Episode
#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
3:04:30
Published: Fri Feb 12 2021
Description
Brendan Eich is the creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla and Brave. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - The Jordan Harbinger Show: https://jordanharbinger.com/lex/ - Sun Basket: https://sunbasket.com/lex and use code LEX to get $35 off - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex and use code LEX to get special savings EPISODE LINKS: Brendan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrendanEich Brendan's Website: https://brendaneich.com Brave browser: https://brave.com 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/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LexFridmanPage - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (06:54) - History of early programming languages (11:47) - Physics needs more experiments and less theory (16:24) - JavaScript origin story (41:17) - JavaScript was created in 10 days (50:57) - Marc Andreessen (54:14) - Internet Explorer (57:58) - Evolution of JavaScript (1:03:44) - JavaScript standardization (1:09:33) - TypeScript (1:12:05) - JavaScript ecosystem (1:15:15) - HTML5 (1:18:47) - Making JavaScript fast (1:27:57) - JavaScript is the most popular language in the world (1:38:23) - Advice for programmers (1:44:20) - Browser wars (1:50:50) - Firefox (2:12:33) - Brave (2:25:33) - Basic Attention Token (2:50:36) - California (2:59:48) - Mortality (3:00:54) - Legacy
Chapters
Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and CEO of Brave Software, discusses the importance of good timing, good ideas, and good execution in innovation.
00:00 - 02:18 (02:18)
Summary
Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and CEO of Brave Software, discusses the importance of good timing, good ideas, and good execution in innovation. He also shares his vision for Brave Software's mission to revolutionize the internet and empower individuals to control their own data.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
SunBasket offers prepared meals, meal kits, and raw ingredients, while 8Sleep’s PodPro cover provides temperature control capabilities.
02:18 - 07:02 (04:43)
Summary
SunBasket offers prepared meals, meal kits, and raw ingredients, while 8Sleep’s PodPro cover provides temperature control capabilities. Feedback Friday’s episodes address topics such as mental disorders and corruption.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The episode discusses the history of computer architecture and mentions how at ETH, students were challenged to build their own computer, compiler and operating system as part of a course.
07:02 - 12:10 (05:08)
Summary
The episode discusses the history of computer architecture and mentions how at ETH, students were challenged to build their own computer, compiler and operating system as part of a course.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Wolfram Research's Conrad Wolfram discusses the shift towards engineering and problem-solving in computer science, as well as the importance of design and practicality in the field.
12:10 - 17:37 (05:26)
Summary
Wolfram Research's Conrad Wolfram discusses the shift towards engineering and problem-solving in computer science, as well as the importance of design and practicality in the field.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses the evolution of computing from Lisp machines and an attempt at a home media processor to modern architectures with short vector instructions and multiple issues for avoiding costs to cable companies.
17:37 - 23:47 (06:10)
Summary
The speaker discusses the evolution of computing from Lisp machines and an attempt at a home media processor to modern architectures with short vector instructions and multiple issues for avoiding costs to cable companies.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses the philosophy behind preserving what works in browser design rather than trying to start from scratch, citing the principle of "worse is better" and the importance of preserving ATP metabolism.
23:47 - 27:41 (03:53)
Summary
The speaker discusses the philosophy behind preserving what works in browser design rather than trying to start from scratch, citing the principle of "worse is better" and the importance of preserving ATP metabolism.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The need for a companion language, like Visual Basic in Microsoft, was observed by Bill Joy, Mark Andreessen and the speaker, due to the limitations of a single language for a mature stack.
27:41 - 33:12 (05:30)
Summary
The need for a companion language, like Visual Basic in Microsoft, was observed by Bill Joy, Mark Andreessen and the speaker, due to the limitations of a single language for a mature stack.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Brendan Eich explains why early browsers failed and how the 'worse is better' principle allowed bad initial implementations to improve, leading to the dominance of the web.
33:12 - 41:14 (08:01)
Summary
Brendan Eich explains why early browsers failed and how the 'worse is better' principle allowed bad initial implementations to improve, leading to the dominance of the web. He also discusses Microsoft's use of Java components and monopoly abuse in the development of browsers.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In this podcast, the speaker talks about his experience building JavaScript in a 10-day sprint.
41:14 - 47:46 (06:31)
Summary
In this podcast, the speaker talks about his experience building JavaScript in a 10-day sprint. He discusses how he copied a lot from Java and C while keeping things simple, and how he used an HTML comment as a new element to create different semantics.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Brendan Eich talks about the early days of JavaScript, including the development of garbage collection through reference counting and the challenges of memory safety.
47:46 - 53:43 (05:57)
Summary
Brendan Eich talks about the early days of JavaScript, including the development of garbage collection through reference counting and the challenges of memory safety.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The transcript discusses the history of Javascript, from its early days with fixes around security which added garbage collection to how it has evolved over the years.
53:43 - 58:44 (05:00)
Summary
The transcript discusses the history of Javascript, from its early days with fixes around security which added garbage collection to how it has evolved over the years. It also focuses on Microsoft's approach with Internet Explorer from IE1 to Edge today.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In this episode of the JavaScript Jabber podcast, Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript, talks about his experience creating the language and navigating the browser wars.
58:44 - 1:04:00 (05:16)
Summary
In this episode of the JavaScript Jabber podcast, Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript, talks about his experience creating the language and navigating the browser wars. He also touches on the birth of Ajax and the semantic web.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In this episode, the speaker discusses the evolution of JavaScript from ES4 to ES6, including the split in the committee, the additions to the language, and the value of using a tool-time type system.
1:04:00 - 1:11:37 (07:37)
Summary
In this episode, the speaker discusses the evolution of JavaScript from ES4 to ES6, including the split in the committee, the additions to the language, and the value of using a tool-time type system.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The guest and host discuss the history of JavaScript and its development in the form of libraries and standards, including the role of jQuery, HTML5, and the Document Object Model (DOM).
1:11:37 - 1:16:16 (04:38)
Summary
The guest and host discuss the history of JavaScript and its development in the form of libraries and standards, including the role of jQuery, HTML5, and the Document Object Model (DOM).
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The podcast discusses the evolution of programming languages and how they have shifted from low-level languages with controlled memory allocation to high-level, dynamically typed languages with garbage collection.
1:16:16 - 1:23:45 (07:28)
Summary
The podcast discusses the evolution of programming languages and how they have shifted from low-level languages with controlled memory allocation to high-level, dynamically typed languages with garbage collection. The podcast also explores the combination of de facto standards and pragmatism in language development.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Brendan Eich discusses how JavaScript has evolved from a language ignored by experts to a fast and important language for web apps.
1:23:45 - 1:30:26 (06:40)
Summary
Brendan Eich discusses how JavaScript has evolved from a language ignored by experts to a fast and important language for web apps.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses how a chaotic community of individuals can have distributed power and collective influence, citing examples such as the use of Java programming and the recent Wall Street Bets phenomenon.
1:30:27 - 1:34:55 (04:28)
Summary
The speaker discusses how a chaotic community of individuals can have distributed power and collective influence, citing examples such as the use of Java programming and the recent Wall Street Bets phenomenon.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The transcript discusses the importance of programming languages and how to get started in programming, considering the difficulty in choosing which language should be learned first.
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Summary
The transcript discusses the importance of programming languages and how to get started in programming, considering the difficulty in choosing which language should be learned first.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses the evolution of browsers, with a focus on IE4's initial success and eventual competition with browsers like Mozilla and Firefox, and the emergence of features such as tabs and pop-up blocking.
1:44:16 - 1:49:04 (04:47)
Summary
The speaker discusses the evolution of browsers, with a focus on IE4's initial success and eventual competition with browsers like Mozilla and Firefox, and the emergence of features such as tabs and pop-up blocking. They also touch on the modern approach to allowing users more freedom while keeping them at arm's length.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The Mozilla engineering roadmap evolved into six-week iterations.
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The Mozilla engineering roadmap evolved into six-week iterations. The weakest engineers at Netscape didn't like Mozilla and the competing programmers, with the VA team missing for years.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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In this podcast, the speaker explains that the main revenue source for browsers is the default search engine, and shares the story of how Mozilla worked with Google and Firefox to secure its revenue source through a search deal.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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Summary
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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Summary
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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2:21:00 - 2:25:50 (04:50)
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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2:36:48 - 2:42:49 (06:00)
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker believes that social media platforms should have a multi-social user interface to keep track of networks, but warns of the dangers of not censoring content, leading to the colonization of terrible people.
2:42:49 - 2:48:45 (05:56)
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The DOJ and state cases against big tech companies are unlikely to disappear despite the recent election results.
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
An immigrant from Russia praises the Silicon Valley for providing freedom to young minds to think and experiment boldly, while opining about the lack of environmental and labor protection law enforcement by leading companies in the Valley.
2:52:46 - 2:57:29 (04:42)
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An immigrant from Russia praises the Silicon Valley for providing freedom to young minds to think and experiment boldly, while opining about the lack of environmental and labor protection law enforcement by leading companies in the Valley.
Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The fear of death can stem from a lack of faith, missed opportunities or unfulfilled desires.
2:57:29 - 3:02:07 (04:38)
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Episode#160 – Brendan Eich: JavaScript, Firefox, Mozilla, and Brave
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
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3:02:07 - 3:04:07 (02:00)
Summary
The power of transforming society with code represents an opportunity for anyone to make a real difference through a few radical ideas. However, if things get too abusive and equal opportunities weren't given, people would be prompted to assert their rights.