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Justin and Jason discuss Jason’s attempt to research the Three Movers San Francisco company, his new house, Justin’s desire to get back into music, the latest with Operation Superhero and Math Academy, the road to launching the commercial version of the Math Academy software and the launch of Nugget 3.0.
Great to hear you guys!
Great episode!
Justin, looking forward to hearing your new music. Having a project that just makes people happy, regardless of income, can be very rewarding. One of the most deeply affecting emails I ever received was from the wife of one of my magazine subscribers. She said that her husband had recently died of brain cancer, but that the stories in Compelling Science Fiction helped distract him when the side effects from his treatments got really bad. Means a lot more to me than money.
Thanks, guys! It felt good to get back in the saddle.
I’m finally able to comment again after Justin reset my account. I couldn’t even remember my username, much less my password. 😉
Hey guys, great to hear another episode. Glad you keep hitting record when you get together to talk through all your projects.
Jason, from what you’re describing I think it’s time to get Math Academy out there in the wild. Even if it’s just a soft launch (with an initial set of lower end modules) you’ve created enough “luck surface area” to get an initial group of users. My son’s the same age as Colby so I’d certainly join to see how it works for him.
@Shawn – It’s getting close, but there’s still content and software that needs to be developed before we can release it. But believe me, I’m as anxious as anyone to get this thing out there. We’re going to start with a basic algebra course and add on from there.
A little late on the listen (will still need to listed to 310 too), but thanks for the update guys
Justin, finish up Nugget but play with music a little as you go. Not only will that help keep the fire going, but it’ll also help get you into what your current music groove really is. Your vision will be wrong, maybe not completely, but not exactly, so the play will loosen you up to see where the vision needs to go.
@Jason good luck turning the revenue knob on Math Academy. Thanks for the recommendation on the Masters of Scale podcast, will have to make some time to listen to a couple of episodes.
@Jason
Here’s Moneypenny music released to Spotify for realz.
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/moneypenny/d8qM
Think of it as an early version of the music deliverable you wanted.
Don’t say I never do anything for ya 😉
@jason : I ended up listening to 4 of the Master of Scale podcasts (Reed Hastings, Ev Williams, Tim Ferris, and Mark Pinkus), while I liked a decent amount of the content, at least based on the notes that I ended up taking from my listening adventure, it seemed like they were trying to copy somebody else’s format, as it really felt forced, like it was in the podcast version of the uncanny valley.
I’m not sure that I’d listen to more unless there was a specific person that was being interviewed I was interested in hearing from.. Maybe I just like ta conversational podcast better than an over produced one. 🙂
@Danilo Celic – Fair enough. The interviews I found to be the most interesting were the ones with Brian Chesky and Sam Altman. I would recommend those regardless of how you feel about the format. The information conveyed in both is extremely important.
* HANDCRAFTED Brian Chesky, Co-founder & CEO of Airbnb
https://mastersofscale.com/brian-chesky-handcrafted/
* WHY CUSTOMER LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator
https://mastersofscale.com/sam-altman-why-customer-love-is-all-you-need/
Great episode! Jason, any idea how the AP scores for your kids compare to the broader distribution?
I recently relistened to a handful of the earlier episodes in the feed and they hold up well! Late 2012 / early 2013 and Jason consistently hyped about Tesla stock (uncanny timing!). In #234 Justin predicts it could be be at $300 in 5 years — not a bad guess!
More broadly, listening to them highlights the common threads. Justin is clearly working his way towards the ideas that’d become Nugget, and Jason seems to be struggling to not let Catalyst take over his life completely.
@Stuart – It’s nice to hear we weren’t totally off base and also kind of surprising considering that we spend most of our time talking directly out of own asses. 😉 And while Catalyst didn’t take over my life, Math Academy sure as hell did! (sigh)
In terms of the AP scores, I think our kids did pretty well in comparison with the distribution, but maybe a little low. You have understood that the BC exam is very much a self-selected group. Kids don’t take it unless they aced the AB exam and are generally very strong and confident in their mathematical ability. Then you have to factor in that our kids are just middle schoolers and aren’t very sophisticated or conscientious test takers, which is probably worth at least a point right there. Also, Colby and Caroline are a year young, which compounds the effect. While I’m proud of what they accomplished, I still wanted more. But then again, I’m greedy like that. 😉
@Everyone – It’s fun to be active again in the comments! After losing my login info and being too lazy to sort it out, I just fell out of the habit. It’s a weak excuse I know, but I’m glad I finally got off my ass and asked Justin to fix it. 😉 Also, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to share your thoughts and feedback. It makes me want to record another show. And maybe … even prepare with some links like the old days. No promises, but I’m starting to feel it again.
@Everyone – Alright, it’s confirmed! We’re going to record a show this Sunday at 4:00 pm. Let’s hope it doesn’t suck. 😉
@Jason,
I got the chance to listen to the Brian Chesky and the Sam Altman episodes today. The focus on doing things that don’t scale to figure out what your product really does seem key fro a successful startup. The same concept was covered a decent bit in other episodes, so it ended up being a bit repetitive for me, but as you and Justin said in recent podcasts, the mistakes that founders make time and again, perhaps that repetitiveness is necessary to really bring the point home.
Looking forward to the release of your next podcast!