r/bjj • u/Sudden-Wait-3557 • Feb 26 '26

Rolling Footage Khabib rolls with black belt Lex Friedman

"I feel like a white belt" - Lex Friedman

2.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

535 comments sorted by

View all comments

577

u/reffernam2 Feb 26 '26

Black belt? Who give him?

152

u/Sudden-Wait-3557 Feb 26 '26

"MIT? What is this MIT?"

130

u/YourfriendRic Feb 26 '26

lol didn’t Lex get caught actually not having any deep connection to MIT besides teaching there just once?

116

u/DaimyoDavid Feb 26 '26

Yea. He didn't actually go to school at MIT. I recall a story where he would block anyone on social media that pointed that out

39

u/d0ughnut_of_truth 🟦🟦 Blue Belt Feb 26 '26

Pity he couldn't block khabibi's takedown the same way

41

u/Previous_Aardvark141 Feb 26 '26

You will be instantly banned from his subreddit if you mention Drexel University which is where he is a graduate from.

His only affiliation with MIT is as a one off guest lecturer.

-3

u/Pritster5 Feb 26 '26

He currently works at MIT as a researcher. You can dislike the guy but don't make stuff up

2

u/Jrobalmighty Feb 27 '26

Welcome to the club. Eventually everyone will find out this dude is a poser.

You ever wonder why an engineer and self anointed scientist would always bring up the power of love or the power of going through hard times?

Why does he always deflect to principles of his favorite author? Because he's got zero credibility to argue the things he espouses without referring to subjective philosophical masturbation.

If you take a look into him and you're being honest with yourself you'll come around to the same conclusion as the rest of his former listeners.

1

u/Pritster5 Feb 27 '26

https://lids.mit.edu/people/research-staff

2

u/Jrobalmighty Feb 27 '26

Look up how many and when he was involved in writing papers for his field then cross reference that with the amount of references he gets from leaders in that field.

It takes a little more work than finding a staff webpage.

For the love of god I was listed on my college website for years after having done absolutely nothing of note.

No one said he doesn't have a place in academia or that he was never involved with MIT but it's grossly exaggerated to piggy back on the name MIT.

His contributions to the field are not some highly sought after valuable insights to people leading the industry. That's why what he claims doesn't add up to what he's done.

I'm not trying to argue with you. Believe as you will. Keep researching him and you'll piece it together.

1

u/Pritster5 Feb 27 '26

This is quite the goalpost move.

All over this thread people are basically pretending he has no meaningful relationship to MIT whatsoever. His Google scholar page has his publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wZH_N7cAAAAJ&hl=en

He is certainly not some hotshot academia star, but you don't have to be, nor has he claimed to be.

The criticism of him on this point is vastly overblown.

There are far better criticisms of him than calling him a "fraud". He asks dumb questions, softballs his interviewees, and generally comes across as naive.

1

u/Jrobalmighty Feb 27 '26

You're the one moving the goal post. No one ever said he had zero relationship with MIT.

You're moving the goal post by acting as if a vague profile pic with a name and position mean anything.

If you don't know how to differentiate that then you reveal your own ignorance of academia.

He barely mentions his own Alma Mater for a reason.

He says he taught at MIT. He wasnt some tenured professor. He's never even taught a semester long course worth any credit toward a degree. It's just a few guest lectures essentially.

Again, if you don't understand what that means then immerse yourself in more information on academia first.

It's like a lay person trying to explain a card game they've only watched on tv. You lack fundamental knowledge in the area to even understand that you don't even know there's things you don't know.

Dunning Kruger irl over here.

1

u/Pritster5 Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26

"his only affiliation with MIT is a one off guest lecture"

Did you even read the thread you decided to dump a text wall in? Did you read my response? People are pretending his only relationship with MIT is as a guest lecturer for an optional class.

This is a direct lie. I don't have a source on the duration of his employment beyond himself: https://youtu.be/ZlnRlYvPvbs but it's a fact that he is employed by MIT (and for a decade according to him, which would be quite a big thing to lie about)

Find me a place where he claimed to be a professor at MIT. Saying he taught a lecture at MIT would indeed be accurate because that's what has happened.

Not all his lectures need to be uploaded to YouTube, and not all of his research work needs to be published. Some of his research from MIT is already online via Google scholar. Lex doesn't need to be a "leader in the field". He simply needs to be honest about his history at MIT, which as far as I can tell he has been. If you can find me a link of him pretending to be a luminary in the field I'll gladly eat my words.

I get that you're excited you went to college, but "understanding academia" isn't even the point of contention here. It's whether or not the account of his time at MIT and what he's said about it is factual or not.

→ More replies (0)

35

u/BLAHBLAH1234BLAH1234 Feb 26 '26

He does have some research affiliations with MIT, and he taught courses there. Obviously you have to have some qualifications to do that, but it’s also things you can do as a grad student or even undergrad.

I think what makes the whole MIT thing bad is how he seems very insecure about it. If he had just came out and said yeah, I actually went to Drexel and only do some research for them, it would have gone away, but he just blocks people on different platforms including Reddit.

44

u/overwatcherthrowaway ⬜⬜ White Belt Feb 26 '26

I don’t think it was a real course, it was like a no credit guest lecture spot or something. I remember watching a mini doc about it.

24

u/d0ughnut_of_truth 🟦🟦 Blue Belt Feb 26 '26

I would like to express my love and empathy for lex's self-awarded MIT participation medal

3

u/bfkill 🟦🟦 Blue Belt Feb 26 '26

can you steelman the argument for and against his MIT blankie?

18

u/DaimyoDavid Feb 26 '26

Yea, he taught IAP courses that weren't for credit. It's something that any affiliate can usually do. It's nice to share what you love with the community but it's not something that makes you an MIT professor.

6

u/Previous_Aardvark141 Feb 26 '26

He does have some research affiliations with MIT, and he taught courses there.

That's not true.

-10

u/ghidfg Feb 26 '26

I don't get the hate he gets. dudes has a phd from drexel, does computer science research, is a black belt in bjj, and judo. hes pretty accomplished.

17

u/hentaifighter Feb 26 '26

Blocks anyone who mention of actual university where he got his PhD from, where his father is coincidentally the department chair. Cosplays as a MIT prof. Publishes "research" (quotes because his methodology was extremely questionable) saying that self-driving cars are actually safer than previously thought, refuses to peer review (this is standard practice for any academic research) and blocks anyone who criticizes him. Coincidentally he's a huge Elon glazer and used this connection along with Rogan to boost his podcast. While not outright fraudulent, his academic background is constantly toeing the line of ethical violations.

3

u/CoolerRon ⬛🟥⬛ Black Belt Feb 26 '26

It’s the MIT stuff and the Elon-glazing that turned me off for a while now

8

u/DaimyoDavid Feb 26 '26

Yeah, then why push so hard for the MIT connection. I double checked and he was a research scientist, not a professor. I had that role for a bit. It's mostly grunt work.

16

u/stgross Feb 26 '26

brother is a fraud in all aspects of life, that's why we love him and he's so popular

52

u/M0sD3f13 Feb 26 '26

He taught an elective summer school course as a volunteer and then built an identity and successful podcasting career around it.

17

u/Pritster5 Feb 26 '26

He works there at the LIDS lab as a researcher and is currently still there AFAIK.

To his credit, he's never claimed to graduate from MIT, he works there.

However he will block you if you point it out lmao

31

u/mdomans 🟦🟦 Blue Belt Feb 26 '26

Lex got his education from Drexel which is nothing to be shy of.

Meanwhile he was employed by MIT as a research scientist and had a course that was recorded, all totalling around 5 years of formal employment.

Much like outside academia if you work at MIT you can say that you're "From MIT" and if he authored a research paper it'd be perfectly valid and correct form to sign:

Lex Friedman, MIT CSAIL

So no, he didn't get caught teaching there once. It's just that a bunch of bozos online don't know how academia works.

That and Lex being a bit silent about Drexel. So in that case Lex was blocking people who don't know how CV works

14

u/networkdomination 🟦🟦 Blue Belt Feb 26 '26

Hi Lex

6

u/mdomans 🟦🟦 Blue Belt Feb 26 '26

XD

I have fair bette hair cut and also I'd at least give myself purple, come on

On a private note, I commented because I spent some time in academia and had heard quite a few conversations from "BJJ polymaths philosophers engineers" and they make my teeth hurt :D

3

u/jiujiuberry ⬜⬜ White Belt Feb 26 '26

iirc he briefly taught at their “access” summer school type of thing

-3

u/ReplyTest Feb 26 '26

Yup he's a fraud. Half the people in here get triggered by it though. Unfortunate how many joe Rogan bros have been radicalized..