#309 – John Carmack: Doom, Quake, VR, AGI, Programming, Video Games, and Rockets

John Carmack is a legendary programmer, co-founder of id Software, and lead programmer of many revolutionary video games including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and the Commander Keen series. He is also the founder of Armadillo Aerospace, and for many years the CTO of Oculus VR. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off - Indeed: https://indeed.com/lex to get $75 credit - Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex and use code LEX to get special savings - Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil EPISODE LINKS: John's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack Books mentioned: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution: https://amzn.to/3SkNZER Game Engine Black Book Wolfenstein 3D: https://amzn.to/3QlOqg8 PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (09:49) - Programming languages (40:53) - Modern programming (50:55) - Day in the life (58:45) - Hard work (1:01:58) - Pizza and Diet Coke (1:04:43) - Setup (1:30:01) - id Software (2:02:50) - Commander Keen (2:09:36) - Hacker ethic (2:17:16) - Wolfenstein 3D (2:37:14) - Doom (2:51:34) - Quake (3:15:55) - John Romero (3:23:42) - Metaverse (3:52:04) - Elon Musk (3:57:59) - Mars (4:07:01) - Nuclear energy (4:10:39) - AGI (4:57:51) - Andrej Karpathy (5:00:50) - Martial arts (5:09:49) - Advice for young people (5:18:49) - Meaning of life