John Carmack, legendary programmer and co-founder of id Software recently completed an in-depth interview with Lex Fridman.

I consider Carmack one of the most influential thought leaders in technology, alongside Linus Torvalds, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, etc.

In the context of programming, Carmack is notable as his contributions extend multiple decades, with most other technology leaders transitioning to a business and/or ambassador role.

Carmack is best known for being the lead programmer of many blockbuster video games including Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, etc. He was also CTO of Oculus VR, delivering the demo that launched the modern era of virtual reality.

The Fridman interview is certainly long (five hours), but provides an incredible insight into the mind of Carmack, covering his career highlights, the state of programming, personal experiences, controversy, work/life balance, and future innovation across space exploration and artificial intelligence.

If you are interested in technology (specifically programming), I highly recommend you watch the interview.

In a world dominated by micro-blogging and brand-endorsed influencers, this type of detailed, unbiased, uninterrupted interview from a credible source is very rare.

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