Ryan Williams (@rrwilliams) is a professor at MIT and the winner of the Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science. I interviewed him all about his work starting by asking him a popular Leetcode question (3 SUM).
In this episode:
• Solving Leetcode faster than popular "optimal" solutions
• SAT problems and solvers
• Hot takes on famous open questions
• How to pick good research direction
Where to watch:
• YouTube - piped.video/AaK1SL2i_4Y
• Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/0JH…
• Apple Podcasts - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
• Transcript - developing.dev/p/mit-complex…
Thank you to the sponsor of this episode for supporting my work:
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:41 - Asking him a popular Leetcode question
03:54 - Doing better than the popular optimal solution
08:26 - Fine grained complexity
17:00 - A severe strengthening of P vs NP
24:38 - SAT problems and solvers
34:51 - Hot takes on famous open questions
46:57 - Simulating space with time
01:01:02 - Why he solves hard problems
01:02:35 - How to pick good research direction
01:07:14 - Technical book recommendations
01:08:31 - Advice for his younger self
01:11:56 - Outro
Video