#63 - Steven LaValle: Oculus, VR, Robotics, Choices That Made No Sense, and Finland

Steve LaValle is a roboticist, professor, and former Chief Scientist at Oculus whose work helped shape the mathematics behind modern virtual reality. This conversation is about figuring out what kind of life you actually want, and then having the nerve to choose it.

LaValle grew up in Missouri without an obvious path into academia. When Illinois said it did not accept out-of-state transfer students into computer engineering, he wrote a petition arguing that the university shouldn't decide someone's future based on which side of the Mississippi River they grew up on.

He got in. Years later, while on sabbatical, LaValle received a random email from Jack McCauley, who had found his free online book while searching for the mathematics behind 3D rotations.

LaValle flew to California, put on an early Oculus headset, looked straight up—and broke the tracking. His robotics background gave him exactly the mathematics Oculus needed.

Soon, code written by LaValle and his wife was appearing in Oculus demos on Jimmy Fallon. He became Chief Scientist, worked alongside Palmer Luckey and John Carmack, and was there for Oculus's rise and acquisition by Facebook.

Then he walked away. LaValle says leaving meant giving up roughly half the wealth he could have received by staying.

He could have remained in Silicon Valley, advised startups, invested, and made considerably more money. Instead, he returned to academia.

Why? Because he liked universities more.

He wanted to publish openly, admit what he didn't know, follow his curiosity, spend time around interesting people, and have a life with his family. Eventually, that same thinking led him to Finland, where he found a culture closer to the values he wanted his children to grow up with.

From arguing his way into Illinois, to pursuing robotics when few people cared about it, to joining Oculus and then walking away from Silicon Valley, LaValle has made plenty of decisions that looked strange from the outside. But they make sense once you understand what he was choosing for: the freedom to stay curious, keep learning, and keep choosing the life he actually wanted. *EPISODE LINKS:* - Steven LaValle's Website: *OUTLINE:* 0:00 - Introduction 1:42 - Think for Yourself 4:27 - Programming 7:17 - What Would He Study in College Today? 13:09 - Why He Moved to Finland 20:03 - Why Finland Works 24:07 - The Decision to Join Oculus 27:13 - The Random Email That Changed His Life 29:20 - Breaking the Oculus Headset on Day One 34:35 - Failing in Front of Bill Gates 36:00 - Why He Walked Away From Half His Oculus Money 41:14 - “I Don’t Know” 42:12 - Was VR Really the Future? 48:11 - VR is “Perception Engineering” 50:45 - How VR Hacks the Human Visual System 53:10 - Why Universities Need “Undisciplined” People 57:51 - How He Would Redesign Education 58:22 - ChatGPT and the Collapse of Authority 1:01:41 - What Happens When You Can Reinvent Your Life at Any Age 1:04:54 - What Would Make Him Move Back to America? 1:06:57 - The Finnish Fear of Winning Awards 1:07:40 - Raising Four Kids Across Countries 1:12:01 - Surround Yourself With Interesting People 1:13:16 - What Happened After Oculus Opened Every Door 1:18:24 - Inside the Early Oculus Team 1:19:16 - Palmer Luckey Told Him About Bitcoin at $8 1:21:06 - Why He Didn’t Join Anduril 1:23:57 - Do Robots Need to Look Human? 1:26:17 - How 2001 and TRON Shaped His Life 1:29:48 - The Company He Would Start Today 1:33:19 - The Greatest Discovery He Can Imagine 1:43:58 - Advice for Young People 1:47:30 - Love 1:49:56 - Having Children 🚥 Overrated or Underrated 🚥 1:51:25 - 🎬 TRON 1:54:09 - 📖 Snow Crash 1:54:29 - 🤖 Tesla Optimus 1:54:57 - 💻 John Carmack 1:56:04 - 🦿 Boston Dynamics 1:56:38 - 🇫🇮 Finland 1:59:35 - 🚀 2001: A Space Odyssey 2:00:18 - 🌐 The Metaverse