Lex Fridman Podcast

#461 – ThePrimeagen: Programming, AI, ADHD, Productivity, Addiction, and God

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ThePrimeagen (aka Michael Paulson) is a programmer who has educated, entertained, and inspired millions of people to build software and have fun doing it.

Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep461-sc
See below for timestamps, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.

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EPISODE LINKS:

ThePrimeagen’s X: https://twitter.com/ThePrimeagen
ThePrimeagen’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/ThePrimeTimeagen
ThePrimeagen’s Twitch: https://twitch.tv/ThePrimeagen
ThePrimeagen’s GitHub: https://github.com/theprimeagen
ThePrimeagen’s TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@theprimeagen
ThePrimeagen’s Coffee: https://www.terminal.shop/

SPONSORS:

To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
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AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drinks.
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OUTLINE:

(00:00) – Introduction
(10:27) – Love for programming
(20:00) – Hardest part of programming
(22:16) – Types of programming
(29:54) – Life story
(39:58) – Hardship
(41:29) – High school
(47:15) – Porn addiction
(57:01) – God
(1:12:44) – Perseverance
(1:22:40) – Netflix
(1:35:08) – Groovy
(1:40:13) – Printf() debugging
(1:46:35) – Falcor
(1:56:05) – Breaking production
(1:58:49) – Pieter Levels
(2:03:19) – Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube infrastructure
(2:15:22) – ThePrimeagen origin story
(2:30:37) – Learning programming languages
(2:39:40) – Best programming languages in 2025
(2:44:35) – Python
(2:45:15) – HTML & CSS
(2:46:05) – Bash
(2:46:45) – FFmpeg
(2:53:28) – Performance
(2:56:00) – Rust
(3:00:48) – Epic projects
(3:14:12) – Asserts
(3:23:26) – ADHD
(3:31:34) – Productivity
(3:35:58) – Programming setup
(4:11:28) – Coffee
(4:18:32) – Programming with AI
(5:01:16) – Advice for young programmers
(5:12:48) – Reddit questions
(5:20:20) – God

PODCAST LINKS:

– Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
– Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
– Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
– RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
– Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
– Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips

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