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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.
Justin: the success and failure indicators seems like they could be turned into tools to help you find out early that someone is heading toward failure so that you (or the cohort) can help turn things around a bit. Or maybe the knowledge of them can help you coax Nuggets into going the right direction. For example, I imagine that you’re asking for a freeform response to “what did you do today?”, maybe add a character counter and have a fairly high limit that may lead them to think that “did some coding today” isn’t a long enough response. Or maybe instead ask “what did you do today?” and have three text boxes to implies that one small thing isn’t enough of a response.
Of course I can see that you want to balance it out against deterring them from contributing/participating because they don’t think they have “done enough”.
Jason: your own MacGuffin to help keep you moving toward your real goals is an interesting idea.I also like not defining yourself (startup) based on fear. Keep rolling on the Math Academy, seems like it’s got quite the momentum, keep that flywheel spinning!
Hey Jason/Justin — long time listener (8 years at this point…crazy!)
Just wanted to leave a quick note that I’m really glad you are both doing well in both business and family life. I’ve enjoyed listening to this podcast through the ups and downs. Every episode feels like checking in with some friends you haven’t seen in a while.
Cheers!
Feeling exactly the same as Matt S 🙂
Keep on kicking guys, your podcast still feels good and fresh like years ago!
Imho you help lot of us with your constant pushing forward no matter if it’s getting stronger, leaner, coding or anything else.
Thank you !
Vladimir
@Danilo Celic – Thanks, man! I kind of feel like those could both be blog posts. Too bad I don’t blog anymore! I just run my mouth while Justin’s eyes glaze over. 😉 Seriously, they do.
@Matt S – Eight years?! Damn, you deserve a TZ pension! Justin, could you get on that, please! We’ll fund it with a new cryptocurrency called UFP (or Under Funded Pension) coin. It’ll be huge! Or at least bigger than Justin’s Omnisgo or whatever bullshit that was. Holy, crap, it’s down to like $1.25 (from $20 or so when he was touting it). Just a little FYI for “you people”, when it comes to Justin, he is what’s know as a contra-indicator. In other words, when he latches on to an investment thesis it’s a sure sign that it’s the final call before the crash. (Much love, Justin. I ain’t mad atchya.)
@Vladimir Jankovic – Thanks, man! In fact, I think we continue it mostly because we feel that same connection … to you guys – the remaining 50 people who are actually still listening. Or, is it 30? I don’t know, but it’s a good thing we don’t have any analytics or I might get depressed. Justin is holding on to the belief that if we make it to 10 years, we’ll be an overnight Internet sensation, but I frankly I believe there’s a better chance we’ll get sucked directly into the Singularity vortex before that happens, or even more unlikely – that I’ll EVER see a return on my Omnisgo investment.
Anyway, after every show, I’m like “Ah, that sucked. We just talked about our own stuff the whole time … again! Our listeners are probably going to be rolling their eyes.” But then I do the show notes and I’m like “Yes, I monologued like some kind of B-movie supervillain, but … it’s not the absolute worst thing I’ve ever listened to, and besides, Justin won’t quit texting me until I do. And then a couple weeks go by and I forget that I suck and agree to do another. It’s a horrible cycle that punishes everyone involved. My sincere apologies to all.