Max Tegmark

I got a lot of that from my dad.

But I think my obsession for really big questions and consciousness and so on, that actually came mostly from my mom.

What I got from both of them, which is very core part of really who I am, I think is this, just feeling comfortable with not buying into what everybody else is saying, just doing what I think is right.

they both very much just, you know, did their own thing and sometimes they got flack for it and they did it anyway.

Yeah, you're too kind.

But yeah, I mean, the good reason to do science is because you're really curious.

You want to figure out the truth.

If you think...

This is how it is, and everyone else says, no, no, that's bullshit, and it's that way.

You know, you stick with what you think is true.

And even if everybody else keeps thinking it's bullshit, there's a certain...

I always root for the underdog when I watch movies.

And my dad once, one time, for example, when I wrote one of my craziest papers ever, talking about our universe ultimately being mathematical, which we're not going to get into today.

I got this email from a quite famous professor saying, this is not only bullshit, but it's going to ruin your career.

You should stop doing this kind of stuff.

I sent it to my dad.

Do you know what he said?

What did he say?

He replied with a quote from Dante.

Yeah.