John Saddington
Hacker. Human. Indie Dev at Desk PM & Teeny Tokyo
Discussion
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
Hi! I'm an engineer, indie app developer, entrepreneur, blogger, & career-pivot enthusiast! I love trying new things, making a fool out of myself along the way, and sharing those experiences with others so that they can learn too. AMA... srsly. Hit me.
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Alex Carter
@alexcartaz · Operations @ 60dB. Ex-PH Podcasts 😻
What games do you like to play when you're not building or investing?
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@alexcartaz World of Warcraft. I've been playing since Vanilla... 11 years, and then the entire Blizzard franchise since the very beginning.
One of my first startups was a dating website for World of Warcraft players... it was my first startup and my first liquidity event (sale)... that's when I knew there was something about building your own products and working for yourself. That was super-fun.
Dustin W. Stout
@dustinwstout · Social media, design, blogging & coffee.
@saddington @alexcartaz I've never gotten into WOW... but after a recent reality check on my level of stress vs my level of healthy recreation (none really) I've realized I need to find some sort of gaming to help me decompress. Maybe time to give WOW a try.
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@dustinwstout @alexcartaz Lol... don't blame me......
@saddington @alexcartaz "One of my first startups was a dating website for World of Warcraft players... " is one of the greatest LIVE Chat sentences ever
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@nivo0o0 @alexcartaz yeah. it got on Kotaku and the Gawker Network... blew up... was eventually bought / acquired by a larger dating network. they blew it apart... sad. i think they wanted the tech........
Andrew So
@andrewdixonso
Hi @saddington, thanks for blogging your thoughts over the past years. It's apparent that you care deeply for the well-being of your teammates. Who are the people you look up to that foster a work culture that values people, instead of mere performance?
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@andrewdixonso There are a bunch of people that are doing great things in the peopleOps space and HR in general... and there are too many to name that are doing really good work.
I think the most important thing to remember when building a functionally-healthy work environment is that it starts with you. You have to believe, at a fundamental level, that this high-bar can actually be achieved. There are a lot of people who give this a ton of lip-service... and even have it part of their "core values" but they don't actually practice it. Trust me, I've been part of those organizations...................
When you take care of your people you take care of your business. This is core and absolute. It starts with you and sometimes you have to move-on to other places that care about it because the leadership doesn't.
And that brings me to my next point... if leadership isn't on board with this type of thinking then they probably never will. And, you know it when you see it. Bad leadership is rampant in silicon valley. It gets overlooked based on hype, "profitability", and capital raising. But, it always catches up.
Yoshi
@dnxx28 · Student
Hi @saddington. I'm Japanese engineer. So why do you use .tokyo domain and what kinda hardware do you use?
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@dnxx28 I thought it would be fun! There wasn't any special science behind it or any special thinking... TBH.
Hardware? I have a list here: http://john.do/colophon
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
@saddington Thanks for being here today. 🙌During your career to date, what has been your a) most challenging moment and how did you overcome it? b) proudest moment and why? c) most surprising moment?
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@ems_hodge i feel like I encounter challenges every single day that rob me of precious sleep!
The biggest challenge of any entrepreneur, solo or if you run a company, can be loneliness and the mental and emotional taxation that comes with building anything creative. I am a suicide survivor ( http://john.do/suicide/ ) and know what it's like first-hand to deal with this mental disorder daily. It takes courage and perseverance to stick it out some days...
My proudest moment has been my most important startup: My family, and my wife in particular, sticking together for the last 10+ years together as I have gone in and out of employment, building projects, companies, raising money, losing a ton of it, and moving 17 times in the last decade... they are everything to me! They are my foundation... and if you dont' have somethign like that.... well, good luck.........
My most surprising moment(s) have come when I've learned more about myself than about my business or anything else like that. Learning about my diagnosis of being a high-functioning autistic adult was huge. Stuff like that.
neeharika sinha
@neeeharika · Google, Threadchannel
@saddington thanks fo joining us here. For Someone switching careers to tech Now What would be your advice and if you could share your daily reads
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@neeeharika great question! i have changed "careers" myself a handful of times and continue to do so.
The most important thing to remember is that your so-called "career" is much less about the industry or the company and more about how you understand your own abilities and the value that you want to create for others (and as a natural consequence, yourself). You are your career in many ways which means that finding your own unique path is of critical importance.
The next most important thing beyond a philosophical mindshift is meeting great people in the fields and specific industries that you want to dive into. Want to learn about "machine learning" or "cryptocurrency"? It's time to snuggle up with like-minded people and start learning a shit-ton from them. Here are a few tips on doing this:
- Head to Meetup.com and troll the crap out of it. Goto the ones that are active.
- Hit people up on LinkedIn and Twitter.
- BE HONEST and HUMBLE about where you are. There is no room for ego when you're learning and trying to start something fresh. This will give you massive returns.
- Hustle the fuck out of it. Remove distractions that are not core to your career objectives. If this means turning of Netflix or saying no to that "Face of Book" for a bit then you should do that.
Stay focused. You can do this.
Harry Stebbings
@harrystebbings · Podcast Host @ The Twenty Minute VC
Hi @saddington thanks so much for joining us today. Would love to hear if were to start the process of learning to code again, how you would you do it? What language would you learn? What resources would you use? Love your advice.
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@harrystebbings learning to code is simple... and very hard... but the fundamentals are still the same: stay humble, work hard, and find DEDICATED time to do it.
Even if you know code and have been doing it for a while, there's no room for EGO either. I wrote this a while back: http://john.do/ground-floor/
So, even if you know code its still worth to start from the bottom and go from there.
Finally, find a mentor or a coach... do apprentice-style learning and get a TON of help!
Matt Pumpking-Keas
@matthiasak · @TheIronYard, http://mkeas.org
What has been your best purchase for less than $100? What about over $100?
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@matthiasak Great question. I've made a ton of purchases over the years but the one that's been the best is my many notebooks that I've used to capture ideas. Those have been fantastic and I've got a list of them that I use here: http://john.do/notebooks/ ...
Over $100? Hmm, tons of those as well, but clearly I love the devices I use and I list out few on my Colophon: http://john.do/colophon/
But, I really love my Bose Noise Canceling headphones... they are the very, very best! ---> http://bit.ly/bose-da-best
Matt Pumpking-Keas
@matthiasak · @TheIronYard, http://mkeas.org
How do you choose your next project? Does passion come organically, or do you have a process?
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@matthiasak There isn't an obvious process, but the most important "technique" that I've used in the past lands in two major buckets:
1) Long-standing interests and curiosities.
For instance, my passion for digital communication technologies, like online publishing, has created a ton of projects (and businesses!) over the years. I seem to come back to these things year over year and building them feels natural and exciting every single time.
If you find yourself to continuing to come back to the same types of industries or interests.... then there's a good chance that there's something there for you in terms of a project or even a larger business.
2) Personal relationships (and conversations).
The best "ideas" that i've ever had are ones that have been massaged through by people that i trust and respect, people that I love to bounce ideas off of. My idea starts half-baked... and doesn't really take real form until I talk with people about it. This is most noticeable with my wife who cuts right to the quick about my ideas and lets me know the hard truth about things.
Great partners (business) will also do this. Start companies and projects with those types of people, honest, forthcoming people, who love you and want to work with you because they know you, not because they want to get something out of you.
Dustin W. Stout
@dustinwstout · Social media, design, blogging & coffee.
@saddington since you've built a WordPress product in the past, if you were to develop a new WordPress plugin today, where would your marketing efforts be spent?
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John Saddington
@saddington · Developer
@dustinwstout I'd honestly stay away from it. When things get super-popular I (and maybe this is just me) I start looking elsewhere. It's time to do something new.