Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep440-sa See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. 0:00 - Introduction 2:03 - Startup philosophy 9:34 - Low points 13:03 - 12 startups in 12 months 19:55 - Traveling and depression 32:34 - Indie hacking 36:37 - Photo AI 1:12:53 - How to learn AI 1:21:30 - Robots 1:29:47 - Hoodmaps 1:53:52 - Learning new programming languages 2:03:24 - Monetize your website 2:09:59 - Fighting SPAM 2:13:33 - Automation 2:24:58 - When to sell startup 2:27:52 - Coding solo 2:33:54 - Ship fast 2:42:38 - Best IDE for programming 2:52:09 - Andrej Karpathy 3:01:34 - Productivity 3:15:21 - Minimalism 3:24:07 - Emails 3:31:20 - Coffee 3:39:05 - E/acc 3:41:21 - Advice for young people *Transcript:* lexfridman.com/pieter-levels-transcript *CONTACT LEX:* *Feedback* - give feedback to Lex: lexfridman.com/survey *AMA* - submit questions, videos or call-in: lexfridman.com/ama *Hiring* - join our team: lexfridman.com/hiring *Other* - other ways to get in touch: lexfridman.com/contact *EPISODE LINKS:* Pieter's X: x.com/levelsio Pieter's Techno Optimist Shop: levelsio.com/ Indie Maker Handbook: readmake.com/ Nomad List: nomadlist.com Remote OK: remoteok.com Hoodmaps: hoodmaps.com *SPONSORS:* To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: *Shopify:* Sell stuff online. Go to lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep440-sa *Motific:* Generative ai deployment. Go to lexfridman.com/s/motific-ep440-sa *AG1:* All-in-one daily nutrition drinks. Go to lexfridman.com/s/ag1-ep440-sa *MasterClass:* Online classes from world-class experts. Go to lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep440-sa *BetterHelp:* Online therapy and counseling. Go to lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep440-sa *Eight Sleep:* Temp-controlled smart mattress. Go to lexfridman.com/s/eight_sleep-ep440-sa
I followed Pieter in to the digital nomad lifestyle ~mid 2015. I joined his private slack community, found a remote software engineering role @ a Norwegian software company, and worked remotely for them for a year and a half, travelling through parts of Europe & Asia. It's nice to hear from the man himself that this lifestyle wasn't always sunshine and rainbows. The guilt I often felt when someone told me I was "living the dream" when in fact I was not (always) happy, was very confronting for me (at the time). This had me in tears, I've never been able to express this to anyone without feeling like a privileged idiot. Thanks for this conversation.
@blakec4624 - my son who is 21 is wanting to follow a similar path and has just moved to Valencia. I run my own tech businesses but I am wanting him to follow his own path. It is interesting to hear what you have said here. I hope that through your experiences that you feel stronger now because of it
Lex, I cannot thank you enough for having Pieter. At the very beginning, I was tempted to turn it off because his speech pattern was all over the place, he wanted to speak about everything at once, then I realized that it's not his mouth that's doing that but his brain, he literally thinks the same exact way I do, he has a million ideas and experiments with things to learn how to do it himself instead of reading books. This whole podcast was the universe confirming that I am on the right track. I can't believe I'm also not alone in using Brown noise. I personally keep a fan blowing less than 5 ft from my head because the sound is a deep almost "bass like" humming sound, although it sounds strange but when you talked about how the world disappears when you have your preferred sound on, and you reach the flow state. It almost felt like I was explaining it myself. I have to say this is hands down my favorite guest to date (sorry Elon, Ilya, and Dr. Peterson)
Your comment summed up everything I want to say. I feel better about what I'm doing. I'm a 45 year old with no background in CS or coding that got the idea for a tech company I want to start a couple years ago. It turned out by fluke in grad school that I have a knack for complicated spreadsheets, and he even mentioned using that as a starting point. I'm inventive by nature but have so many ideas all coming at once and in waves that it makes it difficult to pick the one I should ride out. I'm like a surfer bailing out the back of a great wave that's still going because I see others coming. Anyway, thanks for your comment, and good luck as we continue to design and build out this world. BTW the other fantastic podcast that matches this one is Debbie Millman on Tim Ferriss. She was on multiple times but specifically the episode titled "How to Design a Life" Take it easy!
He is a great inspiration for all makers and has also helped us to begin Thinkbuddy. He is one of the first people who created AI hype among individual makers, and the world has many products that owe their existence to Pieter, who took the first step and inspired others. Thank you! ✨
I started with his mentality very early in my life when I was 14, building software stuff. It made me really happy. Now I’m 32, and I’ve done literally everything but that for the past 17 years. Now I’m back to building tech and software apps. The feelings of happiness, satisfaction and the sense of accomplishment are indescribable. Keep shoveling, never stop no matter what!
Me too man. I started out just hacking around and teaching myself and then went to university, jobs, startups and fell for all the unit testing, nonsense platforms like kubernetes (feel so dumb now). I need to do a 180 now back to the roots of being scrappy and move fast.
I didn't like lex until this interview, even though he had interesting guests. I watched his Trump interview. It wasn't long before that it seemed like Lex had Trump derangement syndrome and was a zombie child of the mainstream narrative, but Pieter has the same brain wiring as me so I see Lex through Pieter's eyes. This interview brought out a different side of Lex. I dunno. Maybe Lex is changing. He wasn't annoying when he interviewed Trump.
I met Pieter a couple times there in Bali Dojo coworking spot in 2017 doing the 6am shift. I was also in a similar depressed mindset, but also this whole new way of life was giving me energy. I loved those all night coding sessions
the GOAT levels changed my life maybe 5-6 years ago through his tweets/inspo/learnings about business and i will forever be grateful. THANK YOU Pieter!
Throughout the interview I loved how he combined grind, gym, traveling, self-sufficiency, and automation to live on his own terms, and how he was for renewing the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe, but in the back of my mind I though I wouldn't wanna go exactly his route. That made the final message of "do your own thing" all the better. The guy also seems authentic and quite down to earth. Rare to see these days.
It's great to watch an interview with a developer who hasn't been conditioned into adopting low-quality tools and processes. The fact that he feels bad for using PHP and JQuery, and pushing straight to production, in spite of his success, shows just how strong the conditioning is.
i mean... he is a solo developer. those practices work when you're the only one manipulating the codebase as you will likely be able to fix any errors and/or rollback immediately. This doesn't scale and that is the main reason teams cannot work in this manner. Nothing wrong with it if you're on your own though, but inherently... yeah not a good idea. This is coming from solo dev who also pushes to prod and will just cp stage/* if there's an issue LOL.
I have had the privilege to chat with Pieter back in 2016 on X when he only had NomadsList. He was an inspiration for me then and still is today. His simple words of advice were the following, "You need to learn shit yourself. If you don't have the willpower to do that you'll never get anywhere. There's no shortcuts in life."
Amazing conversation. This episode inspired me and made me laugh when you said "i think a lot of people in this world are laying in a room right now listening to this and feeling like a loser" as i was *literally* lying bed, in a foreign country, alone, feeling like a total loser, and questioning what I'm doing with my life. I love the spirit that Pieter passes. And thank you Lex for always sharing the honest spectrum of the feelings you feel. Thank you both for making the world feel less lonely.
HELL YEAH!! Pieter Levels, let's goooooooooo! I'm building an AI startup solo, currently at $5K MRR. Much respect for that man, been following since 2016 when I was working at a soul-sucking 9-to-5!!
Yes they seems like they could be good friends and have a lot in common with mutual respect... wish we all could treat each other on this ballenced level
Living nomad is amazing and Pieter hits the nail on the head. Loneliness, boredom, anxiety but also inspiration, romanticism, new people, new places, new ideas, new motivations. Couldn’t recommend it more if you’re a bit stuck!
He and his products changed my life forever. I have been able to travel across the world to places I had never dream of, working for top companies remotely and among other things build my house and life mainly because of him. Pieter, thank you.
Love this guy. Literally my main motivator for like some months now. I always loved the small scale big MRR project-approach. Have like max 3-4 friends/partners and make enough for a great living. No manager, legal, bureaucracy bullshit, just straight moving fast and thinking out of the box. Peter and Lex, thank you.
@@armaganvideos you can find them but you have to hang out in programming discord servers. I found a few like that and am working with two of them on one idea
Started building startups at 27 after his fathers analogy of finding purpose in completing tasks, rough tasks, such as shoveling one pile of sand to another. In a way this fascilitates character, builds a mindset of keeping busy and avoiding periods of waste/inaction. This distilled the mindset to always create things and not stay stuck on one task. Taking advantage of his background in code development and IT, Pieter made many websites that utilized a.i. and generative programming. This gentleman created his own creative and professional space by isolating himself to his craft and creating many websites that were creative and innovative to individuals who were motivated to look into new ideas about what can be possible with a.i. 🦆
Man, I have been working in the shadows for six months on a project that only 3 people know about. This podcast was so beyond inspirational and encouraging, being a self-made person and remote worker myself. This nearly 4-hour hang was medication for my soul. Thank you Lex and Pieter!
There are only few things these days that you expect to happen, or you remain waiting and your eyes light up when you see it. One of it is definately watching Lex talking with high mind individuals. What a way to become useful, this is truely a meaningful work. ThankyouLex❤🇳🇵
Can't you make friends online and with the ppl in the hostel. Are you learning Jap or Chinese or Indonesian. BTW what is a good solution for a wearable keyboard, i have those neck wearable tablet holder thingies which a pit a bluetooth keyboard on but I often need to type and to see the screen at the same time hahha.
This was my first time listening to a Lex Fridman interview, and I absolutely loved it. Pieter Levels was amazing too. 'Freedom doesn't make you happy, I think constraints probably make you happy.' This might be the most interesting and valuable insight I heard tonight!
I like that you take all types of different guests with all types of different opinions. But seeing you vibe this much with a guest - really fun to listen to!
“27 club” probably exists as a cultural phenomenon because that’s old enough to make an impact and young enough to mourn the tragedy of what could have been. Great musicians who died at 18 didn’t make a big enough impact to be remembered. The ones who died at 60, or even 40, may have already peaked and not inspired as much grief for what could have been.
Okay now this is exactly what i was looking for. Pieter Levels with Lex omg 😂 maybe one day Lex i will sit down with you as well. You are one of the people I would love to meet along with Pieter.
This is one of my favorite conversations you’ve ever had! I took what you guys said about the best place to start coding is to actually work on a project, and only a few hours in it makes so much more sense when you can apply it to something useful for yourself. Thank you for that.
Great show... I am turning 67 in a few days and Pieter's philosophy detangled many questions I had about "what if I had to start all over again... Where do you begin?"
I thought I knew Pieter on a level that Lex didn't know him. I'm so glad you had him on Lex! You are so plugged in to society. It's crazy how well you pick people.
I've followed Pieter for years. Awesome to see have him on with Lex! . Pieter is one of the most innovative developers in the world. He is as RAW as you can get. Solo, Nomad, Indi hacker, visionary
This interview brings so much positivity and new (actually old) perspectives on the programming landscape and individual approach to "best practices". I loved it, thank you (both) very much for making it!
Lex and Pieter- hard to explain how much I enjoyed this. I’m not a dev but am full of ideas - I make music so appreciate the need for speed. Thanks for the work - both of you.
Lex, some of us non-native English speakers sometimes find it difficult to understand without subtitles, and even autogenerate ones miss out on the important aspect. Please only upload on YT once your team has prepared the subtitle.
wow, this content really motivates me. The energy is amazing. Me being the productive me feels that should I continue watching this to the very end or go to work and actually build. internal struggles max xD
2:34:58 The level of love between these two as Lex compliments Nomadlist UI is so endearing. Levels keeps trying to justify its appearance as if it was bad, but Lex is so steadfast with saying "No man, this is great". Very sweet!
Bro I swear I really started listening to him a week ago, and I started building my first serious app, and Ive been hooked, coding all day, and now this comes?? what are the odds
Great stuff this is my favourite interview you have ever done. His attitude is brilliant as a frustrated worker who deals with layers of company strata. I found myself saying 'yes' most of the time he was talking
Great conversation. Pieter is a beast at shipping. Used to do all my coding with vanilla Javascript, PHP, and HTML. It was something that always confused me why all the latest tutorials would be about why you should use the latest framework when I was able to get it working faster coding from scratch.
Dude is creating cool stuff and what other techies would call "technical debt". But as long as he is the only one responsible for and depending on the projects and if it all runs fine, which I really believe, then he beat the game of balancing time-to-market and technical debt for his use case. I went the other way, always questioning myself, not starting projects because I "had to learn more", aiming for a stable job in a company that I now have and which surely has its own perks. But this guy is a great example that it works the other way, too and I am really happy about this!
Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep440-sa
See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.
0:00 - Introduction
2:03 - Startup philosophy
9:34 - Low points
13:03 - 12 startups in 12 months
19:55 - Traveling and depression
32:34 - Indie hacking
36:37 - Photo AI
1:12:53 - How to learn AI
1:21:30 - Robots
1:29:47 - Hoodmaps
1:53:52 - Learning new programming languages
2:03:24 - Monetize your website
2:09:59 - Fighting SPAM
2:13:33 - Automation
2:24:58 - When to sell startup
2:27:52 - Coding solo
2:33:54 - Ship fast
2:42:38 - Best IDE for programming
2:52:09 - Andrej Karpathy
3:01:34 - Productivity
3:15:21 - Minimalism
3:24:07 - Emails
3:31:20 - Coffee
3:39:05 - E/acc
3:41:21 - Advice for young people
*Transcript:*
lexfridman.com/pieter-levels-transcript
*CONTACT LEX:*
*Feedback* - give feedback to Lex: lexfridman.com/survey
*AMA* - submit questions, videos or call-in: lexfridman.com/ama
*Hiring* - join our team: lexfridman.com/hiring
*Other* - other ways to get in touch: lexfridman.com/contact
*EPISODE LINKS:*
Pieter's X: x.com/levelsio
Pieter's Techno Optimist Shop: levelsio.com/
Indie Maker Handbook: readmake.com/
Nomad List: nomadlist.com
Remote OK: remoteok.com
Hoodmaps: hoodmaps.com
*SPONSORS:*
To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
*Shopify:* Sell stuff online.
Go to lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep440-sa
*Motific:* Generative ai deployment.
Go to lexfridman.com/s/motific-ep440-sa
*AG1:* All-in-one daily nutrition drinks.
Go to lexfridman.com/s/ag1-ep440-sa
*MasterClass:* Online classes from world-class experts.
Go to lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep440-sa
*BetterHelp:* Online therapy and counseling.
Go to lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep440-sa
*Eight Sleep:* Temp-controlled smart mattress.
Go to lexfridman.com/s/eight_sleep-ep440-sa
hold command + option in VS code and the up and down arrows for multi cursor editing.
@@jeffreytgilbert thanks!!
this is so good Lex, i like the genuine questions you asked. very humble of you.
Your sponsors page is giving error bro
THIS was FANTASTIC to listen to/watch!!!!! Ty Lex!!!!
Wowwww this is the most unexpected guest in the best way possible!
fully agreed, have been following levels for 3 years now..
yes, so brilliant to see levels here!
Yep. Totally not expected this. Levels went to a new level.
Amazing crossover
absolutely. And the experiences he shares is so raw and natural, that normal non-billionaire people like me can connect.
I followed Pieter in to the digital nomad lifestyle ~mid 2015. I joined his private slack community, found a remote software engineering role @ a Norwegian software company, and worked remotely for them for a year and a half, travelling through parts of Europe & Asia. It's nice to hear from the man himself that this lifestyle wasn't always sunshine and rainbows. The guilt I often felt when someone told me I was "living the dream" when in fact I was not (always) happy, was very confronting for me (at the time). This had me in tears, I've never been able to express this to anyone without feeling like a privileged idiot. Thanks for this conversation.
Which company in Norway?
@@blakec4624 thanks for sharing. are u still nomading in 2024? (asking out of curiosity)
What wasn't that glamorous about nomading?
@blakec4624 - my son who is 21 is wanting to follow a similar path and has just moved to Valencia. I run my own tech businesses but I am wanting him to follow his own path. It is interesting to hear what you have said here. I hope that through your experiences that you feel stronger now because of it
@@adeyup5139 Yeah 100% agree it's lot of contract work, lonely, and stress full.
Lex, I cannot thank you enough for having Pieter. At the very beginning, I was tempted to turn it off because his speech pattern was all over the place, he wanted to speak about everything at once, then I realized that it's not his mouth that's doing that but his brain, he literally thinks the same exact way I do, he has a million ideas and experiments with things to learn how to do it himself instead of reading books. This whole podcast was the universe confirming that I am on the right track.
I can't believe I'm also not alone in using Brown noise. I personally keep a fan blowing less than 5 ft from my head because the sound is a deep almost "bass like" humming sound, although it sounds strange but when you talked about how the world disappears when you have your preferred sound on, and you reach the flow state. It almost felt like I was explaining it myself.
I have to say this is hands down my favorite guest to date (sorry Elon, Ilya, and Dr. Peterson)
Your comment summed up everything I want to say.
I feel better about what I'm doing. I'm a 45 year old with no background in CS or coding that got the idea for a tech company I want to start a couple years ago. It turned out by fluke in grad school that I have a knack for complicated spreadsheets, and he even mentioned using that as a starting point. I'm inventive by nature but have so many ideas all coming at once and in waves that it makes it difficult to pick the one I should ride out. I'm like a surfer bailing out the back of a great wave that's still going because I see others coming.
Anyway, thanks for your comment, and good luck as we continue to design and build out this world.
BTW the other fantastic podcast that matches this one is Debbie Millman on Tim Ferriss. She was on multiple times but specifically the episode titled "How to Design a Life"
Take it easy!
In a parallel universe Pieter used JS instead of PHP and couldn't ship because he kept changing the framework.
Great interview!
😂
)) well he does use jquery
@@EduardsRuzga that's just for the frontend, a necessary evil
@@EduardsRuzga jquery is not a framework.
@@EduardsRuzgaIt is a library 🤓
He is a great inspiration for all makers and has also helped us to begin Thinkbuddy. He is one of the first people who created AI hype among individual makers, and the world has many products that owe their existence to Pieter, who took the first step and inspired others. Thank you! ✨
Clothes hangers do my melon in
he is a scammer
@@sakaar-lok9109 "he is a scammer" is a phrase that usually comes with a little more explanation
I started with his mentality very early in my life when I was 14, building software stuff. It made me really happy. Now I’m 32, and I’ve done literally everything but that for the past 17 years. Now I’m back to building tech and software apps. The feelings of happiness, satisfaction and the sense of accomplishment are indescribable. Keep shoveling, never stop no matter what!
Me too man. I started out just hacking around and teaching myself and then went to university, jobs, startups and fell for all the unit testing, nonsense platforms like kubernetes (feel so dumb now). I need to do a 180 now back to the roots of being scrappy and move fast.
Dork!
Same here I now build things with flutter. So much joy
As someone who works at a small startup right now as a self-taught developer, this podcast is gold. Thanks!
need any help
How old are you and how long did it take to get there?
right there with you, man
@@BB-sp1qr I just turned 27. I started working in the tech field 2 years ago. I have two economics degrees.
Good luck g
I've never seen Lex be so alive with anyone else. They speak the same language it seems. Nice episode.
Is this his alive level??😅😅 omg he is so sleepy , good I never seen him before
@@itsJurgita Actually yes. This is one sleepy dude. 😂
I didn't like lex until this interview, even though he had interesting guests. I watched his Trump interview. It wasn't long before that it seemed like Lex had Trump derangement syndrome and was a zombie child of the mainstream narrative, but Pieter has the same brain wiring as me so I see Lex through Pieter's eyes. This interview brought out a different side of Lex. I dunno. Maybe Lex is changing. He wasn't annoying when he interviewed Trump.
This man ships so fast that he speaks at 1.5x speed by default.
he's on another level
#teamadhd
He's the Ben Shapiro of Indie Development
I somewhat agree but I also appreciate his hardwork @@profkomrad
And he is not English. Impressive
I met Pieter a couple times there in Bali Dojo coworking spot in 2017 doing the 6am shift. I was also in a similar depressed mindset, but also this whole new way of life was giving me energy. I loved those all night coding sessions
Dojo was the best!
didn't expect levelsio to be on the pod
This is who software engineers should hold up, not half the grifters who's sole ambition is to get into YC just so they can tell people they did
What's YC ?
@@tonyhussey3610 Y-Combinator. It's a large accelerator in San Francisco that helps you scale your startup fast and get investors
@@tonyhussey3610Y Combinator
@@tonyhussey3610y combinator, if you genuinely didn’t know
@@tonyhussey3610 exactly.
the GOAT levels changed my life maybe 5-6 years ago through his tweets/inspo/learnings about business and i will forever be grateful. THANK YOU Pieter!
How did Lex know we wanted Pieter on the pod before we knew we wanted him on the pd?
@SnoopyDoofie wrong Pieter
black magic astrology shi...
Love and AI
Probably the “invisible man syndrome ❤
Forreal hahaha
Throughout the interview I loved how he combined grind, gym, traveling, self-sufficiency, and automation to live on his own terms, and how he was for renewing the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe, but in the back of my mind I though I wouldn't wanna go exactly his route. That made the final message of "do your own thing" all the better. The guy also seems authentic and quite down to earth. Rare to see these days.
It's great to watch an interview with a developer who hasn't been conditioned into adopting low-quality tools and processes.
The fact that he feels bad for using PHP and JQuery, and pushing straight to production, in spite of his success, shows just how strong the conditioning is.
Seriously!!!!
i mean... he is a solo developer. those practices work when you're the only one manipulating the codebase as you will likely be able to fix any errors and/or rollback immediately. This doesn't scale and that is the main reason teams cannot work in this manner. Nothing wrong with it if you're on your own though, but inherently... yeah not a good idea. This is coming from solo dev who also pushes to prod and will just cp stage/* if there's an issue LOL.
@@lesavermanHey as a newb learning to coder can you explain that a bit for me?
I'm building out an idea I have, struggling through the dark lol
I have had the privilege to chat with Pieter back in 2016 on X when he only had NomadsList. He was an inspiration for me then and still is today. His simple words of advice were the following, "You need to learn shit yourself. If you don't have the willpower to do that you'll never get anywhere. There's no shortcuts in life."
Amazing conversation. This episode inspired me and made me laugh when you said "i think a lot of people in this world are laying in a room right now listening to this and feeling like a loser" as i was *literally* lying bed, in a foreign country, alone, feeling like a total loser, and questioning what I'm doing with my life. I love the spirit that Pieter passes. And thank you Lex for always sharing the honest spectrum of the feelings you feel.
Thank you both for making the world feel less lonely.
HELL YEAH!! Pieter Levels, let's goooooooooo! I'm building an AI startup solo, currently at $5K MRR. Much respect for that man, been following since 2016 when I was working at a soul-sucking 9-to-5!!
What's your app vincent?
@@Soyunmaní777 it's called TutorLily, on iOS & Android. It's an AI language tutor available in 18 languages.
Lfg. Same here. Are you in any cimmunities where you build this shit together?
@@virancheel2504 it's called TutorLily, it's an AI language tutor
I don't know if you guys can see my reply. UA-cam seems to keep deleting it
This interview is way outside of my wheelhouse, but this kid has a great outlook on life. He sees the good and bad of each situation. Great show!
Haven't seen Lex this comfortable and open with any other guest!
@levelsio FTW
He looks happy.
true..very sincere and balanced conversation. Super entertaining too, had to chuckle many times
Yes they seems like they could be good friends and have a lot in common with mutual respect... wish we all could treat each other on this ballenced level
Yes Lex let down some guards like he rarely does!
Right. And he also speak a lot about himself. I like that.
First time I see Lex is laughing so much, energetic and friendly like a real human.
When you think Lex can't get any better he hit you with exactly with the content that you didn't know you need it, but you did ❤
Pieter’s just a real dude. No BS, no facade, respect
Not a guy you need to listen at 1.25x speed
0.75x 👌🏽😎
😂
You're right, I'm on 2x
Because $$$$$
😂
Living nomad is amazing and Pieter hits the nail on the head. Loneliness, boredom, anxiety but also inspiration, romanticism, new people, new places, new ideas, new motivations. Couldn’t recommend it more if you’re a bit stuck!
Best wearable bluetooth kbd tech hmm...
Pieter is the embodiment of hard graft, perseverance, grit and self belief. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Proud of you brother 💪
He and his products changed my life forever. I have been able to travel across the world to places I had never dream of, working for top companies remotely and among other things build my house and life mainly because of him. Pieter, thank you.
Here before 1B views
same
Same
This one will inspire a lot for sure…give it 5-10 years and see how many reference this one
One of my favourite indiehackers!
Saw you at 200k 🤣
Met him long ago in Bangkok when I barely spoke English. He motivated me so much and I’ve achieved quite a lot with my company. Great guy, very proud!
Love this guy. Literally my main motivator for like some months now. I always loved the small scale big MRR project-approach. Have like max 3-4 friends/partners and make enough for a great living. No manager, legal, bureaucracy bullshit, just straight moving fast and thinking out of the box.
Peter and Lex, thank you.
Do you work solo or in a team?
@@skyhappy Solo but wish Id have a little team of like minded friends. Would lead to miracles I think 💭
@@armaganvideos you can find them but you have to hang out in programming discord servers. I found a few like that and am working with two of them on one idea
@skyhappy@armaganvideos Do you code?
@@Shint00 Yessir! Daily, a lot! 💪🏻
Started building startups at 27 after his fathers analogy of finding purpose in completing tasks, rough tasks, such as shoveling one pile of sand to another. In a way this fascilitates character, builds a mindset of keeping busy and avoiding periods of waste/inaction. This distilled the mindset to always create things and not stay stuck on one task. Taking advantage of his background in code development and IT, Pieter made many websites that utilized a.i. and generative programming.
This gentleman created his own creative and professional space by isolating himself to his craft and creating many websites that were creative and innovative to individuals who were motivated to look into new ideas about what can be possible with a.i.
🦆
Been following this guy for awhile on X, love his content. Shows that it really is possible to make serious money with a one man show
ah he is a clout chaser
@@EDS432 Not sure what your point is. You could say that about literally anyone on social media with a following.
@@oxmodius no you couldn't
some are fake to get the clout
that's a difference
It's possible but you need distribution, i.e. a large base of followers that you can sell to or at least will share your stuff with friends
Man, I have been working in the shadows for six months on a project that only 3 people know about. This podcast was so beyond inspirational and encouraging, being a self-made person and remote worker myself. This nearly 4-hour hang was medication for my soul. Thank you Lex and Pieter!
Pieter Levels is the real deal! He is just unapologetically himself!
AGREED!!!
Would just be nice if he paid out the affiliates who helped promote his products
@@NathAston He didnt?
There are only few things these days that you expect to happen, or you remain waiting and your eyes light up when you see it.
One of it is definately watching Lex talking with high mind individuals. What a way to become useful, this is truely a meaningful work. ThankyouLex❤🇳🇵
Still the best part is Advice for young people, who is living through debt and hell
Don't worry about the failures, you only have to be right once
Dropbox cofounder Drew Houston
OMG! levelsio made it big! This is insane! Congrats man!
I am in my 20s living in asia,living in hostel,staring at the ceiling ,listening to this podcast ,1:48 in the morning ,feeling like a loser. 20:58
Can't you make friends online and with the ppl in the hostel. Are you learning Jap or Chinese or Indonesian. BTW what is a good solution for a wearable keyboard, i have those neck wearable tablet holder thingies which a pit a bluetooth keyboard on but I often need to type and to see the screen at the same time hahha.
we all feel like a loser every once in a while. believe you can make it, and you _will_ make it.
There only thing I care about this guy: money and freedom to travel. He was one of the reasons why I became an engineer.
This was my first time listening to a Lex Fridman interview, and I absolutely loved it. Pieter Levels was amazing too. 'Freedom doesn't make you happy, I think constraints probably make you happy.' This might be the most interesting and valuable insight I heard tonight!
Best guest so far - more indie hacker please Lex
I like that you take all types of different guests with all types of different opinions. But seeing you vibe this much with a guest - really fun to listen to!
Lex has an amazing skill in bringing the right people to the table and having the right conversation.
“27 club” probably exists as a cultural phenomenon because that’s old enough to make an impact and young enough to mourn the tragedy of what could have been. Great musicians who died at 18 didn’t make a big enough impact to be remembered. The ones who died at 60, or even 40, may have already peaked and not inspired as much grief for what could have been.
Okay now this is exactly what i was looking for. Pieter Levels with Lex omg 😂 maybe one day Lex i will sit down with you as well. You are one of the people I would love to meet along with Pieter.
So impressed by this guy that I wonder if there is some other interview with other similar profile tech indie or something.
This was such a fun conversation! Just like two nerds chatting about tech and life. So cool to listen to.
This is one of my favorite conversations you’ve ever had! I took what you guys said about the best place to start coding is to actually work on a project, and only a few hours in it makes so much more sense when you can apply it to something useful for yourself. Thank you for that.
I'm just finishing up a demo video for a AI startup product so this was perfect timing to motivate me! Thanks Lex and Pieter!
Great show... I am turning 67 in a few days and Pieter's philosophy detangled many questions I had about "what if I had to start all over again... Where do you begin?"
The best ever! An inspiration for many, Pieter! No BS, just actions.
I feel this is Lex's best episode
The man who's earning millions with php and jQuery
*clever ideas
straight to prod
Like most people who make millions from websites
You want to say its bs? Just curious
@@phoon95
No.
I thought I knew Pieter on a level that Lex didn't know him.
I'm so glad you had him on Lex! You are so plugged in to society.
It's crazy how well you pick people.
Fascinating guy to listen to. Genuine and humble, yet absolutely winning
This is my favourite podcast in a while. Very inspiring stuff
thiel on jre and pieter here in a week. we are so back!
Thought of the exact same thing
I've followed Pieter for years. Awesome to see have him on with Lex! . Pieter is one of the most innovative developers in the world. He is as RAW as you can get. Solo, Nomad, Indi hacker, visionary
Never seen Lex this happy❤❤❤. I love levelsio and his sense of humour.
this guy is one of the most impressive programmers I know
Finally my favourite Peter is here with my favourite podcaster Lex.. best ones at best podcast ever.
Probably one of the Best Episodes of the Podcast! Thank you, Lex and Pieter!
Levels = Legend.
Respect.
The content is so rich i have to watch it more than 2x (3rd time now) to get all of it. Just Brilliant.
What a legend. Levelsio made it to prime time, Lex is such a great podcaster, he asked so many good questions.
This interview brings so much positivity and new (actually old) perspectives on the programming landscape and individual approach to "best practices". I loved it, thank you (both) very much for making it!
Levelsio the arifryer and deadlift king ❤lot of energy and inspiration in this ep.
Lex and Pieter- hard to explain how much I enjoyed this. I’m not a dev but am full of ideas - I make music so appreciate the need for speed. Thanks for the work - both of you.
Lex, some of us non-native English speakers sometimes find it difficult to understand without subtitles, and even autogenerate ones miss out on the important aspect. Please only upload on YT once your team has prepared the subtitle.
wow, this content really motivates me. The energy is amazing. Me being the productive me feels that should I continue watching this to the very end or go to work and actually build. internal struggles max xD
This guy is awesome. First podcast Ima listen to in a few months!
2:34:58 The level of love between these two as Lex compliments Nomadlist UI is so endearing. Levels keeps trying to justify its appearance as if it was bad, but Lex is so steadfast with saying "No man, this is great". Very sweet!
Pieter speaks at 1.25 while Lex speaks at 0.75.
Can't believe I watched the entire thing. Amazing Interview
wow, this guy is 40?? He looks like a 25 year old. That digital nomad life keeps you young i guess
Not being married, staying single and not having kids helps too. Look at lenny kravitz, hes over 60 and has been celibate for 9 years. Dude looks 45.
If you lose weight, take metformin, and do fasting you can reduce your age.
Dutch genes and lifestyle
He probably eats very little fast food like most people in healthy nations like the Netherlands, Sweden or Norway
@@abatt4233 lmao you havent been to NL
Pieter Levels is an Inspiration, Thank you Lex for bringing him on the show. Thank you Pieter for sharing your heart out with all of us.
Bro I swear I really started listening to him a week ago, and I started building my first serious app, and Ive been hooked, coding all day, and now this comes?? what are the odds
Click on it not knowing what to expect and ended up loving it. That’s why I love Lex, he keeps up exposing us to a lot of different kind of stuff.
Pieter, your talks inspired me to act fast! Just launched my first SaaS for developers . Thanks for motivating indie makers like me!"
Congratulations! What is the name of the SaaS? Let's check it out.
@@PythonPro777 it's structai
Super exciting to see Lex engage with the guest more than usual. Their common tech background fostered that.
I was following this guy back when I was in Southeast Asia a decade ago. Wild to see him here.
This was one of the best software engineering podcast episodes, loved it!
Great stuff this is my favourite interview you have ever done. His attitude is brilliant as a frustrated worker who deals with layers of company strata. I found myself saying 'yes' most of the time he was talking
That is amazing. Pieter and Lex together is the combo that we need
No way! Pieter Levels! Cool - Lex you've some pull
Thx brother, make more episodes with developers and startup guys , it’s more informative and also fun to watch and listen
Love this interview! It's 5:00 AM, and I couldn't stop watching it.
i wish i listen this talk earlier, this is probably the most important discussion that change my life course forever
I never expected Pieter to do a podcast with Lex, but here we go
Pieter is on another Level.
He thinks fast, speaks fast, makes fast, ships fast, fails fast, recovers fast, he should be featured in FnF.
I bought his book yesterday haha. This is gonna be good.
Lex's sense of humor is interesting 😂
Great conversation. Pieter is a beast at shipping. Used to do all my coding with vanilla Javascript, PHP, and HTML. It was something that always confused me why all the latest tutorials would be about why you should use the latest framework when I was able to get it working faster coding from scratch.
I guess the most important thing about productivity is to use the techs that you understand the best.
This is the best and most honest interview I have seen on Lex Fridman
this is "down to the earth" talk of coding the indie way! I really enjoy it ❤
Dude is creating cool stuff and what other techies would call "technical debt". But as long as he is the only one responsible for and depending on the projects and if it all runs fine, which I really believe, then he beat the game of balancing time-to-market and technical debt for his use case. I went the other way, always questioning myself, not starting projects because I "had to learn more", aiming for a stable job in a company that I now have and which surely has its own perks. But this guy is a great example that it works the other way, too and I am really happy about this!
Good stuff, have interacted with Pieter -he is a legit cool guy
Same! He once responded to me, and I'm so proud.
Do you realize what kind of loser you are mate?
First Fridman episode that I „fullassed“ through. Thanks Lex, keep it up and invite more hands on founders as him. Maybe Derek Sivers?
Wow! was not expecting levelsio to be a guest on lex, he's great. Amazing Podcast