#461 – ThePrimeagen: Programming, AI, ADHD, Productivity, Addiction, and God
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2025
⏱️ 330 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep461-sc
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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/
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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
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Michael Paulson, better known online as The Primogen. |
| 0:06.3 | He is a programmer who has entertained and inspired millions of people to have fun building stuff with software, |
| 0:13.5 | whether you're a newbie or a seasoned developer who has been battling it out in the software engineering trenches for decades. |
| 0:22.7 | In short, the Primogen is a legendary programmer and a great human being with an inspiring |
| 0:29.0 | roller coaster of a life story. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out |
| 0:36.3 | in the description. |
| 0:39.6 | It is, in fact, the best way to support this podcast. |
| 0:43.4 | We are In Video AI for video generation, |
| 0:46.0 | Shopify for selling stuff online, |
| 0:48.0 | Netsweet for your business, |
| 0:49.6 | better help for your health, |
| 0:54.1 | and AG1 for delicious nutrition. Choose wisely, my friends. |
| 0:56.2 | Also, if you want to work with our amazing team |
| 0:59.2 | or get in touch with you for whatever reason, |
| 1:01.2 | go to Lexfreedman.com slash contact. |
| 1:03.2 | And now, onto the full ad reads, |
| 1:05.8 | as always, no ads in the middle. |
| 1:07.2 | I try to make this interesting, |
| 1:08.7 | but if you must skip them, please still |
| 1:11.2 | check out the sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. This episode is brought to you by |
| 1:18.1 | In Video AI, a video generating app that allows you to create full-length videos using just text |
| 1:26.1 | prompts. I have been using it more and more myself |
... |
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