Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
01:21:23 · Nikhyl Singhal
[01:21:23] S1: You know, Lenny, I'm not a reader. I hate to admit this, but I kind of vibe-code instead of most consumption of content right now. All of the reading I do is trying to stay up to date, and that was a casualty. So I don't listen to as many podcasts as I want to. I don't read as much as I want to, because I have so much information coming from the agents that I have deployed and all the stuff that's going on on Reddit and X and all that. So I don't have a great set of book suggestions, not unlike all your other guests that are great at this. They read prolifically, and I just don't. I mean, I'll tell you, I read... I don't know how much I loved it, and I'll just leave it in here in case people are interested, but I read this book called James, which James is the story of Huckleberry Finn told from Jim's point of view. I thought that was absolutely fascinating, because anytime you take a classic and then you look at it through the eyes of someone else, and what you realize is that story is quite powerful, but very haunting. And when you read Huckleberry Finn, you're a kid. So the distinction between seeing the innocence, as not only the book was written from Twain's perspective, who was quite forward-thinking, by the way, but you remember you were a kid at the time, and now as an adult, you see the book from another angle. I thought that was interesting. I don't know if I'd recommend it to your readers, but I thought I always look for things that I'm... unnatural stories that exist right in plain sight. So that was an example of that.
01:23:18 · Lenny Rachitsky, Nikhyl Singhal
[01:23:18] S0: I think somebody else has actually recommended that book, so that's a second mention. Next question. Do you have a favorite recent movie or TV show? You've already shared some vibe-coding favorites to be in the background. Anything else? [01:23:29] S1: Yeah. I mean, I think everyone's talking about Paradise. I mean, if you haven't watched season one and season two, it's on Hulu. [01:23:35] S0: Oh, is season two out? I didn't realize that. [01:23:37] S1: Season two is almost wrapping up, and I haven't watched season two yet. It's a little apocalyptic in nature, but it's absolute fascinating character drama about how people deal with very, very challenging times and what motivates individuals. The other one that I really like is Lioness, which is on Paramount Plus. Lioness is a story really about a covert CIA group and how they deal with protecting security for America, and the importance and what it means to commit to a bigger cause. I thought that was a really well-written show. So both of those I recommend. I do watch a ton of television, and as I mentioned, I vibe-code to certain shows. And these two I don't vibe-code to, because I have to pay attention. [01:24:30] S0: That's the new bar if something's great. [01:24:33] S1: Exactly. [01:24:34] S0: Okay. Do you have a favorite product you recently discovered that you really love? Could be an app, could be some gadget, could be something else.
01:24:42 · Nikhyl Singhal
[01:24:42] S1: My favorite product that I've discovered of late might be kind of obvious to a lot of folks, but I'm not a car guy, so I'll just start by saying that. Though I've enjoyed riding the newer electric cars, there's a large number of people that love cars, they love driving cars and talking about cars and repairing cars, just like the opposite of me. I just want my car to be super reliable. And I've had a Tesla for a really long time, a Model S for just a long time, and I've had it since pretty much they came out with them. My daughter recently passed her driving exam, and because she passed her driving exam, one day my wife said, "Hey, we got to get her a car." And I was like, "We do?" I never actually connected the dots that she's going to need to drive a car. And I was like, "Well, when's she going to go?" And eventually I'm like, "Okay, maybe we should buy our car, but she's not going to drive that much. Maybe I should use this as an opportunity to upgrade my car." And so I drove the latest Teslas that are out there, the ones with the self-driving. And the self-driving works quite well, just to be clear. I mean, I have it now for the last month, and about 95% of the time I self-drive. But the most interesting thing is I had no idea that I actually have mild anxiety when I drive that goes away when I self-drive, and I had no idea. And my wife noticed it when we were driving up to the mountains one day, and it was crazy snowing, and I'm like, "We're going to do it." And she's like, "You are so anxious when you drive." And I'm like, "I am?" Because, Lenny, I've been driving since I was 14 years old, because I grew up in Kansas. And so I passed the test when I was 14. So I've been driving literally for nearly 40 years, and I had no idea, as I've gotten older, that this pressing a button and going places is just so awesome. So anyway, the reason why that experience is interesting, yeah, there's the tech and all that, it's just like I look for ways to reduce my anxiety. Anything that causes anxiety, I try to eliminate at this point in my life, and this is one of them. So that's a cool product for me.
01:26:53 · Lenny Rachitsky, Nikhyl Singhal
[01:26:53] S0: I love that as a rule. I've also become all in on self-driving. I've had a Tesla for a long time, from the beginnings of their explorations into self-driving, and it was always just like, "I don't know, this is scary." And now it's the opposite. My wife prefers I self-drive. Even though I drive well, she just feels safer when the self-driving is on. And there's this... in the actual settings, they give you a stat of what percentage you're driving is self-driving, and they noted it's since 14.2, I think was the release on like that. So that was the release that everyone started being like, "Wow, it's actually very good now." And I don't think a lot of people realize that it's actually incredibly good. I haven't had a single concerning moment. [01:27:35] S1: This is one of those examples in product where so many people try the previous versions that when you then tell your friend... a lot of people have Teslas, obviously in California but across the world, when you tell your friends, a lot of people are like, "Oh yeah, I tried it and I turned it off." So I think Tesla's got this unusual challenge of getting people to turn it back on. And obviously the newer hardware is better than the older one, and the newest software. But once you go through one experience, it can be hard to convince someone to try it again, and that's an adage in product and certainly applies here.
01:27:35 · Nikhyl Singhal, Lenny Rachitsky
[01:27:35] S1: This is one of those examples in product where so many people try the previous versions that when you then tell your friend... a lot of people have Teslas, obviously in California but across the world, when you tell your friends, a lot of people are like, "Oh yeah, I tried it and I turned it off." So I think Tesla's got this unusual challenge of getting people to turn it back on. And obviously the newer hardware is better than the older one, and the newest software. But once you go through one experience, it can be hard to convince someone to try it again, and that's an adage in product and certainly applies here. [01:28:06] S0: It's a downside of releasing early and often sometimes people just have this memory of what it might be. I feel like it's like Uber where you have to just start hearing about it from your friends telling you, "Hey, I'm doing this thing." I'm like, "Wait, really? I guess I should try it." [01:28:23] S1: Here's a Tesla suggestion for anyone who's listening is Lenny and I should be able to gift 30 days free to our friends of self-driving, people that have turned it off, because the referral of that plus the endorsement allows people to experience it for free and then they can get their monthly subscription. [01:28:43] S0: Great idea. [01:28:45] S1: That viral plus enablement I think is a growth technique that they can have for free from us. [01:28:50] S0: Such a good idea. By the way, I love Mad Max mode. I love just the personality of the stuff just... Are you a hurry mode guy or are you a standard mode guy?
01:28:50 · Lenny Rachitsky, Nikhyl Singhal
[01:28:50] S0: Such a good idea. By the way, I love Mad Max mode. I love just the personality of the stuff just... Are you a hurry mode guy or are you a standard mode guy? [01:29:00] S1: I flip between them, but I do feel like and I'm hoping that the new release of the software keeps us in the lane. I don't love it changing lanes, but it's- [01:29:08] S0: Oh, like where it's trying to hurry a little bit? [01:29:09] S1: Yeah, I wish I could just get it to go at a normal speed, but also don't change lanes because I just don't like moving around. [01:29:16] S0: Okay. Next question. Do you have a favorite life motto that you find yourself coming back to in work or in life? [01:29:23] S1: My high school quote in my yearbook still is my motto, which is, "Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration," by Albert Einstein. It's something that even at an early age... and it's not about genius being capital G. I wasn't a New York comment. It was more like hard work is really what matters in life. What's interesting is, if you read that quote, "Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration," through the lens of AI, it's absolutely fascinating, because it turns out the AI will do the perspiration quite literally. [01:30:02] S0: Unlimited perspiration.