Lex Fridman: belief

Transcript context

…I did a thing where I played what I call high information music. High information music would be Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier, fugues, yeah, anything Bach. And I would play the Well-Tempered Clavier, and I would play… I have a friend who… Turkish pianist who’s one of the greatest improvisers I’ve ever heard. His name’s Aydan Esen. And I would play Aydan’s improvisations for Dylan. It had very sophisticated harmony and linear things in it. And Keith Jarrett, and mainly jazz, classical, and modern classical music. And then, then we would play, listen to rock music once he was born. I’m talking on my wife’s stomach before Dylan was born- … starting at 15 weeks, for 30 minutes a night. And then when Dylan was born, I would sit with him for an hour every morning and listen to music- … and I would look at him. In order for them to hear these phonemes apparently and develop this language, or get the … The language acquisition has to involve the social brain. So, when kids look at you, when a baby’s looking at you, they’re looking at your mouth and they’re getting social cues from that. And this is also another component of saying, “This is where this word stops or starts and stops. These are how the phonemes are separated from one another. These are how they’re connected.” So I believe that all kids are born with perfect pitch and then around nine months they begin to lose it. If you don’t engage their social brain, making these pitches know … I never played pitches for Dylan and said, “This is a C, this is a B-flat-” “… this is a G.” I just played complex- … high-information music for him. And played with him. And that applies maybe even more generally to high-information language. And it starts before they’re born. I think I saw some of these incredible scientists that work on the neuroscience, the neurobiology, psychology of language in early life. I think a big part is in the mother’s stomach you’re listening to the mother speak. Yes. That’s right.…

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