and forth when I have a lot of energy like I do now got a little bit of coffee in me I'll just

00:32:07.680 | chill on the bed and read the papers and the books when I'm starting to get a little bit tired I'll

00:32:12.480 | jump over to the desk and back and forth so that's it I think I'll wrap up the day in the life video

00:32:18.400 | here because I'll do the one hour paper reading and then the one hour Dostoevsky and after that

00:32:23.760 | jump into bed and drift into sleep while continuing to read the Dostoevsky but actually

00:32:30.320 | after the hour of literature reading I always take a pause and do the part of the mantra that I do in

00:32:38.240 | the morning that's gratitude again it's being thankful that I'm alive that I survived another

00:32:45.760 | day looking forward to the next day and just be grateful for all of the moments that are full of

00:32:52.640 | joy in the day I mean just even filming this silly thing it's like fun there's a piece of technology

00:32:59.520 | that somehow is capturing this that other people might watch and then there's like a microphone

00:33:06.320 | I mean just the entirety of the technology everything is magical everything is magical

00:33:12.160 | reminding myself of that doesn't take much effort by just taking a break taking a pause just

00:33:20.320 | breathing and just saying damn it's good to be alive because uh I won't always be alive

00:33:33.280 | the ride ends too quickly so it's a opportunity a moment to uh appreciate the entirety of it

00:33:42.960 | I hope this video is uh interesting or useful to somebody I value a few things in this world

00:33:51.520 | one of them is hard work and I try to live by that every day and the other is I often always

00:33:59.680 | maybe too much talk about is love and compassion towards other people so with those two things

00:34:06.960 | it's one hell of a good life so I hope that comes through through uh the way I live my day

00:34:14.240 | this silly video and uh if you enjoy it subscribe support the kind folks that for some crazy reason

00:34:22.880 | want to sponsor the podcast that I make the podcast just uh brings me a lot of joy especially

00:34:29.520 | the people I get to meet the people I get to talk to on the podcast but also the community of people

00:34:35.280 | who listen to podcasts I'm a huge fan of podcasts myself so this is just a big gift to be a part of

00:34:41.600 | that and the sponsors support that whole effort and they create awesome stuff so I get to enjoy

00:34:50.560 | and share my love for the awesome stuff they create and as a byproduct of that they uh enable

00:34:57.840 | me to have enough food and shelter to continue doing these podcasts which is fundamentally a

00:35:04.880 | side gig for me to the main dream the main effort that I'm still quietly putting in the hours on

00:35:12.640 | again thanks for watching and in your own life make sure you work hard

00:35:17.840 | and put a little bit of love out there in the world

00:35:22.560 | you

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00:35:24.520 | you

00:35:25.980 | you

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00:35:38.840 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

A day in my life | Lex Fridman

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