Lex Fridman: uncertainty

Transcript context

…There you go, when this completely ruins it. At least there’s another guy who thought there’s a chance that it might be a good idea. Because I don’t know, that’s the cool thing about the things we do, you’ve been through a lot of battles, you’ve walked into a lot of tough debates and it’s like you don’t know, this could be the conversation that ends you. I know. Well, I’ll say I think that’s one of the things that I love about doing debates, and there is something about that where I do kind of feel this… I’m a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. I mean, not really, I don’t skydive or do stuff like that, but doing stand-up, there’s always something about that that’s like you’re risking a lot by doing it, you feel alive and not the way you do when you first start. But there is something about that and there’s something about… Well, first of all, there’s kind of two things. Number one, I feel like I’m obligated, and I wouldn’t say this for you, but I think this is true for me, I think I’m obligated to do at least several debates a year. And I think that if I’m going to go on shows like your show and Rogan’s show and Tucker’s show and Candice or whoever else, Patrick Bet-David and Tim Pool, and I go on these big shows for long form things and I’m sitting there and I’m being like, “Okay, it’s like this and I think it’s like this,” and then if I’m going to do that, I kind of have an obligation to test myself against someone being like, “No, it’s not like that,” and then showing that I think I can stand up to these kind of challenges. So I feel like I’m kind of obligated. But then there is a feeling to it where you’re like, “Hey man, my career is not a joke. I got little kids. This is how I support them.” And I am kind of taking my career in my hands every time I go do one of these debates. If I just get smoked and this guy just totally beats me up, it’s like, I don’t know, I don’t know, how’s anyone going to look at me again after that? You’d be like, “Oh, you acted like you had such a good point and then this guy just totally destroyed your point.” But that then motivates me to be like, “Okay, I got to really be on point. I got to really make sure I’ve done my homework. I got to make sure my argument’s really tight. I got to think about this thing from all ends.” And then on the other level, it’s like if someone can do that to me, then kind of that’s the way the movie’s supposed to end. If there is some hole in my argument that I’m just not thinking of and then someone else can point it out to me and I got no response to it, then I kind of deserve to be humiliated publicly for that so all right. And I don’t know, it’s kind of exciting in a way.…

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