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Lenny Rachitsky: belief

19 Jul 2026 Lenny's Podcast Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)

“There's a quote that I think is misattributed to Salman Rushdie, which is, "When a child is born, they first ask for food and water and protection and then they ask for, tell me a story.”

— Lenny Rachitsky

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Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
Lenny Rachitsky
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
belief
Recorded
19 Jul 2026
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

Transcript context

…I have a hard time picturing entertainment that doesn't have humans at the heart of it. So, that's humans in the creation of the storytelling, which I think is a scarce and valuable skill. Storytelling is one and the same with humanity and knowing what connects with people. So, I think humans will always be a core part or a critical part of the story. And I think watching characters on screen who don't have that humanity feels less compelling to me. And what the power of storytelling really is, to see another human and to watch how they perform a role or bring an emotion to life, that's such a human element. Will AI help to bring that to life? Will it play a material part in some of those productions or how we get them to look and feel a certain way? Yeah, definitely. But I don't see the version of it that doesn't have the human as the backbone. There's a quote that I think is misattributed to Salman Rushdie, which is, "When a child is born, they first ask for food and water and protection and then they ask for, tell me a story. " It's a thing going back since the beginning of time, that storytelling has been a key part of community, and social networks, and human feeling and connection. So, I love the idea that technology can amplify that and can bring that to life in very new, novel, exciting ways. But to say storytelling wouldn't have that humanity at the center feels like something would be missing.…

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