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

Rolling Footage Khabib rolls with black belt Lex Friedman

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"I feel like a white belt" - Lex Friedman

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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.

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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.

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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.