James Gosling: Java, JVM, Emacs, and the Early Days of Computing | Lex Fridman Podcast #126

The following is a conversation with James Gosling, the founder and lead designer behind the Java programming language, which in many indices is the most popular programming language in the world, or is always at least in the top two or three. We only had a limited time for this conversation, but I'm sure we'll talk again several times in this podcast. A quick summary of the sponsors: Public Goods, BetterHelp, and ExpressVPN. Please check out these sponsors in the description to get a discount and to support this podcast. As a side note, let me say that Java is the language with which I first learned object-oriented programming, and with it, the art and science of software engineering. Also, early on in my undergraduate education, I took a course on concurrent programming with Java. Looking back at that time, before I fell in love with neural networks, the art of parallel computing was both algorithmically and philosophically fascinating to me. The concept of a computer in my mind before then was something that does one thing at a time. The idea that we could create an abstraction of parallelism where you can do many things at the same time while still guaranteeing stability and correctness was beautiful. While some folks in college took drugs to expand their mind, I took concurrent programming. If you enjoy this thing, subscribe on YouTube, review it with five stars on Apple Podcast, follow on Spotify, support on Patreon, or connect with me on Twitter, @lexfridman. As usual, I'll do a few minutes of ads now and no ads in the middle. I try to make these interesting, but I do give you timestamps, so go ahead and skip, but please do check out the sponsors by clicking the links in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. This show, sponsored by Public Goods, the one-stop shop for affordable, sustainable, healthy household products. I take their fish oil and use their toothbrush, for example. Their products often have a minimalist black and white design that I find to be just beautiful. Some people ask why I wear this black suit and tie. There's a simplicity to it that, to me, focuses my mind on the most important bits of every moment of every day, pulling only at the thread of the essential in all that life has to throw at me. It's not about how I look, it's about how I feel. That's what design is to me; creating an inner conscious experience, not an external look. Anyway, Public Goods plants one tree for every order placed, which is kind of cool. Visit publicgoods.com/lex or use code Lex at checkout to get 15 bucks off your first order. This show is also sponsored by BetterHelp, spelled H-E-L-P, help. Check it out at betterhelp.com/lex. They figure out what you need and match you with a licensed professional therapist in under 48 hours. I chat with a person on there and enjoy it. Of course, I also regularly talk to David Goggins these days, who is definitely not a licensed professional therapist, but he does help me meet his and my demons and become comfortable to exist in their presence. Everyone is different, but for me, I think suffering is essential for creation, but you can suffer beautifully, in a way that doesn't destroy you. I think therapy can help in whatever form that therapy takes, and I do think that BetterHelp is an option worth trying. They're easy, private, affordable, and available worldwide. You can communicate by text any time and schedule weekly audio and video sessions. Check it out at betterhelp.com/lex. This show is also sponsored by ExpressVPN. You can use it to unlock movies and shows that are only available in other countries. I did this recently with Star Trek Discovery on UK Netflix, mostly because I wonder what it's like to live in London. I'm thinking of moving from Boston to a place where I can build the business I've always dreamed of building. London is probably not in the top three, but top 10 for sure. The number one choice currently is Austin, for many reasons that I'll probably speak to another time. San Francisco unfortunately dropped out from the number one spot, but it's still in the running. If you have advice, let me know. Anyway, check out ExpressVPN. It lets you change your location to almost 100 countries and it's super fast. Go to expressvpn.com/lexpod to get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free. That's expressvpn.com/lexpod. And now, here's my conversation with James Gosling. I've read somewhere that the square root of two is your favorite irrational number.