His attitude really bugs me, and it’s on full display in this clip - everything about this to me says “I am so smart and you have asked me a question so dumb that I don’t know how to dumb down my answer for you, now I will show how smart I am in the course of explaining how dumb your question is in excruciating detail, so next time you’ll know not to waste my smart time with dumb questions.”
Instead of playing games and being evasive and ‘owning’ the interviewer, he could have just worked with the guy to clarify the question and to talk through the guy’s understanding - he didn’t try to do that, though, and you can tell how delighted he is for this chance to show the guy up. His autobiography is written the same way, it’s a series of anecdotes about times where he was smart and other people were dumb. Really rubs me the wrong way.
You must have missed the part where he says that it's an excellent question.
> he was smart and other people were dumb
But he was smart. A lot smarter than you and me and the vast majority of people. He was also pretty humble about it, once famously saying that if he couldn't explain something to a freshman it's because he himself didn't understand it.
His attitude really bugs me, and it’s on full display in this clip - everything about this to me says “I am so smart and you have asked me a question so dumb that I don’t know how to dumb down my answer for you, now I will show how smart I am in the course of explaining how dumb your question is in excruciating detail, so next time you’ll know not to waste my smart time with dumb questions.”
Instead of playing games and being evasive and ‘owning’ the interviewer, he could have just worked with the guy to clarify the question and to talk through the guy’s understanding - he didn’t try to do that, though, and you can tell how delighted he is for this chance to show the guy up. His autobiography is written the same way, it’s a series of anecdotes about times where he was smart and other people were dumb. Really rubs me the wrong way.