There's no one like Rick Rubin. He's a legendary music producer known for his minimalist approach and relentless pursuit of greatness. This episode is what I learned from reading Rick Rubin: In The Studio by Jake Brown https://amzn.to/4qp3njW Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save time and money. Go to Ramp.com to learn how they can help your business save time and money. https://ramp.com Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta. Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort. Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta. Tell Vanta David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off https://www.vanta.com/founders Collateral transforms your complex ideas into compelling narratives. Collateral crafts institutional grade marketing collateral for private equity, private credit, real estate, venture capital, family offices, hedge funds, oil & gas companies, and all kinds of corporations. Storytelling is one of the highest forms of leverage and you should invest heavily in it. https://collateral.com Some of my favorite quotes from the episode: Less is more but you have to do more to get less. Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways. (Steve Jobs) Rubin's most valuable quality is his own confidence. If we're going to do this, let's aim for greatness. You have to believe what you're doing is the most important thing in the world. Everybody engaged in complicated work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. (Charlie Munger) The key to it is doing what you believe in, as opposed to what you think is going to work. There were never any plans to make anything happen. I just did what I liked and believed in it, and luckily it all worked out. These things that we don't understand and cannot explain happen regularly. The amateur mind possesses a valuable lack of knowledge about rules when matched with passion and gumption gravity ceases to exist and new things take flight. To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. (Cicero) I believe in you so much, I'm going to make you believe in you. I try to make records that have a timeless quality.
Rick Rubin is one of the greatest music producers of all time, working with many of the greats including Beastie Boys, Eminem, Metallica, LL Cool J, Kanye West, Slayer, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Dixie Chicks, Aerosmith, Adele, Danzig, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System of a Down, Jay-Z, Black Sabbath. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Lambda: https://lambdalabs.com/lex - Theragun: https://therabody.com/lex to get 30 day trial - ROKA: https://roka.com/ and use code LEX to get 20% off your first order - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 3 months free Recording space is courtesy of The Chinati Foundation and John Chamberlain. EPISODE LINKS: Rick's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RickRubin Broken Record Podcast: https://bit.ly/3j7BFXZ 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/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 1:52 - Nietzsche and music 12:53 - Rick's approach with artists 24:16 - Beautiful simplicity in music 28:00 - Marvin Gaye 37:15 - Best album of all time 41:08 - Paul McCartney 43:13 - Ideas 45:36 - Rebellion and conformity 50:24 - Fitness 53:32 - Johnny Cash 1:03:28 - Tom Waits 1:08:07 - Lyrics vs rhythm 1:12:54 - Johnny Cash continued 1:14:53 - Beastie Boys 1:21:14 - Depression 1:25:36 - Art vs Business 1:34:24 - Art of conversation 1:50:57 - Rick's podcast 1:54:07 - Advice for young people 1:58:13 - Mortality 2:00:48 - Meaning of life SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
Rick Rubin is one of the greatest music producers of all time, working with many of the greats including Beastie Boys, Eminem, Metallica, LL Cool J, Kanye West, Slayer, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Dixie Chicks, Aerosmith, Adele, Danzig, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System of a Down, Jay-Z, Black Sabbath. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Lambda: https://lambdalabs.com/lex - Theragun: https://therabody.com/lex to get 30 day trial - ROKA: https://roka.com/ and use code LEX to get 20% off your first order - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 3 months free Recording space is courtesy of The Chinati Foundation and John Chamberlain. EPISODE LINKS: Rick's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RickRubin Broken Record Podcast: https://bit.ly/3j7BFXZ 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/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 1:52 - Nietzsche and music 12:53 - Rick's approach with artists 24:16 - Beautiful simplicity in music 28:00 - Marvin Gaye 37:15 - Best album of all time 41:08 - Paul McCartney 43:13 - Ideas 45:36 - Rebellion and conformity 50:24 - Fitness 53:32 - Johnny Cash 1:03:28 - Tom Waits 1:08:07 - Lyrics vs rhythm 1:12:54 - Johnny Cash continued 1:14:53 - Beastie Boys 1:21:14 - Depression 1:25:36 - Art vs Business 1:34:24 - Art of conversation 1:50:57 - Rick's podcast 1:54:07 - Advice for young people 1:58:13 - Mortality 2:00:48 - Meaning of life SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
On this episode of "The Ben & Marc Show", a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz sit down with legendary music producer and bestselling author Rick Rubin to explore the origin of his unexpected new creation: "The Way of Code"* Blending ancient philosophy and modern AI, The Way of Code reimagines the 3,000-year-old Tao Te Ching for the age of artificial intelligence, software, and “vibe coding.” What began as a viral tweet quickly evolved into a creative manifesto—part book, part tool, part spiritual operating system for the future. Joined by a16z General Partners Anjney Midha and Erik Torenberg, the group dives deep into: - How Rick became a meme for Vibe Coding —and then quickly wrote "The Way of Code" - Why AI is just another artistic tool - Remix culture, creativity, and collective consciousness - Why great founders and artists need to stay true to themselves With shout outs to punk rock, the collective unconscious, and Johnny Cash’s famed acoustic sessions, this conversation is a sprawling, soul-searching journey across music, philosophy, tech, and truth. We hope you enjoy this deeply personal and surprisingly practical conversation on how to live—and create—in the age of AI. *The Way of Code: https://www.thewayofcode.com/ “Tools will come and tools will go. Only the vibe coder remains.” - Rick Rubin Topics covered: 00:00 Intro: Rick Rubin and The Way of Code 03:18 Remix Culture and AI as Creative Tool 08:11 Finding Inspiration From the Tao Te Ching 10:03 How a Meme Led to Rick's Book 12:59 Vibe Coding is the Punk Rock of Software 17:35 Deep Fake Inversion and Wrestling Philosophy 24:40 Collective Unconscious and the 100th Monkey 28:05 Can AI Believe in God? 32:03 Is AI Creative or Mimicking? 37:24 Tuning Into Ourselves 43:05 Global Monoculture vs. Local Creativity 49:34 Putting AI in the Hands of Masters 57:26 Working With Johnny Cash 01:03:57 Relationship Between Art and Audience 01:09:47 How to Best Serve an Audience 01:17:05 Outro: Vibe With Yourself Listen to Us! Apple: https://bit.ly/3SdsfNt Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3SclPOr Resources: Watch the Tetragrammaton podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@tetragrammaton_now Rick on X: https://x.com/rickrubin Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca Marc’s Substack: https://pmarca.substack.com/ Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Erik's Substack: https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/ Anjney on X: https://x.com/AnjneyMidha Stay Updated: Find us on X: https://x.com/a16z Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z This information is for general educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell any investment or financial product. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described in this podcast are not representative of all a16z investments and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by a16z is available at https://a16z.com/investment-list/. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of capital. Past performance is no guarantee of future results and the opinions presented cannot be viewed as an indicator of future performance. Before making decisions with legal, tax, or accounting effects, you should consult appropriate professionals. Information is from sources deemed reliable on the date of publication, but a16z does not guarantee its accuracy.
"To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention." - Rick Rubin Here's Trung Phan on the art of noticing...
I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.” —Rick Rubin. This episode is what I learned from reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. https://amzn.to/4puwzoy Episode sponsors: Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save time and money. https://ramp.com Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta. Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort. Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta. Tell them David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off. https://www.vanta.com/founders Collateral transforms your complex ideas into compelling narratives. Collateral crafts institutional grade marketing collateral for private equity, private credit, real estate, venture capital, family offices, hedge funds, oil & gas companies, and all kinds of corporations. Storytelling is one of the highest forms of leverage and you should invest heavily in it. You can do that by going to https://collateral.com Some of my favorite quotes from the episode: 1:00 It must have been frustrating for these elite athletes, who wanted to get on the court and show what they could do, to arrive at practice for the first time with this legendary coach only to hear him say, Today we will learn to tie our shoes. The point Wooden was making was that creating effective habits, down to the smallest detail, is what makes the difference between winning and losing games. Each habit might seem small, but added together, they have an exponential effect on performance. Just one habit, at the top of any field, can be enough to give an edge over the competition. Wooden considered every aspect of the game where an issue might arise, and trained his players for each one. Repeatedly. Until they became habits. The goal was immaculate performance. Wooden often said the only person you’re ever competing against is yourself. The rest is out of your control. This way of thinking applies to the creative life just as well. For both the artist and the athlete, the details matter, whether the players recognize their importance or not. Good habits create good art. The way we do anything is the way we do everything. Treat each choice you make, each action you take, each word you speak with skillful care. The goal is to live your life in the service of art. 6:23 How to get ideas from your subconscious. 8:41 Faith allows you to trust the direction without needing to understand it. 10:16 If you make the choice of reading classic literature every day for a year, rather than reading the news, by the end of that time period you’ll have a more honed sensitivity for recognizing greatness from the books than from the media. This applies to every choice we make. Not just with art, but with the friends we choose, the conversations we have, even the thoughts we reflect on. All of these aspects affect our ability to distinguish good from very good, very good from great. They help us determine what’s worthy of our time and attention. Because there’s an endless amount of data available to us and we have a limited bandwidth to conserve, we might consider carefully curating the quality of what we allow in. The objective is not to learn to mimic greatness, but to calibrate our internal meter for greatness. So we can better make the thousands of choices that might ultimately lead to our own great work. 14:25 We’re affected by our surroundings, and finding the best environment to create a clear channel is personal and to be tested. 27:57 Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to.The goal is not to fit in. Communicate your singular perspective. 28:30 It’s a healthy practice to approach our work with as few accepted rules, starting points, and limitations as possible. Often the standards in our chosen medium are so ubiquitous, we take them for granted. They are invisible and unquestioned. 29:00 The world isn’t waiting for more of the same. Often, the most innovative ideas come from those who master the rules to such a degree that they can see past them or from those who never learned them at all. 38:50 Fear of criticism. Attachment to a commercial result. Competing with past work. Time and resource constraints. The aspiration of wanting to change the world. And any story beyond “I want to make the best thing I can make, whatever it is” are all undermining forces in the quest for greatness. 42:32 To hone your craft is to honor creation. By practicing to improve, you are fulfilling your ultimate purpose on this planet.