meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Lex Fridman Podcast

#309 – John Carmack: Doom, Quake, VR, AGI, Programming, Video Games, and Rockets

Lex Fridman Podcast

Lex Fridman

Technology, Society & Culture, Philosophy, Science

4.713.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2022

⏱️ 323 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Carmack is a legendary programmer, co-founder of id Software, and lead programmer of many revolutionary video games including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and the Commander Keen series. He is also the founder of Armadillo Aerospace, and for many years the CTO of Oculus VR. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off
Indeed: https://indeed.com/lex to get $75 credit
Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium
Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex and use code LEX to get special savings
Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil

EPISODE LINKS:
John’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack
Books mentioned:
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution: https://amzn.to/3SkNZER
Game Engine Black Book Wolfenstein 3D: https://amzn.to/3QlOqg8

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips

SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman

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
(09:49) – Programming languages
(40:53) – Modern programming
(50:55) – Day in the life
(58:45) – Hard work
(1:01:58) – Pizza and Diet Coke
(1:04:43) – Setup
(1:30:01) – id Software
(2:02:50) – Commander Keen
(2:09:36) – Hacker ethic
(2:17:16) – Wolfenstein 3D
(2:37:14) – Doom
(2:51:34) – Quake
(3:15:55) – John Romero
(3:23:42) – Metaverse
(3:52:04) – Elon Musk
(3:57:59) – Mars
(4:07:01) – Nuclear energy
(4:10:39) – AGI
(4:57:51) – Andrej Karpathy
(5:00:50) – Martial arts
(5:09:49) – Advice for young people
(5:18:49) – Meaning of life

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The following is a conversation with John Carmack, widely considered to be one of the greatest

0:05.4

programmers ever.

0:06.8

He was the co-founder of It Software and the lead programmer on several games that revolutionized

0:13.0

the technology, the experience, and the role of gaming in our society, including Commander

0:18.7

Keen, Wolfstein 3D, Doom, and Quake.

0:23.6

He spent many years as the CTO of Oculus VR, helping to create portals into virtual worlds,

0:30.9

and to define the technological path to the metaverse and meta.

0:36.0

And now he has been shifting some of his attention to the problem of artificial general intelligence.

0:42.7

This was the longest conversation on this podcast at over five hours, and still I could

0:48.9

talk to John many, many more times, and we hope to do just that.

0:55.1

And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor.

0:57.7

Check them out in the description, it's the best way to support this podcast.

1:01.7

We got Insight Tracker for longevity, indeed for hiring, blink is for nonfiction, 8th

1:07.5

sleep for napping, and athletic greens for performance.

1:11.5

Choose wisely my friends.

1:13.3

And now onto the full letter reads, as always no ads in the middle, I try to make this

1:17.4

interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out our sponsors, I enjoy their

1:21.2

stuff, maybe you will too.

1:24.3

This show is brought to you by Insight Tracker, a service I use to track biological data

1:30.3

from my body to make decisions about my life.

1:34.5

By the way, I'm not one of those people that tries to optimize every single aspect of my

1:39.6

life.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lex Fridman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lex Fridman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.