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.
301: TZ Discussion - Junk News
Justin and Jason discuss comments from the previous two shows, Justin’s preoccupation with the election, how it affected his productivity and why Jason avoids spending too much time on the news, Justin’s plan for his first Nuggetcourse and his nagging doubts about the service, his recent health efforts, and his role at Modern Teacher, Jason’s three-year-old idea for an experience-based startup and its similarity to Airbnb Experiences, his plan to hold an end-of-the-year Math Academy competition at Caltech modeled after the MIT Integration Bee and his recent efforts to push the program forward, the movies Arrival and Passengers, the television shows The Walking Dead, Westworld, Mr. Robot and Black Mirror, Elon Musk’s plan to launch low-latency, worldwide satellite Internet, Britain’s new surveillance law, Jason’s recent purchase of Tesla shares, why Justin is worried about Elon Musk, and the security startup Defence for Startups. This Shows Executive Producer @ $50 Donation Joe Stech / Compelling Science Fiction
300: TZ Interview - Jason Roberts & Justin Vincent
Rob Walling guest hosts this seminal episode to walk Jason and Justin down memory lane during which they discuss how Rob wouldn’t allow Jason to invest in Drip, Appignite, Pluggio, AnyFu, Uber, the interview wth Travis Kalanick, Nugget, the madness, luck surface area, entreporn, blog posts as lead gen and how to make yourself into expert on the web, Jason’s prescience on Tesla and Bitcoin, the interview with Patrick Collison, how they got started doing the podcast and what they’ve gotten out of it, the meaning of some of the funnier show titles, Operation Superhero, the failure that was Justin’s treadmill desk and how the show has evolved over the years.
299.5: TZ Discussion - Maximum Effort!
Justin and Jason discuss why Justin decided to start pushing his Nugget users to launch their ventures (also known as “horsing”) and his plan for how to automate this process, lessons learned scaling Uber, Paul Erdos and the Erdos-Bacon number, the importance of just starting, thoughts on upselling the next level of Nugget services, the latest with the Math Academy pilot and the supporting software platform, the advantages of serving a higher purpose, and the fine line between embracing new tools versus falling victim to overengineering your dev stack.
299: TZ Discussion - How Justin Got His Groove Back
Justin and Jason discuss Colby’s upcoming football season, a postmortem of their first Space Empires 4X game, how Colby keeps beating Jason at Star Realms and seemingly every other game they play, the latest with Nugget and why Ken and Justin are no longer working together, the latest developments with Math Academy, including Jason’s class, the documentary, the district pilot program, the software platform and Battle Math, an update on Jason’s (self-diagnosed) peripheral neuropathy, why the fathers of the Internet revolution want engineers to reinvent the web, the Scientific American article on how to increase your intelligence, how retirement contributes to physical and mental decay and why society is structured as a two-phase work/post-work system, why Jason believes in choosing quality of life over money, the positive effects of Justin’s newly structured work day and how John Humphrey helped Jason acquire BattleMath.com.
298: TZ Discussion - Enter the Nugget
Justin and Jason discuss Justin’s new digs, the effects of taking a vitamin B-complex supplement on Jason’s (self-diagnosed) peripheral neuropathy, the launch of Nugget and Justin’s thoughts on it’s future, getting going again on Battle Math, Jason’s desire to play a space-opera style strategy game and how he ended up selecting Space Empires 4X (inspired by Stellar Conquest), Jason’s new workout plan, Justin’s struggle with diets and Jason’s theory on cheat days versus cheat meals, how MV Code Club is opening up it’s 4th location, Gabriel Weinberg’s post on mental models and the inclusion of Luck Surface Area, the summer math class Jason is teaching, the latest with Math Academy and Jason’s meeting with the Institute for Educational Advancement.
297: TZ Discussion - Unsubscribe All
Justin and Jason discuss Colby’s drive to play quarterback and early sign’s of Jack’s athleticism, Justin’s new project – Nugget, why Jason believes his peripheral neuropathy may be caused by a B12 deficiency, the world’s biggest vertical farm, how the Swiss voted against Basic Income, why Jason doesn’t worry about the potential downsides of scientific advances, why he’s unsubscribing from all email lists, why he doesn’t blog or use Google+ anymore, and why he’s “getting rid of the crap”.
296: TZ Discussion - In the Ether
Justin and Jason discuss why Justin cancelled his membership at a local co-working space, lessons about weight loss and BMR destruction from The Biggest Loser, how Justin has returned to his Super Slow weight training program, Jason’s new machine-oriented training routine, dunking at SkyZone, why Jason left Uber and what his goodbye was like, the first anti-aging gene therapy, the assertion that a third of the nation’s cash is held by 5 U.S. companies, how to freeze people and bring them back to life, Jason’s story idea for an emergent AI, thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead, whether to believe claims that Elon Musk is a jerk, the latest with Math Academy and the first Ethereum-based company.
295: TZ Interview - Robin Warren / Corrello
Justin talks to Robin Warren about his bootstrapped startup Corrello, a dashboard for agile teams using Trello.
294: TZ Discussion - The Jarvis Option
Justin and Jason discuss Justin’s Soylent experiment and the diabetes-friendly shake he’s settled on called Keto Soy, finding the right diet plan, why Justin is splitting time between home and Cross Campus, Jason’s super madness and his new policy against taking on projects that originate from other people, the latest development processes implemented at Modern Teacher – leveraging Laravel’s ORM, test-driven development, hot-seat peer reviews, pull requests and Code Ship, recruiting mathematicians to serve as instructors for the Math Academy and the latest with the software platform, how Elon Musk is having the best week ever with the unveiling and pre-ordering of the Model 3 and the vertical landing of a SpaceX rocket on a drone ship, Ted Cruz’s Simpsons audition, Craig Venter’s minimal cell, why a rising number of startups have no plans to IPO, more evidence that the building blocks of life may have originated from interstellar space, the astrobiologist collecting unrecognizable beings from the stratosphere, recently discovered bacteria that eat pure electrons and plastic bottles, programming cells with Cello, the prospect of a proactive version of Alexa that asks questions and anticipates needs, the review of the HTC Vive, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the Cheney’s One Percent Doctrine, the human-robot trust paradox, Alphabet’s two-legged robot, why Google is selling Boston Dynamics, whether software development itself will be automated, services that validate a physical address, an email address and a phone number, why the seeds of your destruction have been sown, The Walking Dead, how the FBI director puts tape over his webcam, the upcoming launch of Kite.com and Jason’s Catalina UFO tour.
293: TZ Discussion - The Wildcard
Justin and Jason discuss the latest with Math Academy – Jason’s class, the district program and the software, temperpedic beds, the problem of living in the middle of a “fun” area of town, why Jason doesn’t want stuff and what he does want, Justin’s new “super router”, why getting a storage unit is generally a mistake, Phil’s hack for how to emotionally detach from books he needs to get rid of, the evolutionary advantage and repercussions of human curiosity, Duolingo and granular learning, why Jason thinks learning a foreign languages is rarely worth the time, Justin’s new work-at-home situation, how website design work is drying up, why future actors will have to compete with CGI versions of actors of the past, Justin’s idea to create AI from the DNA level, the path and prospect of strong AI, Jason’s desire to create a synthetic hedge fund using Collective2 and the prospect of a Trump presidency.
292: TZ Discussion - Doing the Business
Justin, Jason and Phil discuss the Math Academy software and the latest with the rollout of the program, the silly idea that children are incapable of abstract thought at age 11, how to raise a creative child, Phil’s experience as an analyst for an angel fund and as a head TA in business school, learning from failure and success, what’s required in terms of a business plan or financial model to get funding, why Jason prefers to ignore competitors, the non-competition between Microsoft and Google, business models, not following for the aesthetic trap and various winning strategies, a brief history of Uber’s rollout, Justin’s futuristic UI concept for Twitter (think Minority Report) and the article where Jason was recently quoted about algorithmic trading.
291: TZ Discussion - No Brain Required
Justin and Jason discuss why they decided not to publish that last show, Jason’s Christmas debacle, how we’re living in the future, the documentary An Honest Liar, how Dean Kamen is solving the world’s drinking water problem, solving problems solution first, the First Robotics competition, Jason’s recent addiction to the mobil game Hex Fvr, Gone Girl, the Bastard Executioner, Homicide Hunter, the Nerdist Podcast interview with Joe Kenda and the Detective podcast, why Jason receives so many emails about his algorithmic trading blog post, Justin’s new project, Jason’s idea of aggregating a handful of trading strategies on Collective2 into a fund of funds, Wealthfront and Betterment, the man who had virtually no brain, Jason’s new math class, the progress with the Math Academy and the software that’s going to power it, the financial pluses and minuses of working for a startup, the stress of running Slack, why Justin thinks the engineers at Slack might snoop on conversations and why Jason is skeptical, treating human disease with the CRISPR technique, The Strain, Nick Bostrom, Super Intelligence, the Open AI initiative and whether true artificial intelligence would have to be imbued with a fear of death.
290: TZ Discussion - Flash in the Pan
Justin, Jason and Phil discuss the demise of Spoke.
289: TZ Discussion - In Silico
Justin, Jason and Phil discuss how Phil got fit and why he got an MBA, the explanatory power of incentives, Jason and Phil’s time together in college, how nanobots in our brains will make us ‘Godlike’, why uploading your conscience will not make you immortal, creating an earth-sized virtual world, why we may not be able to find any alien neighbors, the anti-aging NAD fad, why Justin decided to kill Spoke and his one-month challenge. Executive Producer: Ben Reyes
288: TZ Discussion - Colby Speaks
Justin, Jason and Colby discuss Colby’s strength training program, his view on the accelerated math class and why he designed his own football helmet and defensive playbook, the latest on the Math Academy, Justin’s 7-minute workout and his reinvention of Weight Watchers, Jason’s progress on Operation Superhero and his 3-week sprint concept and the latest on Spoke and Givetronic.