Pieter Levels: Programming, Viral AI Startups, and Digital Nomad Life | Lex Fridman Podcast #440

This man ships so fast that he speaks at 1.5x speed by default.

Wowwww this is the most unexpected guest in the best way possible!

In a parallel universe Pieter used JS instead of PHP and couldn't ship because he kept changing the framework. Great interview!

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.

How did Lex know we wanted Pieter on the pod before we knew we wanted him on the pd?

As someone who works at a small startup right now as a self-taught developer, this podcast is gold. Thanks!

Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://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:* https://lexfridman.com/pieter-levels-transcript *CONTACT LEX:* *Feedback* - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey *AMA* - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama *Hiring* - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring *Other* - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact *EPISODE LINKS:* Pieter's X: https://x.com/levelsio Pieter's Techno Optimist Shop: https://levelsio.com/ Indie Maker Handbook: https://readmake.com/ Nomad List: https://nomadlist.com Remote OK: https://remoteok.com Hoodmaps: https://hoodmaps.com *SPONSORS:* To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: *Shopify:* Sell stuff online. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep440-sa *Motific:* Generative ai deployment. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/motific-ep440-sa *AG1:* All-in-one daily nutrition drinks. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/ag1-ep440-sa *MasterClass:* Online classes from world-class experts. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep440-sa *BetterHelp:* Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep440-sa *Eight Sleep:* Temp-controlled smart mattress. Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/eight_sleep-ep440-sa

Thank you for having me! ❤

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!

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)