Lex Fridman says heaven is nine-and-a-half hours of sleep plus coffee, but he pulls 10-15 all-nighters a year chasing deadlines and passion projects. He doesn't believe in burnout, calling it a voice of laziness, not clinical depression.
Questions this video answers
Nine and a half hours of sleep (and the first cup of coffee after it).
Seven to eight hours.
About 10–15 all-nighters per year.
Going to bed around 9pm.
He says he does not believe in burnout, viewing it as a voice of laziness that can be defeated with focus, perseverance, determination, and passion.
Chapters
Alona asks, how many hours of sleep do you normally manage to get to your schedule? How do you avoid burning out?
Well, first.
Heaven is nine and a half hours on a day. Maybe there's a little bit of rain for some reason. Even though you live in the city, it's quiet. An occasional car slowly driving by. Heaven is getting those nine and a half. No, heaven is the first cup of coffee after the nine and a half hours of sleep.
Yeah, optimal performance wise, I like to get seven or eight hours of sleep.
I don't often get that amount of sleep though.
And I think the rest is just all mental.
I still often pull nights where it's one, two, three hours of sleep. I frequently pull all nighters. Maybe an average of about 10 to 15 all nighters a year. All have to do with deadlines and just focus. A few occasional, rare, beautiful all nighters are sort of.
You're so. I'm so passionate about a particular idea.
I just can't wait. I can't wait to see it work. And I stay up all night, you.
Know, through noon in the afternoon and then maybe go to bed early next.
Night, you know, go to bed at like 9pm or something like that.
Burnout too. You know what? I don't believe in burnout. It's not like a. I think there's just a voice of laziness that can be defeated with. With a sword of focus, perseverance, determination and passion. I think I love everything I do. I could wash toilets, I could do manual labor, anything. I just love it. I love every moment of every day. The sadness, the fear, all of that. That's a beautiful part of the journey.
I love it.
So to me, burnout doesn't even make sense. Like what are you burning out from? Even the concept of burnout is something that I love. So like if you feel like you're burning out, that, that's beautiful too. That's part of the human experience. I love that whole thing. And when you're passionate about everything, what the hell does anything burnout kind of says like I'm. I think because I've known close, close people to me that have suffered from depression. I think depression is the sort of actually like clinical depression is kind of the experience that I see as beyond the kind of thing that I'm talking about, which is. It's really. You're in a place where nothing has meaning. But to me, I have never experienced a moment where something is not rich of meaning. And I. I think David Foster Wallace said the key to life is to be unborable. Meaning it's impossible to make you bored of anything you do, and I'm unborable of anything I do. I love it. My face might not express it. I got a Russian sort of sad, suffering face most of the time, but I'm actually happy on the inside.
I'm like a kiwi. Ugly on the outside, sweet and glorious on the inside. Again, that's one question.
