TechZing is an informal bi-weekly chat show aimed at entreprenures and hackers interested in creating their own web app startup. The show is both educational (with practical advice) and conversational.
340: TZ Discussion - Secret & Saucy
Justin and Jason discuss the Morning Brief launch strategy, brand concept, and development roles, the difficulties of launching the Math Academy diagnostic in time for the summer program, why Jason had to develop an animation studio for his content team, the underrated “fast zombie” series Black Summer, the sad reality that while everyone in the media seems to have an opinion on the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis, few are familiar with the basic facts, and likewise for the UAP phenomenon.
339: TZ Discussion - Signal vs. Noise
Justin and Jason discuss why Jason isn’t planning to use Twitter as a marketing channel, personalized learning and the future of education, how and why the SAT and ACT are useful for college admissions despite their flaws, the orthogonal nature of student aptitude vs. consciousness, semantic tagging and the difficulty of categorizing text, reasons behind the sudden rise in UFO coverage in the media, the downside of always playing the skeptic, the potential of crypto-social networks services like BitClout, binary vs. probabilistic thinking, the ongoing collateral damage caused by Elon Musk’s tweeting, the challenge of building an efficient and accurate adaptive diagnostic math test and the prospect of adding coding exercises to Math Academy, why the Wuhan lab leak is the biggest story of our time, why the media screwed it up so badly and the dangers of gain-of-function research on human pathogens.
338: TZ Discussion - Nothing to See Here
Justin and Jason discuss Justin’s two-week kidney stone ordeal, why Jason thinks Twitter is probably more distraction than it’s worth, the 6 levels of automated learning systems, how Justin and Joe plan to fund Morning Brief with a custom Kickstarter-like campaign, Brandon Sanderson’s lectures on writing fantasy and science fiction, Superhuman’s methodology for attaining product-market fit, how Jason is still paying off technical debt incurred over two years ago, the power and promise of Math Academy’s dynamic diagnostic tool, California’s boneheaded attempt to kill off gifted programs, accelerated academics and standardized college-entrance exams, the 60 Minutes story on UAP’s, why the gain-of-function research performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the likely origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the TV series Invincible and Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead.
337: TZ Discussion - Eurisko
Justin and Jason discuss the radically accelerated computer-science course sequence that Jason created for his Math Academy students, why PHP is like the C of the web, the character Scotty Jackson is creating for Morning Brief, Justin’s foray into crypto trading, thoughts on the future of NFT’s, the story of how Jason was finally able to buy the domain mathacademy.com and why the .com TLD still rules the day, the hypothesis that the laws of physics are evolving, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Young Sheldon, and the Ken Burns documentary The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, Jason’s upcoming interview on Donn Felker’s podcast, why starting a podcast is an inefficient content development strategy for startups, how the Math Academy system’s adaptive algorithms will create a personalized and optimal learning plan for each student, and how Jason is implementing a free-response evaluator for math problems.
336: TZ Discussion - The First 1000
Justin and Justin discuss how and why Jason is reviving his long-abandoned blog and Twitter account and how he’s planning on building an audience for the launch of Math Academy, the First1000 newsletter, and some of the strategies utilized by the companies that have been profiled, the PDF Zero to Users, whether deferred tuition offered at boot camps like Lambda School is a good idea and the upside of buying and selling equity in individuals, the possibility of rebranding and relaunching the podcast, how the pandemic killed MV Code Club and the status of Jason’s crypto-trading project, the massive content development project that is Math Academy, why Justin is obsessed with the thumbnail creation service he’s building for Morning Brief, how to alter a large and highly active table in MySQL, how bad the series Travellers is and how good The Sinner is, and the upcoming TV sci-fi series Foundation.
335: TZ Discussion - Back From the Dead (Or Just Chillin' at the Beach Down at Club Med)
Justin and Jason talk about their return after a 9-month hiatus, getting vaccinated and getting back into shape, Chris Schwarz’s novel The Cache and the character inspired by Jason’s son Colby, the origin and surprising spread of the luck surface area, why Justin has stopped working on TaskFlow, is saying goodbye to Nugget and his new foray into developing Roblox Games, how Jason’s daughter is growing a following for her animated stories and fiction writing, the monster project that is Math Academy, and Justin’s new project with Joe Stech called Morning Brief.
334: TZ Interview / Adam Wathan on distribution & Tailwind CSS
Justin talks with Adam Wathan creator of Tailwind CSS about distribution, the journey from 0 to $2m, and startup lessons learned playing in death metal bands.
333: TZ Interview - Justin Jackson / Catch the Wave
Justin talks with Justin Jackson co-founder of transistor.fm about the importance of catching a good market wave.Also Mentioned: Justin Vincent’s Indie Founder Bootcamp
332: TZ Discussion - Leveling Up
Justin and Jason discuss their likely demise due to the pandemic, the advanced computer science course that Jason is implementing, the latest on Justin’s startup course and the importance of taking action, the latest on Math Academy, and how Justin corned the carrot market in Roblox.
331: TZ Discussion - Recording in Place
Justin and Jason discuss how Jason shorted the COVID-19 crash, the winners and losers of the new normal and what the post-pandemic future may look like, how the shutdown has affected the Math Academy program and the latest with the software, the progress on TaskFlow and the what’s new with Nugget, the TV show Devs and Barry, and how closely the show Stranger Things mapped to Jason’s childhood, Grimes and Elon Musk, Justin’s new video-game addiction, and the Unreal 5 demo.
330: TZ Discussion - Four Weeks Late
Justin and Jason discuss the novel coronavirus, how Justin is adapting to his new mountain lifestyle, Jason’s crazy, high-risk portfolio, the latest on Math Academy, the challenge and importance of writing simple code, Justin’s continuous glucose monitor, Grimes and her evil AI pun, Justin’s strategy for creating three things that help each other, and his idea for a productivity app.
329: TZ Discussion - Fever Dream
Justin and Jason discuss Justin’s impending move to the mountains and what life will be like living there, how Justin is throwing off his mental chains, why you should take advice from successful people with a grain of salt, the importance of taking time off, working with the Web Audio API, the messy development process of the original iPhone, the General Magic documentary, how startups are responsible for most technology innovation, the history of Slack, Justin’s new podcast, and predictions for the new decade.
328: TZ Discussion - Nerd on a Mountain
Justin and Jason discuss the Cybertruck debacle, why Justin is moving to a mountain hideaway, Jason’s plans for taking the Math Academy software to the next level, the importance of engaging in R&D even if most of what’s developed is thrown away, the Avie Tevanian Oral History, the brilliance of John von Neumann and the potential of the human race, the Legion rap battle, the Shelby American documentary, how any design that’s too radical is almost always rejected, the NeXT Computer story, how Jason uses emotion as a guide for context switching, and the modern technology that has eliminated a go-to plot device.
327: TZ Discussion - The Collective
Justin and Jason discuss Jason’s struggle with juggling multiple projects, the latest on the crypto project, Justin’s predictions for his son Jack and a hard lesson for Jason’s son Colby, Justin’s new plans for Speak, Justin’s obsession with Occulus Quest and why he loves the Impossible Burger, an update on Operation Superhero, and the latest with Math Academy.
326: TZ Discussion - Turning that Frown Upside Down
Justin and Jason discuss Speak and Justin’s thoughts on how to market it, why entrepreneurship isn’t for most people, the latest on Jason’s crypto-trading project and Math Academy, the motivations for mathematical proofs and why mathematician’s do what they do, and the mythology of the 10X engineer.