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.
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.
325: TZ Discussion - Justin's Widget
Justin and Jason discuss filmmaking with an iPhone and the power of the Filmic Pro app, the latest with Justin’s secret business widget, the Bob Lazar documentary on Netflix and his interview with Joe Rogan, Justin’s love of The Orville and other streaming recommendations, the summer math course Jason is teaching and how he’s tutoring his niece in calculus, the content and algorithms being developed for the Math Academy system, the importance of being challenged, the upcoming Washington Post article on Math Academy, what’s happening with OMG, how Luck Surface Area showed up in Gabriel Weinberg’s book Super Thinking, and why Justin likes the iPhone app Productive.
324: TZ Discussion - Fun for Physicists
Justin and Jason discuss Peldi’s success with Balsamiq, the site Indie Hackers, the book Crossing the Chasm, Justin’s launch strategy for his secret project, how Justin got help with his “maths”, the advantage of growing slowly and focusing on developing a product that your users love, the summer Math Academy course that Jason is teaching on proofs and group theory, Justin’s desire to encourage entrepreneurship in any company he starts, and tradeoffs in database design.
323: TZ DIscussion - Slow Burn
Justin and Jason discuss Jason’s elbow surgery, Justin’s secret project, the deal he made with his wife, why he’s patenting the technology, and how he ended up building it himself, Gabriel Weinberg’s new book, a postmortem on SOLVE 2019, the growth of MV Code Club, the movie The Founder, and Jason’s automated-trading project.
322: TZ Discussion - My Code Bot
Justin and Jason discuss Jason’s new puppy, when “quick and dirty” works and when it doesn’t, the latest with Math Academy, the transition from a subject-based to a course-based approach to content development, how Jason works with his remote developer, “The Math Academy Way”, fun and profit with 3D printing, Jason’s frustrations with trying to capture real-time crypto data, how to automatically and instantaneously restart a crashed Linux process, and the frustration of having to continually relearn Linux administration.
321: TZ Discussion - Quick and Dirty
Justin and Jason discuss Sean Murphy’s extension to the Luck Surface Area, Gabriel Weinberg’s mental models, Uber’s impending IPO, how Jason is adopting a dog, the book Justin is writing called Founder First, the endemic nature of overengineering, the latest with the Math Academy program and software, why Jason is dabbling with cryptocurrency HFT, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, and Justin’s former life as a musician.
320: TZ Discussion - Happiness is Cash Flow Positive
Justin and Jason discuss how injuries have derailed Operation Superhero and Jason’s strategy for moving forward with the Math Academy online system.
319: TZ Interview / Bryan Helmig - Zapier: The First 10 Customers
Justin talks with Bryan Helmig (CTO and co-founder of Zapier) about Zapier’s genesis and how they won their first 10 customers.
318: TZ Interview - Laura Kerber / NASA Research Scientist
Jason talks to NASA Research Scientist Laura Kerber.
317: TZ Discussion - Rolling Thunder
Justin and Jason discuss the introduction of rolling batches in Nugget, signs that your startup project is about to fail, the book Blondie 24, Playing at the Edge of AI, how John Humphrey generously acquired MathAcademy.net for Jason, the impending arrival of Joe Stech’s book Compelling Science Fiction, the importance of having a MacGuffin in your life, the benefits of working on a project, why most successful entrepreneurs started with something small and why you should start your company without the expectation of raising money, scaling the Math Academy program to the high school and to other school districts, recent progress on the Math Academy software platform, the latest on Operation Superhero, the importance of moving forward despite setbacks and disappointments, Jason’s relative unsuccess at saying No to projects, the independent sci-fi movie Prospect, and how Jason and his daughters met Captain Marvel on Halloween.