Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
Justin and Jason speak with guest James Altucher about his surprising experiences as a programmer, author, journalist, entrepreneur, trader, financial pundit, venture capitalist, angel investor for Migliori Crypto Games and blogger.
Top interview. A true inspiration.
This interview is awesome. Lots of great advice on entrepreneurship, finance, running a venture capital fund, dealing with mentors, etc.
In the past month and a half, I have listened to all 110 episodes. Here are my thoughts:
The Show Name
In my opinion, you were committed to the name with the first link/mention pointing to TechZing. All the discussion about it got kinda old but in retrospect it is one of the aspects of the show I like the best. I got to listen in on your struggles about the name and your decision making process (more on that later).
Unusual Guests
It is a great idea, and I like the choice of guests. This is the “Zing” part of the show.
Straying off Tech Topics
You seem to have a good balance. The non-tech topics, for the most part, do interest me. More “Zing” parts.
Build vs Reuse
You most often talk about this with regard to frameworks. In different ways, you both advocate writing your own framework. You have both been coding for a long time and I think you forget what it is not to know all that you know. For me, I started using a framework (Codeigniter) about a year ago because the possibilities for coding were too vast and I felt lost. The framework gave me some structure that was built on what others had learned. I may not understand all the reasons it helps or hurts yet but at least it gives me a reasonable direction.
Justin and Jason Projects
This is the BEST part of the show. I get the sense that you feel a little guilty asking guests about your own projects. However, this is where I learn the most. The rest of the stuff on the Internet tries to distill everything down to THE answer. But as you have mentioned, there is no ONE answer. When you ask about your own projects or discuss them with each other, I get to listen in on the decision making process.
Show Suggestion
Get a panel of guests and use the whole show to discuss all aspects of a single project (yours or some other struggling startup). Discuss marketing, pricing, freeium vs trials, payments, technologies, A/B testing, revenues, costs, professional help (accounting, legal, business entities), etc… It would be like a case study.
Thanks for the show!
Wow, what a great guest! I love his, “walk into the office of the CEO of HBO and talk with him” approach to life. There’s a lot to be learned from him.
Fascinating show on perseverance towards success and financial freedom.
Thanks for finding unusual stories like these.
@Gordon – Wow, 110 episodes in one month. That’s one helluva lot of the ZING! 😉
It’s interesting that you find the discussion of our projects to be the best part of the show. I’m always a little worried that it’s boring to listen to, so it’s a relief to hear that it’s not for a least some (or one) of our listeners. 😉
I really like your idea for a panel review show. It would probably serve as a great learning experience for us as well as our listeners. I’d love to do that for Appignite once it’s been live for 4-6 weeks and the worst of the alpa/beta crud has been shaken loose.
Also, thanks so much for the flattering feedback!
@Gaddafi, ssnyder, Tyler D & Philippe Monnet – I’m glad you guys liked the show. I was really excited when he agreed to do the interview because I find him to be an exceptionally interesting guy. I’m actually going to try to get him on for a follow-up interview sometime soon as we were barely able to scratch the surface with him.
Amazing episode guys.
This one is a keeper for sure. Thanks!
Fantastic interview guys!
That was up there with the interview with JC (ep.100) as being one of my favourites.
James was another awesome guest and a pleasure to listen to. Really hope he can spare some of his time in future to record some more.
Overall, some general feedback – the shows are just getting better and better. The production quality (thanks Justin ;)), the interviews, off-the-wall discussions – it’s all good.
Finally, I’ d just add that personally, I find the discussion of your own projects very interesting and enjoy the direction that takes, technical or otherwise.
I greatly enjoyed doing the interview. Maybe next time you guys should LET ME interview you about your own projects.
@James – Sure, whatever it takes to get you back on! 😉 Just let me know when you have a slot available.
Wow, fascinating story. What a roller coaster ride, with extreme highs, lows, and turns (‘pivots’).
@James altucher would like to here more about the spirituality. What is it, how you practice, and how that makes you a better entrpenuer.