I am patiently waiting for the singularity.
I grew up in Greeley, Colorado, in a house without a television set. I was a very nerdy kid: I used to play 'astronaut' and eat bouillon as astronaut food. We also had tons of books.
We are often celebrating technology and codes, but we don't really think about the creative side.
I've had a lot of bosses that I didn't agree with, but the worst boss was very much me myself. So, I can't let myself slack off, and if I do slacking off, I'm the one that's yelling at myself. I've worked with a lot of different employers, and none of them have been as aggressive as I have been.
Oftentimes in tech, people think, 'I'm the only one that has this.' I call them the Atlas People. They're like, 'The weight of the world is on the shoulders. I'm the only person who can solve this problem.' But you can't do that.
If you get a WhatsApp message, you're probably going to open it. That's the interesting thing.
There are a lot of people who are unable to take a break to clear their minds. I imagine they are the ones who need it the most.
If you want to go and build a company that exists in Silicon Valley, then you should go and do it there. But if you want to build a company that is Australian, that represents your culture and your being, then you should do it in Sydney.
The team that I had built was all white dudes with the same perspective on things that was at times comfortable and easy, but we weren't as innovative as our competitors.
Photo management software is terrible. Mylio is pretty good - but disrupts the 'natural' flow of things: i.e. Apple Photos.
I'm not a very patient person in general.
Taking time to do something slower than you normally would is a privilege that should not be ignored.
I have to say that you don't really know stress until you know that the path of the free world is resting a little bit on your shoulders.
My parents are very supportive: they helped redirect my technology attitude and my punkness into positive things.
When I called people and said, 'Hey! Do you want to work for the president?' they usually said yes. I had 2 people say no. One person said no because they were a Republican; one person said no because they're a Libertarian.
The opportunity to step away from everything and take a break is something that shouldn't be squandered.
I can only speak to the Democrat side, but for the Democrats, everything is aggressively measured, and what that means is if you're going to use Snapchat, you're going to use it for a reason, not just for fun.
In technology startups, there's a lot of winging it.
Not every time you open Messenger do you want an Uber, but when you do want an Uber, it appears. That is the goal.
I spent a lot of time hacking, doing all this stuff, building websites, building communities, working all the time, and then a lot of time drinking, partying, and hanging out. And I had to choose when to do which.
