Pieter Levels (aka levelsio on X) is a self-taught developer and entrepreneur who has designed, programmed, launched over 40 startups, many of which are highly successful.
Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep440-sb
See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.
*Transcript:*
https://lexfridman.com/pieter-levels-transcript
*CONTACT LEX:*
*Feedback* – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey
*AMA* – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama
*Hiring* – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring
*Other* – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact
*EPISODE LINKS:*
Pieter’s X: https://x.com/levelsio
Pieter’s Techno Optimist Shop: https://levelsio.com/
Indie Maker Handbook: https://readmake.com/
Nomad List: https://nomadlist.com
Remote OK: https://remoteok.com
Hoodmaps: https://hoodmaps.com
*SPONSORS:*
To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
*Shopify:* Sell stuff online.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep440-sb
*Motific:* Generative ai deployment.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/motific-ep440-sb
*AG1:* All-in-one daily nutrition drinks.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/ag1-ep440-sb
*MasterClass:* Online classes from world-class experts.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep440-sb
*BetterHelp:* Online therapy and counseling.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep440-sb
*Eight Sleep:* Temp-controlled smart mattress.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/eight_sleep-ep440-sb
*OUTLINE:*
0:00 – Introduction
2:03 – Startup philosophy
9:34 – Low points
13:03 – 12 startups in 12 months
19:55 – Traveling and depression
32:34 – Indie hacking
36:37 – Photo AI
1:12:53 – How to learn AI
1:21:30 – Robots
1:29:47 – Hoodmaps
1:53:52 – Learning new programming languages
2:03:24 – Monetize your website
2:09:59 – Fighting SPAM
2:13:33 – Automation
2:24:58 – When to sell startup
2:27:52 – Coding solo
2:33:54 – Ship fast
2:42:38 – Best IDE for programming
2:52:09 – Andrej Karpathy
3:01:34 – Productivity
3:15:21 – Minimalism
3:24:07 – Emails
3:31:20 – Coffee
3:39:05 – E/acc
3:41:21 – Advice for young people
*PODCAST LINKS:*
– Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
– Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
– Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
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– Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
– Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips
*SOCIAL LINKS:*
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– Patreon: https://patreon.com/lexfridman
source
Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep440-sa
See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.
0:00 – Introduction
2:03 – Startup philosophy
9:34 – Low points
13:03 – 12 startups in 12 months
19:55 – Traveling and depression
32:34 – Indie hacking
36:37 – Photo AI
1:12:53 – How to learn AI
1:21:30 – Robots
1:29:47 – Hoodmaps
1:53:52 – Learning new programming languages
2:03:24 – Monetize your website
2:09:59 – Fighting SPAM
2:13:33 – Automation
2:24:58 – When to sell startup
2:27:52 – Coding solo
2:33:54 – Ship fast
2:42:38 – Best IDE for programming
2:52:09 – Andrej Karpathy
3:01:34 – Productivity
3:15:21 – Minimalism
3:24:07 – Emails
3:31:20 – Coffee
3:39:05 – E/acc
3:41:21 – Advice for young people
Transcript:
https://lexfridman.com/pieter-levels-transcript
CONTACT LEX:
Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey
AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama
Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring
Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact
EPISODE LINKS:
Pieter's X: https://x.com/levelsio
Pieter's Techno Optimist Shop: https://levelsio.com/
Indie Maker Handbook: https://readmake.com/
Nomad List: https://nomadlist.com
Remote OK: https://remoteok.com
Hoodmaps: https://hoodmaps.com
SPONSORS:
To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
Shopify: Sell stuff online.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep440-sa
Motific: Generative ai deployment.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/motific-ep440-sa
AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drinks.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/ag1-ep440-sa
MasterClass: Online classes from world-class experts.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep440-sa
BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/betterhelp-ep440-sa
Eight Sleep: Temp-controlled smart mattress.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/eight_sleep-ep440-sa
Gear acquisition syndrome 😂
Hmm hoodmaps. I might have called it something else lol good job on
Isit.awesomestuff.
Genius
finally this guy!!
I followed Pieter in to the digital nomad lifestyle ~mid 2015. I joined his private slack community, found a remote software engineering role @ a Norwegian software company, and worked remotely for them for a year and a half, travelling through parts of Europe & Asia. It's nice to hear from the man himself that this lifestyle wasn't always sunshine and rainbows. The guilt I often felt when someone told me I was "living the dream" when in fact I was not (always) happy, was very confronting for me (at the time). This had me in tears, I've never been able to express this to anyone without feeling like a privileged idiot. Thanks for this conversation.
"Chop wood, carry water…" Never fails! It's the path to discovery of all that matters and the road to….oh yes!❤
Pieter is the real deal.
Pragmatic and keeps it real.
Flash was cool. Wait, listen again. Naaaaah, still not cool. But ActionScript…🤣Kids today should know how shitty the internet was in the past.
Amazing that lex looked into our small little solo preneur community
Pieter is my deploy-to-production spirit animal.
PsyTrance is good relaxing music that gets you focused and in a good mode.
This is a new low for this podcast
I use so many things he built, i had no idea it's all one dude.
levelsio has next-level basedness
❤
Lex, did you even look at the reviews for his products? There's practically no support for the issues that regular users like us are facing. Many people have encountered problems with subscriptions—just like me. I bought it, and now I can’t even log in. Some users have canceled their subscriptions, yet they were still charged the next time. It seems like everything is designed to benefit him, not the customers who are buying his products.
damn he got panda dnb on the pod
27:58 okay, don't look at me weird, but I am an advocate for the phrase 'physiological arousal' in place of anxiety here. And you can't argue you don't want to be too aroused when you're working. Need just the right amount of arousal.
this man’s business style is excellent.
I personally work in an industry non-tech related, but have many ideas for apps which could improve my work routine. He could take ideas. I will be emailing him 😂
No way this guy is behind Panda Mix Show??? I grew up listening to that!
Forks and spoons.
I am trying to understand why but I realy loved this podcast. As a Software Engineer Intern I really understood what was being talked about and I think I could of understood everything 3 years ago. This was a very interesting conversation to listen to and I think I will be listening to this a few more times. Great Job Lex!!
"Fake photos, man" 😂 1:47:22
1:50:00 most of these sites are built by agencies and then run and maintained inhouse
I was following this guy back when I was in Southeast Asia a decade ago. Wild to see him here.
~11:00 the 27‘ year circle is interesting… perhaps thats because our ancestors didnt lived that long? So the human body became repetitive after that age?
2:32:02 omg i need to close this podcast now… But I CANT!!! 😂
Jooo
❤❤❤Классный гость
Great conversation. Pieter is a beast at shipping. Used to do all my coding with vanilla Javascript, PHP, and HTML. It was something that always confused me why all the latest tutorials would be about why you should use the latest framework when I was able to get it working faster coding from scratch.
I have lived in Chiang Mai. Udon Thani. BKK. Other places.
He's lying about what people did in Thailand to make himself look better. Lived in Thailand for MANY years. Never met anyone shipping drugs back West. Unless this guy, himself, was in shady things.
For better efficiency we always got to have input<output and that really explains why minimalism is so important in life and it kind of acts like the Golden ratio to measure the beauty of 'A Beautiful Mind'
I get the trips. I am exactly the same – I need escapes to work sometimes. Throw his ass in the jungle for two weeks. Just let me go to the beach
Lex should see some videos in youtube of BR drug dealers exchanging bullets with police with heavy artillery 😂 He would think twice about "liking the danger"… The gangs already even knocked down a helicopter…
Solved few challenging coding problems and listening this in background this pod making me productive mannn ❤🚀
Awesome guest
I have worked at both good and bad companies as a software engineer. Lex nailed why some companies software sucks. The management don't trust the engineers and then try and micro manage their way out of problems. This just drives the good engineers out. Leaving crap software.
docker … ?
Best presentation of a Fantom I have ever saw. Amazing playing, BRAVOO👏👏👌
Vanilla vs framework model debate is like using a standard hammer vs a nail gun.
Every time an AI indie hacker says they gave their AI model some data, they 99% conveniently completely ignore they "stole" the data and violated copyright laws.
Still in 2024, AJAX and PHP pays my bills here at the Open University in the UK 🙂
He's like Putin with Russian Politics not wanting to join any UN politics. Too much change without enough time to let the law system take real footprint for real culture affect acknowledgement of overall affects. Leaves Putin to have to take a step back where he is and look at All the negative pragmatics of the social cultures instead of what is said will be the positive changes to society and social culture through the political changes for culture progress.
Man, I have been working in the shadows for six months on a project that only 3 people know about. This podcast was so beyond inspirational and encouraging, being a self-made person and remote worker myself. This nearly 4-hour hang was medication for my soul. Thank you Lex and Pieter!
love the nip alert reference
also bro talks so fast I'm watching this on 1.75 and i had a stroke 2 min in
Yeah, lots of frameworks and technologies are just build to vendor-lock developers! Symfony, the PHP framework, is so brutally overcomplicated and lacks of literally anything in the "documentation", but the company behind sells a lot of "trainings". same with Docker, Kubernetes etc, it's just a "sugar technology" that doesnt really make things simpler
House music
Great guest, great podcast. Might’ve took me three days to finish it, but it was well worth it. Thank you, Lex!
Lex is so ridiculous saying things that he likes dangerous neighbourhoods where people get shot or stabbed because he likes the full spectrum of humanity. Is that not just incredibly absurd ?!