WEBVTT - A Conversation with Iyaz Akhtar 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from My Heart Radio. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:14.960 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.840 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.040 and I love all things tech. And we have a 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.960 special guest today, a special topic. Yes, i As Zactar. 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:27.880 This is your life, except you're the one who's going 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:29.240 to have to tell us about it because I don't 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:31.480 know enough about your background. My good friend i As 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.880 has agreed to join the show. Welcome back to Tech Stuff. 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:37.400 Thank you, Jonathan, it's good to be back. I was 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:39.519 like talking to your listeners because I do find them 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:41.640 to be some of the smartest people on the planet. 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.479 This is true. They consistently tell me how wrong I am. 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.040 And it's only smart people who can pick up on 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.080 all the mistakes I make. Uh no, you're You're right. 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.239 They are. They are really smart crew, and I love 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.800 them very much. And i As and I have known 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.639 each other for around a decade now. I think it's 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.240 been about ten years since we has met. Probably a 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.679 little more than that. Actually, it's something like that. Time 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.399 has no meaning anymore, so it's probably a decade or 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:12.959 twelve decades. It's hard to tell. That's true. Lasted about 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:16.680 seventeen years, I think. But we first met I think 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.319 back at a c E S you were, I believe, 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:23.560 working with tech TV at the time. Tech V. Tech 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.160 V that's it. That's what I meant at tech TV 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.959 is something I've never joined. I think I joined the 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:32.120 spiritual successor to it at one point, some people call it, 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.200 but tech V with Randall Bennett, who used to work 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.720 at and Gadgets worked at cen At, started his own 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.600 video network and I jumped on board and we were 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:43.360 we had a little space, I think, and it was 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.680 in CS in the North Hall, I want to say. 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.000 And then this guy Jonathan Strictly shows up and we 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:52.280 hit it off and I couldn't get rid of me since. Yeah, 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.560 of course, listeners you probably know I A's Best from 0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:00.080 the hit podcast podcast Without Pretense, a show that he 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:04.760 and I and Eric Sandan sporadically recorded for sometime. We 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.200 threatened to bring it back, but that kind of I mean, 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:11.240 let's be honest, Pandemic really did a number on everything. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.600 But yeah, there's there's still the threat that that show 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:18.440 could come back. If you're a fan of family friendly entertainment, 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.440 do not listen to podcasts without pretense. I totally agree. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.800 It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.880 those who love certain media conglomerates. It's not for people 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.040 who like swear words. If you don't like swear words, 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:36.080 I would avoid that show unless you want to just 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.200 count how often we swear on the That show itself 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.720 can live on its own. I will not touch upon 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.600 it again. But I as I wanted to talk to 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.320 you because you have had a long career in the 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.360 sort of area that I work into in tech communication, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:57.440 although yours has had very different styles than my own. 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.800 So I wanted to start off by talking about how 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:05.680 did you get into the field of working in like 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.960 tech video production and tech podcasting and that sort of stuff. 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.320 How did that all get started? Well, the story that 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.000 is a long and uninteresting one, so you can jump 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:15.960 ahead at any time, you guys, if you're listening to this. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.240 But it turned out that I loved technology since I 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.239 was a little kid, and my dad was a gadget guy, 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.119 and my mom would yell in him like, hey, don't 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.040 spend that, don't find those gadgets because you gotta send 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.400 your kids to college. And so I used to just 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.960 be obsessed with gadgets growing up. And then I was 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:34.880 in law school at the time, and I just was 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:36.480 writing a lot of blogs. I was doing a lot 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.000 of writing in general, and I got a job writing 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.560 at the Apple blog, which I don't think was with 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.720 us anymore. It's part of Giga Home. And I started 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.120 writing blogs about Apple stuff, and then I started writing 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.120 my own blogs on tech things that are beyond Apple. 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.680 And there was one point where I reached studying for 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.920 the bar exam for New York State, and I was 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:02.080 studying about eleven to twelve hours a day, something crazy. Basically, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:03.720 if I was awake, I was studying for this exam 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:05.480 because it was a two day exam at the time. 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.200 New York is the second hardest a state to pass, 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.680 not like Passachusetts or or in Danielson. New York has changed, 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:14.640 I believe it's now three days. And so I was 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.479 studying like crazy, and I needed a creative outlet. And 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.440 so while I was studying, I took these breaks and 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.760 I would do an audio podcast with my best friend 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.680 Rob called Killing Time, which is on and off still 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:28.760 for like now ten to fifteen years. I've been doing 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.760 this ridiculous show. It's just an entertainment show, just talking 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.960 about stuff that wasn't it wasn't being covered because back 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.000 then this is the starter podcast. I saw Leo Laporte 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.479 had moved to his own thing on Twitter. I saw 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:43.920 this show called Hack five. I was watching this guy 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:45.920 named Darren Kitchen. I'm like, you know, these guys are 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.320 doing podcasts. I think I could do that, and so 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.719 I started recording audio stuff on my own. I figured 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.880 out how to do with an old I believe this 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.359 was an iMac, one of the first Intel ones, and 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:57.960 I call my friend up, we'd record it and I 0:04:58.040 --> 0:04:59.560 put it out. And this is the very early days 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:04.479 of podcast asting. So I turned that into a job 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.040 at one point because I was also still finishing law 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.400 school and I just got just past the bar, and 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:12.760 I was going to go into the field of law, 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.520 which because I'm a first generation American, so my folks 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:17.920 will be a lawyer, be a doctor, I didn't want 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:19.599 to be a doctor. So I got the law degree 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:22.440 and I entered a field. I think it was around 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.400 two thousand and six, two thousand seven, and the entire 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.960 market for lawyers dropped, so all of these people coming 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.360 out of school were competing with high level. People were 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.240 being paid a lot, we were competing for the same jobs, 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.880 so this was an absolute nightmare. So I was looking 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.400 for positions while I was still doing my audio podcast, 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:43.239 and I started messing with video a little bit more. 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.400 And during this time, I got a job at a 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.720 place called Gadgetel and I ended up being their editor 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.000 in chief. And as editor in chief, I'm like, let's 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:52.679 make videos, and I want to be in them because 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.880 I'm in charge. So I started making videos with the 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.400 people there, and I found other video outlets with Will 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.120 Harris and Justin Gainer over a channel flip, which I 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.360 believe got bought by Condie Nast in the long run. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.520 So I started doing videos around then, and that's where 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.400 it all really started, because I was going bonkers and 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.279 just losing. I was just losing my patients in general 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.360 because I was studying so much. I just needed a 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.080 creative outlet, and that was audio and video. When you 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.240 were studying law, I want to say that there was 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.240 a point where I had you on an episode where 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.520 we were talking about patent law. Am I remembering that correctly? 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.240 That is correct? Because I did study intellectual property. It 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.360 was a field of law that I am and still 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:34.760 am interested. I was interested, and I'm still interested in it. 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.640 But due to the fact that so many of the 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.359 cases were so it was like splitting hairs. It was 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.880 making me really really agitated, and I thought, Hey, if 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:45.280 I was every going to die at a job because 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.680 of a heart attack, this would be the thing. So 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.080 I veered away from intellectual property just because I was 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:53.839 just getting so amped up about why does this pac 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.480 Man game make sense? That this Pong game isn't infringement? 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:58.520 And I just I got two worked up. I'm like, 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:00.640 I can't, I can't do that. So I did do 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.520 a bit of intellectual property class work. Never practiced that, 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:06.960 but it did show up on an episode with you 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.760 talking about intellectual property, and I believe video games was 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.480 a large chunk of that. Yeah, I should probably have 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.080 you back and we can have a discussion about patent 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.800 trolls in general and the one in particular that was 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.720 threatening the entire podcast industry for a few years, because 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:27.760 that was back in the yeah, back in the days 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.320 when when tech stuff was part of Discovery Communications and 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.120 there were just these crazy lawsuits getting thrown around, and 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.600 we could kind of dive into how that all worked. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.440 But that'll I'll save that for a future episode. So 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.240 you you get this editor in chief job and you 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.360 start making, you start making videos. I love this too 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.000 because as someone who's become executive producer in the same 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.480 way where I launched a podcast, because I realized I 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.920 had the authority to do it, so I did it. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.480 That's how, That's how Large Nerd Drunk Colleider it got started. 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.160 If you guys out there have listened to you of 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.200 those episodes, Um, it was a show that my friend 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.360 Ariel and I were doing on our own, and then 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.400 I had the chance to bring it over here, and 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:10.320 I kept on there was there was talk of bringing 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.840 it on for like two years, and it just never happened. 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.160 Then I realized, wait a minute, I'm an executive producer. 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:19.240 I can make this happen myself. So I I identify 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.360 strongly there's a couple of different parallels in our career paths. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.920 So what happens next? Where do you go from there? 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.360 After you've got this editor in chief gig. So I 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.680 do that for a couple of years, and that's not 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.199 that's completely wrong, that's wrong entirely. I did that for 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.120 a couple of months that's right. And then Randall Bennett 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.160 offered me this job because he was having me on 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:40.640 as a guest a lot of some of my videos 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:42.840 on Gadgetel, and he was like, Hey, I think I 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:44.760 want to interview for this this thing I'm doing, Like 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.240 I said, okay, and he did a startup called tech 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.360 V tech v I, and I eventually was offered a 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.079 position as managing editor of the startup. Now would be 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.360 a step down, but it was. It was purely video, 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.240 and I thought, well, screw it, let's do it. Let's 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.880 go ahead end see if I could manage to do 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.400 this now. At the time, I don't have I have 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.120 a son now, but I didn't have a kid then, 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.120 so there was I was much more. I wasn't as 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.200 risk risk of versus I am now and switching jobs. 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.040 So I just completely left my job at Gadgetel, wound 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.559 up a tech V started doing video with Randall and 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.480 we're talking about doing daily videos. And this is somewhere 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.240 in like two thousand eight or so, so internet speeds, 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.040 I'm not exactly great. Everything was in one man operation 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.160 at the time. So in my my part, my house, 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.080 that is, I had my prompter set up I built 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.920 my own prompters because everything was much cheaper to build 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.560 back then versus now. Because as YouTube has grown and 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.520 everybody can make content, the amount of equipment that's available 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.520 now for cheap is just mind blowing. But when I 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.760 was doing this in two thousand eight, I had to 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.160 build something. A thirty five dollar prompter was made out 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.400 of heavy wood and the most expensive parts were the brackets. 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.280 So I set up my own prompter in my in 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.400 my office home office. I would write up my scripts, 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.560 I read camera, I've send it, I do the editing myself. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:03.000 If I could do it live, we did it live 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.720 to not live to take, but live to digital, I guess. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.599 And then we published it. So we published two or 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.760 three times a day, which was a really unusual pace 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.640 for the time because usually people are setting up and 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:17.760 then you've got your scriptwriting, you've got your research, you 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:19.040 got this, that and the other thing. And I was 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.800 pulling out two to three pieces of video content per day. 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:23.840 So that's got that got me to tech V and 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.000 then Randa wanted to kill the company because it wasn't 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.000 going anywhere. He said, this is not reaching the level 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.720 where I wanted to reach, and so I'm just going 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.880 to close the doors. And so I said, oh, crud, no, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.320 what do I do? So at that point I was like, Okay, 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.520 well do I want to give law another shot? I'm like, yeah, 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.920 I'll give a law another shot. Because the market it 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:48.040 changed a bit, and I managed to get an interview 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.600 in Plantation, Florida with the I R S of all things, 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.520 because I studied tax law. That's true. I passed the 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:57.720 bar in New York, and I have a master's in 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.720 tax law, which is completely relevant to what I do now, 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:05.640 completely relevant. So I I go to this interview and 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.680 I bombed the interview flat out. To this day, I 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.280 remember the question I should have answered truthfully. They asked 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.080 me this question of what do you do when you 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.600 go too far in the wrong direction? And I wanted 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.360 I should have just told them the truth of like, 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.440 I don't ever do that. When I start feeling like 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.400 something's off, I immediately talked to somebody else and I go, hey, 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:25.000 does this seem right? This is the way it's supposed 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.120 to be gone? Because this isn't seem right. I'm from 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.400 New York and we have signs for delayed green lights. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:31.520 I don't know if you have that elsewhere in this 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.240 country or anywhere else, because we're so impatient to New 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.120 York that if the light hasn't changed immediately after the 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.679 other one has, something's broken, people start going. So we 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.120 need to sign delayed green light. So when I in 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.160 my reality run into a thing where I think I'm 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.040 kind of going the wrong way just by a hair, 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.080 I'll talk to somebody, either they're above me or to 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.440 my side. I'm like, hey, does this seem right? If 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:54.800 I just answered that question truthfully, none of this would 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.200 have happened. So I bombed that interview. I start looking 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.400 for jobs like crazy. I go through six months or 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.199 seven months of unemployment. This was horrible for me, So 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.200 I'm just trying to figure out what to do. I 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:09.400 start doing my own show again. I'm like, Okay. After 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:11.080 a while, it's bubbled up in me, like you gotta 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.640 do this show called this Old Nerd. It's a video 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.680 podcast I did. And this is before YouTube is huge. 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.560 It's there's a lots of different video streaming sites. There's blip, 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.560 there's YouTube, there's daily Motion, there was vo there was video, 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.360 and there was there's obviously some of those are still around. 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.880 So I started doing this show, and then, of course, 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:33.920 since I did the show, I ended up getting a 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:38.240 job at PC Magazine. Now this job was not video, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.360 this was a featured writer, and I had to spin 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.400 my video to trajectory to explain to them why I 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.240 wanted to do this. A hundred days goes by and 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.440 I quit. So the reason why I quit was I 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:54.680 got an offer from Twitch in California when I was 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:59.120 at CS. I was at CS for something. I forget what. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.320 I forget him it was for gadgetel or it was 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.360 for it was for um tech v or PC mag 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:07.280 I don't even remember which thing was. At this point, 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:09.800 I was somewhere is It's kind of ambiguous. I get 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:13.360 this offer from twit to be on tom Merritt show 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:18.960 called Tech News Today, and I get the offer, and 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:21.400 I have to tell this company that I persuaded after 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:23.280 weeks and weeks and weeks to hire me, to let 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.400 me go, so I equip within a hundred days. The 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.559 editor in chief you know who you are, didn't talk 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.319 to me for two weeks after I quit. I was 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.720 still at the company for seventeen days. He would not 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.319 speak to me, and I was assigned absolute garbage pieces 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:41.200 like I didn't write these features about the most excellent 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.679 pets in tech or animals and technology. And I'm like, 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.439 because Boo was really big at the time, Like, this 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.560 is obviously not to my skill level, but I'm on 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:52.880 my way out, so I'm gonna make some fun with this. 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:54.720 So if you ever look at PC mag and you 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.080 see anything written by me about animals and technology, and 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.520 that's why. So I get this job at Twitch, and 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.600 I have to pick up my life and move. At 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:04.360 this point, I have a young son, I have a wife, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.719 and we move over to California, to a little town 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:12.040 called Pedaluma in northern California. And it is a bumpy start. 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.520 I started working with with Tom Merritt, Sara Lane, Jason Howell, 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.640 leoo Port, and a whole bunch of other people, and 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.440 it was a complete, uh mind bender for me because 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:23.840 I used to watch a lot of these people on 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:26.280 tech TV, and I used to watch Tom all the 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.200 time on set and I started working with these guys. 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.560 So that goes on for a little bit and someone 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.840 pleasantness happens, which leads me to see net which we 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.160 can get into that at some point. Yeah, So so 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:43.640 backtracking a little bit, so I would always run into 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:45.640 you at C E S. That's that's when we would 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.520 spend whenever we saw each other in person. Of the 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:51.760 time that we have spent time together, it was because 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.200 we were both at C E S UH, and we 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.680 would go grab a meal or something or just hang 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.800 out and like make snarky comments about people in tech 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.160 and each other. UM. A lot of ribbing going on 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.120 at C E S. And I remember distinctly the C 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.920 E S before you got hired onto twit because I 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.760 was sitting down with Tom Merritt. Uh. And Tom is brilliant. 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.280 He's one of the best in the business. Just phenomenal, 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.400 hard worker. I his work ethic is to a point 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.560 where I can't even like when I complain about my 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.440 workload being too heavy, I sit there and think about 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.040 what Tom Merritt does on a normal week, not even 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.280 a heavy week, a normal week, and it just puts 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:37.240 me to shame. Tom had he was He wasn't seen 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.840 at Left Seen Net, joined This Weekend tech or twit 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.800 and started tech news Today, and I was chatting with 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.120 him and he was talking about he needed to find 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:48.840 a new co host. He I could tell he was 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.320 feeling out, like who I thought might be a good 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.920 co host. And I said, well, I'll tell you the 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.320 guy I would grab. I mean, he just started a 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.040 new job, but I'd grab I as A's who I'd 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.240 go for if I you had to have a tech 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.400 co host. At the time, I didn't need a tech 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.600 co host because I still had Chris Palette. I do 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.600 not have Chris Pallette anyone. I'm just saying, I as, 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:14.320 if you need another gig tech stuff, tech stuff could 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:18.800 always use another co host. But but no. But I 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.600 told Tom, I said, yeah, I would talk. I would 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.000 definitely I would chat with I s because he knows 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.960 his stuff. He's got a very strong perspective, his his 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.880 background in law is very helpful in that regard as well. 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.360 And uh, and he agreed. He was like, you know, 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:34.840 I was thinking about that, but I was kind of 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.480 trying to see if anyone else was having the same 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.400 sort of thought process. And I think shortly thereafter you 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.040 got approach to move over to twit. So I was 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.040 another time where I wasn't, like, you know, terribly surprised 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:47.800 at the thing that happened. I was very pleased to 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:52.760 see it come through. And obviously, uh, you know, moving 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:57.240 all the way across country. There's always the the just 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:02.200 the stress of moving, all the culture change that's there 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.800 as well. You have the culture of the the new office, 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.800 which is a very different thing in LEO Reports world. 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.000 And so how how do you remember how long you 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.000 were at TWIT? I was at twit for almost three years. 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:19.960 It was about two years and likes say eight or 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:24.440 nine months, but that place was it was something magical 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.520 over there because we got to do some really fun stuff. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.480 It was very experimental. We were alive all the time, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.200 So that I thought was really important when it came 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.680 to getting to know people. Because it's one thing when 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.720 you're talking on a podcast and you're explaining how a 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.760 patentrol is doing something or this technology is going to 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.760 change the world or this is complete garbage, but people 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:46.840 don't get to really know who you are. And in 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.080 these live streams where we would just be shooting the 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.000 breeze or post show pre show stuff, the audience really 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:53.439 got to know us, and I got to know the audience, 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:54.760 so like I don't think of the audience anymore like 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:56.159 they're my friends. I'd still talk to a lot of 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.200 these people today online and I forget that I knew 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.160 them from the chat and that's also why how new 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.080 people have seen it. Like I flat out I was 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:05.600 in the chat room all the time. That's how Tom 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.760 knew who I was in the first place, because when 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.399 I was editing whatever I was doing, I would have 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:13.879 seen that videos up live and I would just be 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.680 in the chat room like, oh, that's not right, here's 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.159 what's going on. And that's actually partly what got me 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:22.800 noticed was that I was giving corrections for the for 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.000 the podcast buzz out Loud as it was going on, 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.680 heavily researched, and if I was wrong, I would own 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:30.320 up to it. But it didn't happen a lot. And 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.199 he's oddly enough that parallel. Something he did how he 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.240 got his job at tech TV was that he was 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.040 frequently in the forums of tech TV, and with something 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.000 would go wrong, he'd write something about it and he 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.440 got noticed by Leolaport, so he ended up a tech TV. 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.119 So this is very similar, these these two career paths 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.160 of how that happened. So I completely lost track. We're 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:50.560 talking about other than I used to it for Tom 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.960 and that was really fun. Yeah, No, and I love 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.399 I love. I haven't been on a show with Tom 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.000 in years now, I haven't chat with him in years. 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.600 We kind of kind of lost touch. But anytime I 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:04.639 got a chance to do that, it was always a 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.359 great joy, mostly because I mean Tom would do so 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:10.639 much of that work too, write like, he would do 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.080 so much of the initial research that you could go 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.640 ahead and try and do some research on your own, 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.320 but he covered those bases so thoroughly that it was 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:21.800 more like, well, what do you think about this? Well, 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:23.760 Tom's drive in the driver's seat. I just have to 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.520 sit in the passengers and like point out stuff occasionally. 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.879 So it's fantastic. Well, so you're at You're over at twit? 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.359