#131 – Chris Lattner: The Future of Computing and Programming Languages
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2020
⏱️ 168 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris Lattner is a world-class software & hardware engineer, leading projects at Apple, Tesla, Google, and SiFive. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
– Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get a free week of premium
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– Cash App: https://cash.app/ and use code LexPodcast to get $10
EPISODE LINKS:
Chris’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/clattner_llvm
Chris’s Website: http://nondot.org/sabre/
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
00:00 – Introduction
07:12 – Working with Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Dean
12:42 – Why do programming languages matter?
18:42 – Python vs Swift
29:35 – Design decisions
34:53 – Types
38:41 – Programming languages are a bicycle for the mind
41:13 – Picking what language to learn
47:12 – Most beautiful feature of a programming language
56:36 – Walrus operator
1:06:03 – LLVM
1:11:15 – MLIR compiler framework
1:15:21 – SiFive semiconductor design
1:27:56 – Moore’s Law
1:31:09 – Parallelization
1:35:37 – Swift concurrency manifesto
1:46:26 – Running a neural network fast
1:52:03 – Is the universe a quantum computer?
1:57:44 – Effects of the pandemic on society
2:14:56 – GPT-3
2:19:15 – Software 2.0
2:32:41 – Advice for young people
2:37:24 – Meaning of life
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Chris Latner, his second time in the podcast. |
| 0:04.8 | He's one of the most brilliant engineers in modern computing, having created a LLVM compiler |
| 0:10.0 | infrastructure project, the Klan compiler, the Swift programming language, a lot of key |
| 0:15.3 | contributions to TensorFlow and TPUs as part of Google. |
| 0:19.2 | He served as Vice President of Autopilot Software Tesla, was a software innovator and leader |
| 0:25.2 | at Apple, and now is at Sci-Fi of a senior Vice President of Platform Engineering looking |
| 0:31.2 | to revolutionize chip design to make it faster, better, and cheaper. |
| 0:36.6 | Quick mention of each sponsor, followed by some thoughts related to the episode. |
| 0:41.0 | First sponsor is Blinkist, an app that summarizes key ideas from thousands of books I use it |
| 0:45.7 | almost every day to learn new things or to pick which books I want to read or listen |
| 0:51.0 | to next. |
| 0:52.7 | End is Neuro, the maker of functional sugar free gum and mints that I use to supercharge |
| 0:57.6 | my mind with caffeine, alcyanine, and b vitamins. |
| 1:01.6 | Third is Masterclass, online courses from the best people in the world on each of the |
| 1:07.2 | top is covered from rockets to game design to poker to writing and to guitar. |
| 1:14.0 | And finally, Cash App, the app I use to send money to friends for food, drinks, and unfortunately |
| 1:20.2 | lost bets. |
| 1:21.8 | Please check out the sponsors in the description to get a discount and to support this podcast. |
| 1:26.6 | As a side note, let me say that Chris has been an inspiration to me on a human level, because |
| 1:32.8 | he is so damn good as an engineer and leader of engineers, and yet he is able to stay humble, |
| 1:38.6 | especially humble enough to hear the voices of this agreement and to learn from them. |
| 1:43.8 | He was supportive of me and this podcast from the early days, and for that I'm forever grateful. |
... |
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