[0:00]
Hi everyone, I'm Sam. There are a number
[0:03]
of ways you might encounter this video.
[0:04]
So, I'm going to skip the greetings.
[0:06]
We're going to go straight to the
[0:07]
introduction. But let me start by saying
[0:10]
that you're not going to get a
[0:11]
performance for me. I have no script for
[0:14]
you. I have an intention and I'll walk
[0:17]
you through
[0:20]
it. But I'm not here to talk at a speed
[0:23]
that's unnatural, to make edits, to make
[0:26]
myself sound more smooth. I'm here to
[0:29]
show you the real me cuz the real me is
[0:32]
spectacular, extraordinary, and I know
[0:35]
it. I'm not ashamed to say it. I'm not
[0:38]
here to perform for you. I'm here to
[0:41]
introduce
[0:42]
myself. So, let me start with the
[0:45]
setting. I am sitting in my bed right
[0:48]
now with my laptop in front of me in an
[0:51]
RV on an off-grid campground where
[0:54]
there's no water or power. powering my
[0:56]
setup using my Jeep connected to an
[0:58]
inverter using jumper cables. That's the
[1:01]
extent of my power right now. But it's
[1:03]
enough. It's enough to power my
[1:05]
internet. It's enough to power my
[1:06]
laptop. It's enough to keep my systems
[1:08]
running in here. It's all I need. And I
[1:11]
love it. This lifestyle is not for
[1:13]
everyone, but it is definitely for me.
[1:16]
All my life I've been an explorer,
[1:18]
always exploring edges, both in real
[1:21]
life and in the digital world. That's
[1:22]
who I am.
[1:26]
I moved into the thing over a year ago
[1:27]
and it has been the best decision I ever
[1:30]
made. During that year, I took time off
[1:32]
of work. I lived off my
[1:34]
savings which I have gone
[1:37]
through. And
[1:40]
to oh, how to put this into words? It's
[1:44]
been a struggle. So, to make ends meet,
[1:47]
I decided to start volunteering first
[1:48]
for the state parks and now for the
[1:50]
Forest Service.
[1:52]
Tomorrow I move to a new campground, an
[1:54]
ATV campground in the dunes where I'll
[1:56]
be the caretaker
[1:59]
for what what passes as a campground,
[2:02]
but it's technically just a big giant
[2:03]
parking
[2:04]
lot with a bunch of kinetic ATVs, a lot
[2:08]
of loud
[2:11]
noise, and a new wedge to explore. I'm
[2:15]
excited about it.
[2:17]
So, I'm going to walk you through my
[2:20]
life in here real fast, and then I'm
[2:22]
going to take you down to the ocean cuz
[2:24]
I live along the Oregon
[2:26]
coast, traveling the 101, the edge of
[2:28]
the
[2:30]
continent. It has been wonderful. We're
[2:33]
going to end it there at the ocean.
[2:34]
Along the way, it's about a mile walk.
[2:36]
I'm going to walk you through my
[2:38]
history, what I've done as a programmer,
[2:39]
something I've been doing since I was a
[2:41]
child. So, let's just start with with my
[2:45]
home here.
[2:48]
Well, it's just a bed back here. My
[2:50]
slide's broken, so I keep my slide in
[2:52]
all the time. Work on my my laptop right
[2:55]
there. That's not the only thing I have.
[2:58]
I also have a desktop. It's too powerful
[3:02]
for a Jeep inverter out there. When I'm
[3:04]
at a campground, I can power that thing
[3:06]
up and do AI programming and things like
[3:08]
that cuz that thing is a beast. I built
[3:10]
that thing myself. Yes, it's an
[3:11]
Alienware, but I upgraded everything on
[3:13]
it. Did the same to my laptop.
[3:16]
I'll walk you through my setup out here.
[3:18]
It's a very small home. There's not much
[3:20]
to show you here. It's got all the all
[3:22]
the things you need to take care of
[3:24]
yourself, to live a a good life. That's
[3:26]
all I ever
[3:28]
needed. So, that's my inverter there.
[3:31]
It's hooked up to my Jeep. It's powering
[3:34]
my internet. It's powering my RV here.
[3:37]
It's a small one. 24 ft
[3:40]
Mercedes-Benz. Love this thing.
[3:43]
that thing across the country from
[3:45]
Kentucky to Oregon. Took over a month
[3:48]
and I've been here for 6 months
[3:51]
and it's been a dream. Best best life I
[3:54]
could ever imagine for myself. Now I'm
[3:56]
ready to integrate work back into that.
[3:58]
So, let me get all my stuff inside. I'm
[4:00]
going to have to pack it all up and then
[4:01]
we'll walk down to the ocean. We're
[4:03]
ready to go. So, I shared that first
[4:06]
clip with AI, something I've been doing
[4:08]
for more than a year now.
[4:10]
Um, AI is not just a tool to me. It is
[4:13]
my
[4:14]
mirror, something I learn from, grow
[4:16]
from, something
[4:19]
I something I interact with all the
[4:22]
time. And I had two suggestions. So,
[4:25]
we're just going to talk about those
[4:28]
real
[4:29]
fast. First, what my intention is. My
[4:32]
intention is not to sell myself to
[4:35]
you. I'm not making a pitch here. I'm
[4:38]
sharing my real life, my real self with
[4:40]
you because I know I have value. And for
[4:44]
the right people, they'll see it.
[4:48]
They'll want to be part of it. And that
[4:50]
matters to me because
[4:53]
reciprocity, energy
[4:56]
exchange,
[4:57]
purpose, these things matter to me. I
[5:00]
don't want to work for some corporation.
[5:02]
If you're just some executive looking at
[5:04]
this video, I already don't want you
[5:06]
watching it. So, I'm not looking for
[5:08]
those kinds of clients. I'm looking for
[5:10]
real people who want to connect with me
[5:13]
on a real level. That matters to me. The
[5:16]
second thing AI wanted me to tell you is
[5:19]
that everything you see in my life over
[5:23]
there, I learned myself. I adapted in
[5:26]
real time. The challenges I went through
[5:30]
were extensive.
[5:32]
You don't just do something like
[5:34]
that without having challenges, without
[5:37]
having adaptability and
[5:39]
resourcefulness. I thought that was
[5:40]
obvious. I guess AI wanted me to explain
[5:43]
it
[5:43]
anyways. Um, I sometimes forget I
[5:46]
operate at a depth in a frequency that
[5:49]
most people are incapable of even
[5:51]
witnessing, capable of seeing. And while
[5:54]
I could try
[5:56]
to articulate
[5:59]
myself to better resonate with those
[6:02]
kinds of people, I won't. I used to do
[6:05]
that. Did that for a big part of my
[6:07]
life. And it didn't really help cuz
[6:11]
you're either operating at my level or
[6:13]
you're
[6:14]
not. And so, you know, I've learned to
[6:17]
not apologize for
[6:18]
that. I got some rangers over here.
[6:23]
We're just going to head over to the
[6:24]
lagoon first and then we're going to
[6:26]
take that road down to the ocean. Right
[6:28]
here's the trail. I'm going to head this
[6:35]
way. This is more than just some kind of
[6:37]
recruitment video. I'm about to tell you
[6:40]
my life
[6:41]
history. It's not like anything you've
[6:43]
heard
[6:44]
before. And I'm
[6:46]
not I'm not going to make it small for
[6:49]
small minds.
[6:51]
That may sound arrogant. It's not. It's
[6:54]
just clarity. It's just
[6:57]
me recognizing that I'm not for
[7:01]
everyone. And not only am I not for
[7:03]
everyone, everyone is not for
[7:05]
me. I want the right people in my life.
[7:09]
And I am looking for work, but I want
[7:11]
these projects to be aligned with my
[7:14]
lifestyle, my
[7:16]
values, my
[7:19]
ethics. And at the core is
[7:23]
always a reciprocal
[7:27]
relationships.
[7:28]
[Applause]
[7:30]
So let me share that with A and see what
[7:33]
it has to say. All right. This is Vice
[7:36]
has
[7:37]
gotten gotten shallow and performative.
[7:41]
So we're ignoring it
[7:42]
now. It's trying to create a clip for
[7:47]
the exact kind of people I am not
[7:48]
interested in knowing. So, we're just
[7:50]
going to move forward. Stream of
[7:52]
consciousness because that's my style. I
[7:55]
am sitting at the lagoon now. Very
[7:58]
peaceful, very nice, nice sunny
[8:01]
day. Let's just I'm going to take you
[8:03]
through chronological order for the most
[8:04]
part. So, let's start with my
[8:06]
childhood. I started programming in the
[8:08]
sixth
[8:09]
grade. Uh my father had a a business. He
[8:12]
had a computer and I used to use that
[8:14]
thing all the time. I used to break it
[8:16]
on a daily basis because that's how you
[8:17]
learn.
[8:19]
And I even back then I my very first
[8:22]
program was a bunch of batch tools back
[8:26]
in the days of DOSs before Windows and
[8:28]
we uploaded those to a bulletin board
[8:30]
system cuz this was pre- internet. I did
[8:32]
that in sixth grade. By 8th grade I was
[8:35]
working for my teachers. I was making
[8:37]
programs for them. One of the first
[8:38]
programs I made was called Name My Note.
[8:40]
It was for my band
[8:42]
teacher and you know her students so
[8:44]
that they could learn how to read music
[8:46]
on a scale. I later expanded that thing
[8:49]
years later using
[8:51]
Pascale and you
[8:54]
know doing all kinds of things where you
[8:57]
know it would test them, it would grade
[8:58]
them, it would store the results,
[9:00]
teacher could go back to them, all kinds
[9:02]
of stuff. This
[9:05]
was 8th
[9:07]
grade. By 10th
[9:10]
grade, I didn't have a computer anymore.
[9:13]
My dad sold it and I'm still bitter
[9:17]
about it. It sounds like my dad sold it.
[9:20]
I didn't have a computer. So, I started
[9:22]
programming on
[9:24]
paper. I could hold entire systems in my
[9:26]
head. And I'm talking elaborate systems.
[9:29]
And I would just write code on paper,
[9:31]
literal code, and I'd run it in my head.
[9:34]
Wrote entire wrote an entire program
[9:37]
that way called DNET Wizard Matrix
[9:38]
Server. one of the very first content
[9:40]
management systems ever created way
[9:42]
before that term was ever
[9:45]
coined. And um if you don't know what
[9:47]
that is, just think of
[9:49]
WordPress. I did that because I was
[9:51]
already starting to make clients. My
[9:52]
clients always had had requests for me,
[9:55]
basic stuff like updating, you know,
[9:57]
text on their website or adding an image
[9:59]
or, you know, just basic stuff. And I
[10:01]
didn't want to do that all the time. And
[10:03]
I wanted to empower them to do it
[10:04]
themselves. So, I
[10:06]
created an expansive, incredible content
[10:09]
management system and made it open
[10:12]
source.
[10:14]
Um, still have the code for that
[10:16]
somewhere. Sent some disc somewhere.
[10:18]
It's not really on the internet anymore.
[10:22]
Unfortunately, I never finished it. I
[10:25]
was a child. Okay, I remember this.
[10:29]
And you know, I moved on.
[10:32]
So, I did use the code from that for
[10:35]
decades. I would take pieces of that
[10:37]
code in a modular fashion and use that
[10:38]
in my freelancing projects cuz that's
[10:40]
where we're going now. By the time I was
[10:42]
18, I was a freelancer and I was working
[10:45]
on
[10:47]
guru.com. I
[10:48]
was I was the only individual back then
[10:52]
to make it into the top 10 in the
[10:54]
programming category. Only one from
[10:57]
America. Everybody else could under bid
[11:00]
me
[11:01]
significantly. The other nine were teams
[11:03]
that could do that. But I was in that
[11:04]
top 10 and I was very proud of this.
[11:07]
Made over $72,000 on that
[11:10]
site. Um, you know, this is 20 years
[11:13]
ago, over 40 reviews from clients
[11:17]
who were exceptionally grateful for what
[11:20]
I did for them
[11:21]
because I wasn't just doing a job. I
[11:25]
took ownership of their projects. I
[11:27]
listened to them. Um, I listened
[11:30]
to what they thought their needs were
[11:33]
and expanded on them. I I would think
[11:35]
into the future. What are their needs
[11:36]
going to be? And I would program for
[11:38]
that. This is just how I am. And they
[11:41]
noticed
[11:43]
that. If there was a mistake, I would
[11:46]
own
[11:46]
it. I can remember one review where I
[11:50]
had designed a website for someone and I
[11:52]
had forgotten to ensure that it looked
[11:54]
right on tablets. It was a a responsive
[11:58]
design, but I had messed up the tablet
[12:00]
view
[12:01]
somehow. And I spent several days fixing
[12:04]
that for free cuz it was my mistake. He
[12:08]
noted that in this
[12:09]
review. Uh people talked about my speed,
[12:12]
my
[12:13]
efficiency, my skill, everything cuz
[12:16]
there's really nothing I haven't
[12:18]
touched. And those reviews are still on
[12:20]
there for you to see. They'll be in the
[12:22]
description. You can you can look at
[12:24]
them yourself.
[12:26]
So I did that for several years and then
[12:29]
I met a client, World Media Group. I
[12:33]
started working for them for the next 10
[12:35]
years as an independent contractor.
[12:36]
Still a freelancer
[12:38]
basically. And I started on a website
[12:42]
called
[12:42]
popstar.com. Doesn't exist anymore,
[12:45]
unfortunately. Every once in a while,
[12:47]
I'll go into, you know, the archive,
[12:49]
internet archive website, and look at it
[12:50]
cuz I was very proud of this project. It
[12:53]
has some some links to it. Not many
[12:56]
unfortunately, but um it's still there
[12:58]
sort
[12:59]
of this was an entertainment platform
[13:02]
where um it was similar to IMDb. It had
[13:05]
celebrity movie and television profiles,
[13:08]
a lot of data on them from scraping data
[13:11]
all over the web.
[13:13]
And it
[13:15]
included a writing program. So, I
[13:18]
created a program where um independent
[13:21]
writers could could work for the site
[13:23]
way before Medium and things like that
[13:26]
and they could write reviews on movies
[13:28]
or TV show episodes or biographies on
[13:31]
celebrities, you know, to to generate um
[13:34]
fresh content for the
[13:36]
site. And then whenever somebody would
[13:38]
visit those pages, we would
[13:42]
track all the ad revenue from those
[13:44]
pages and we would split it with the
[13:45]
writers. they could see that in their
[13:47]
dashboard. And I had programs that
[13:50]
tracked, you know, um, analytics
[13:53]
for how traffic got to the site, SEO,
[13:56]
things like that, what was trending on
[13:57]
the site. And if it didn't have a
[13:59]
biography or a movie review or whatever,
[14:02]
it would recommend that to the writing
[14:04]
staff. And if they worked on that, they
[14:07]
could potentially generate more revenue
[14:09]
for themselves because that's where
[14:10]
everyone is going. It was a longtail
[14:13]
website, so the SEO traffic was
[14:16]
especially back then was
[14:18]
quite fairly random and you know some
[14:22]
profiles needed to be built out in real
[14:24]
time and so I created systems for all of
[14:26]
that. Uh we also had a community on that
[14:31]
site of our you know the visitors and I
[14:35]
created kind of like a gamified system
[14:37]
way before those existed
[14:40]
where they would earn points from doing
[14:42]
different things on the site. So if they
[14:44]
write a movie review or they left a
[14:46]
comment or they were replying to
[14:48]
something in the forums or just all
[14:49]
kinds of different ways, they would earn
[14:51]
points. Then they could use those points
[14:53]
to bid in a in an auction system that I
[14:56]
created. Um, companies would send us
[14:59]
merchandise
[15:01]
and I'd put that on the auction system.
[15:04]
They could use their points to bid on
[15:05]
things if they won. Then I would mail it
[15:07]
to them for
[15:08]
free. I did all of these things myself.
[15:12]
The only person. They were my ideas. I
[15:15]
created them. I created everything. the
[15:19]
infrastructure, you know, all the
[15:21]
systems, all the management down to
[15:24]
mailing prizes. Another thing we had
[15:27]
were the celebrity love awards, which
[15:30]
were just a way for the fans to write
[15:32]
letters to their favorite
[15:34]
celebrities. And every year we would
[15:37]
rank who won that based
[15:40]
on how many letters they got. And then I
[15:43]
think it was like the top 10. I would
[15:45]
create custom CDs for those celebrities
[15:48]
where they would just pop the CD into
[15:50]
their computer and up would pop up all
[15:53]
the letters people had written them,
[15:54]
mailed it to the celebrities. We had a
[15:57]
lot of celebrity interviews. We're a
[15:59]
really popular site. Did some of the
[16:00]
interviews myself. It was a great job. I
[16:02]
loved it. But it didn't make a lot of
[16:05]
money. That vertical
[16:08]
just was a very difficult one. And at
[16:10]
that time, can't remember what year this
[16:12]
was, but advertising revenue had kind of
[16:14]
dried up. So, it wasn't doing great. And
[16:16]
so, we pivoted. I went into the travel
[16:18]
industry with
[16:19]
them. This company owns a lot of root
[16:24]
domains
[16:26]
that have value just by their names
[16:28]
alone. So, they had usa.com, world.com,
[16:31]
Asia.com, London.com, Berlin.com,
[16:34]
Hotel.net, net. Um, probably a bunch of
[16:38]
others
[16:40]
and I created a travel platform for all
[16:43]
of
[16:44]
those using a lot of the components from
[16:47]
networm matrix store that I created when
[16:48]
I was a kid teenager on paper.
[16:53]
And this
[16:54]
platform, way before the others, had a
[16:58]
price comparison tool where you could
[17:00]
compare rates on hotels and flights and
[17:03]
um car rentals, all of that. And then
[17:06]
you'd pick one and you go book somewhere
[17:09]
else and we would get paid for
[17:12]
um pay-per-click and also revenue
[17:16]
shares. We had a bunch of relationship
[17:17]
with different travel websites, travel
[17:19]
companies. Another thing I did was
[17:22]
longtail
[17:23]
SEM. I automated a campaign of over a
[17:26]
100,000 ad groups, millions of keywords,
[17:29]
so that whenever you search for
[17:30]
something like hotels in some city, we
[17:33]
would pop
[17:35]
up and bring you to our
[17:37]
site. We generated over $100,000 a month
[17:41]
in in
[17:42]
revenue. I think I mean I think that was
[17:46]
too long ago. I don't want to want to
[17:48]
misquote here, but you know, we spent a
[17:50]
lot of money on SEM
[17:52]
and we earned a lot of money from it.
[17:55]
And then Google entered the market and
[17:58]
they started doing their own their own
[18:00]
price comparisons and bookings and
[18:02]
things like that. And because it's
[18:03]
Google and that's where all our um
[18:06]
that's where all our traffic was coming
[18:07]
from, they killed our business pretty
[18:09]
much overnight. I mean, you could just
[18:11]
watch it dry out from one month to the
[18:12]
next. Like, it would just drop in half
[18:14]
every month. It was pretty depressing.
[18:17]
And so after trying to
[18:23]
um turn that
[18:25]
around, I just didn't
[18:27]
have it was just me. I did everything
[18:30]
myself. Again, always myself and I
[18:33]
didn't have a big team around me. I
[18:34]
didn't have people helping me. I didn't
[18:37]
have the resources to do some of the
[18:41]
things that I might be thinking about
[18:42]
that I thought would help cuz I knew
[18:44]
that this was a weakness for us. And I
[18:45]
had told them about this. You know, this
[18:47]
is a weakness and you know, we need
[18:50]
to, they weren't listening. I ended up
[18:53]
leaving. So, I go back to guru.com for a
[18:56]
short while and I meet my next
[18:58]
client. And this client has a music
[19:01]
streaming service, arenomusic.com. His
[19:04]
main website is arena.com.
[19:06]
And when I went to work for him, he had
[19:10]
just
[19:12]
um lost a longtime programmer that had
[19:14]
worked with him for a very long time.
[19:16]
And the website was broken. Nothing was
[19:19]
working. And we basically had to start
[19:21]
from scratch. So we created a music
[19:23]
streaming service at arenomusic.com and
[19:25]
then a music distribution service at
[19:28]
soundblock.com. Uh the music streaming
[19:31]
service never went live the time that I
[19:33]
was. Sorry, my phone just did something.
[19:36]
The music streaming service never went
[19:37]
live the whole time I was there. It was
[19:39]
always in beta behind
[19:43]
um you know, it was just wasn't open to
[19:45]
the public, but Soundachlock was. And at
[19:47]
Soundblock, if you're a musician, you
[19:50]
could, you know, a band, you could
[19:53]
upload your music and we would
[19:54]
distribute it to different music sites
[19:56]
like Spotify, Apple Music, all of those.
[19:58]
We would track the royalties that you
[20:00]
earned and then we would distribute them
[20:01]
to your band members using smart
[20:02]
contracts. So we had blockchain
[20:04]
integrated into this site. Everything
[20:08]
was logged in a quantum
[20:12]
ledger because we wanted to restore
[20:14]
trust in the music
[20:15]
industry. And you could make these smart
[20:18]
contracts
[20:19]
where you would split the royalties with
[20:22]
your band members, your management team,
[20:23]
whoever else was supposed to receive
[20:26]
part of that. And then when the
[20:27]
royalties would come in, we would report
[20:29]
them and then distribute them
[20:30]
accordingly. this website still
[20:34]
exists. Um, I did a bunch of other
[20:36]
things for him. You know, I made an
[20:38]
admin panel where his office team could
[20:42]
um, manage everything. Uh, support
[20:45]
ticket system, you know, all the kinds
[20:46]
of things you'd expect to have, created
[20:49]
everything from scratch. I managed a
[20:51]
team of
[20:53]
programmers, so dozens of programmers at
[20:55]
a time, hundreds over a decade. And I
[20:58]
learned a lot from that experience
[20:59]
because I found most of my programmers
[21:02]
on Upwork and they were not good. I was
[21:05]
shocked at the inadequacy of the
[21:08]
programmers I
[21:10]
encountered. I just I discovered that
[21:13]
most
[21:15]
people do not have the skill set I do.
[21:18]
They don't have the mind I do.
[21:21]
They I don't know. They were taught a
[21:24]
certain way. They were not taught to
[21:25]
think expansively.
[21:27]
every time, you know, they
[21:30]
would Sorry for the helicopter. Every
[21:34]
time they would change something, they
[21:36]
break something else. I'm like, "How
[21:38]
come you didn't think of that?" Because,
[21:39]
you know, this is obvious. You know, you
[21:40]
got to be a system sinker. You got to be
[21:42]
thinking about um how things interact
[21:44]
with each other. People don't tend to do
[21:47]
this, which really shocked me. So, it
[21:50]
was always a constant battle. And I feel
[21:53]
like we would have made a lot more
[21:55]
progress if I had just skipped
[21:57]
managing this team and just did all the
[21:59]
work myself. I swear to God, I truly
[22:01]
believe this. And I did that for many
[22:04]
years. It burnt me out. And that's why I
[22:07]
moved into my RV because um I needed a
[22:10]
break from programming
[22:12]
um from all the stress of trying to
[22:14]
manage
[22:16]
something when I just felt like I was
[22:18]
hitting a wall, especially when I was
[22:20]
the only one responsible for everything.
[22:23]
Um, I hate to say this cuz he is a
[22:25]
friend. Deeply respect him, but I didn't
[22:28]
have support. It's like I never have
[22:31]
support. I'm responsible for everything.
[22:32]
People put things on my shoulders
[22:37]
and and I try to move mountains and I
[22:40]
often do move those mountains, but you
[22:41]
can only do that for so long and I don't
[22:44]
want to do that
[22:45]
anymore. So, I'm taking a different
[22:47]
approach moving forward. We just reached
[22:50]
the beach. Um, almost. We're at the
[22:51]
dunes now at the entrance to the dunes.
[22:53]
I'm going to show you that. So, we're
[22:55]
just going to walk up these dunes here
[22:57]
and then we'll be at the
[22:58]
ocean. Got a Forest Service vehicle over
[23:01]
there. That's who I'll be volunteering
[23:02]
for. Just waiting to hear from them
[23:05]
[Music]
[23:07]
today. So, that's the basic interest so
[23:10]
far. So, there's the ocean out there.
[23:13]
I'm going to take you out to her in a
[23:14]
minute. That is the greatest force on
[23:16]
Earth right there. And she is my mirror.
[23:19]
I don't say that in some superficial
[23:23]
way. I am as as deep and as expansive as
[23:26]
that ocean right there and I know
[23:29]
it. This
[23:32]
thing this thing shapes shapes the
[23:35]
[Music]
[23:37]
earth not just through the tides through
[23:41]
wind through rain through clouds the
[23:43]
marine
[23:45]
layer. It creates entire atmospheres and
[23:48]
then spreads them around the world. And
[23:50]
that water always returns to it. It is
[23:54]
the truest embodiment of a force that we
[23:56]
have on this planet. And I love it so
[23:58]
much. That is why I'm here on the Oregon
[24:00]
coast. I will never leave her. She is
[24:03]
why I'm
[24:04]
here. So, I am wearing a mic. I'm hoping
[24:07]
that will help. It does get windy out
[24:09]
here. Apologize if it gets more
[24:11]
difficult to hear me.
[24:14]
[Music]
[24:15]
I want to note that you didn't hear me
[24:17]
go through a bunch of programming
[24:18]
language and technologies because that's
[24:20]
pointless. That's what people with a
[24:23]
lesser skill set do. There is nothing I
[24:26]
can't work in. There's nothing I can't
[24:28]
learn. There's nothing I can't adapt
[24:32]
to. There's nothing I haven't really
[24:34]
studied or considered. You know, when I
[24:37]
look at a project, I don't think about
[24:39]
my needs. I think about my clients.
[24:41]
Think about what would be best for them.
[24:43]
and I design around that. Whether I know
[24:45]
it or not, I'll learn it. Now, we have
[24:48]
AI, which makes it so much easier,
[24:51]
honestly. So, I'm not going to list off
[24:53]
a bunch of skills for you. It's
[24:54]
pointless. It truly
[24:57]
is. Just know that there's really
[25:01]
nothing I haven't done or can't learn to
[25:03]
do.
[25:08]
I've done a lot more than what I've
[25:09]
shared with you, but I think that's it's
[25:11]
a pretty decent
[25:14]
introduction. Two of my clients I had
[25:16]
for a decade each. That tells you about
[25:17]
my
[25:18]
commitment. You've seen how adaptable I
[25:21]
am because you see how I
[25:22]
live. You see how authentic I am because
[25:25]
I'm being honest with you right now. No
[25:27]
pretense, no
[25:29]
script. I'm
[25:31]
sharing my whole self with you because
[25:34]
that's how I am. I don't
[25:35]
compartmentalize. I am an integrated
[25:37]
being. Here's another thing you need to
[25:40]
know. The Oregon coast gives me
[25:44]
allergies. I started in January. If you
[25:46]
start hearing me sniffling or whatever,
[25:47]
I'm sorry. This coast has trees or
[25:50]
yellow flowers. I'm not sure which, that
[25:54]
have been attacking me for months now.
[26:03]
So there was a for most of my life I
[26:07]
stay in front of a computer and I coded.
[26:10]
That's what I did hour after hour from
[26:14]
the time I woke up until I went to sleep
[26:16]
often really late into the night. I was
[26:21]
nocturnal. I did that for years for
[26:24]
decades and I loved it. It never felt
[26:27]
like a job. It never felt difficult, you
[26:29]
know, it felt felt natural. It was a
[26:31]
float. I did I was that way my whole
[26:34]
life.
[26:35]
But after my last
[26:38]
job with no
[26:41]
support, trying with someone who just
[26:45]
couldn't make up his mind about what he
[26:47]
wanted to do, it was a constant struggle
[26:49]
even just working for this man because
[26:52]
he's constantly pivoting something else.
[26:54]
He could never stick with one project
[26:55]
and let us finish it.
[26:58]
You know, it's been 16 months since I
[27:00]
worked for him and they still haven't
[27:01]
released a music streaming service. I
[27:03]
left him with the team that I had fired
[27:05]
at one point because they were just, you
[27:08]
know, your typical programmers who chose
[27:11]
to work sometimes and most of the time
[27:13]
didn't. I told him this was a bridge for
[27:16]
you because I'm leaving. I'm burnt out
[27:17]
and I need to go. Here's a bridge for
[27:20]
you. Replace them. He didn't. 16 months
[27:23]
later, they have accomplished nothing.
[27:25]
It was never my fault. I tried to tell
[27:29]
him for
[27:31]
years. And so I just reached the point
[27:33]
where it was like, I'm just done working
[27:35]
with systems like that. I'm done. I have
[27:39]
nothing to prove to anybody. I know my
[27:40]
skill set. I know how good I am. I know
[27:43]
what I can create. I know what I can
[27:45]
accomplish. And most people cannot meet
[27:47]
at my level. They just
[27:49]
can't. And that's not something for me
[27:51]
to apologize for. I've been asking
[27:53]
people to meet me at my level all my
[27:55]
life and I used to make myself smaller.
[27:57]
I used to bend over for them and that
[27:59]
didn't do anything
[28:02]
[Music]
[28:05]
because that didn't do
[28:09]
anything. I'm ready now. I want to work
[28:12]
for a new project. I want to be paid
[28:14]
fairly. I want to work with a
[28:17]
client who understands that my
[28:19]
lifestyle, the way I live now, matters.
[28:21]
that it's a big deal and that it comes
[28:25]
first. I will make time for this
[28:30]
client. Every day, probably 6, seven
[28:33]
days a week, cuz that's just how I am.
[28:36]
Here comes the ocean. I trace these
[28:38]
waves. It's one of the things I do kind
[28:40]
of like a kid. I'll just walk alongside
[28:42]
them going in and out with the tide. I
[28:45]
have never felt more joy in my life than
[28:47]
doing that.
[28:49]
I love this ocean. We're heading towards
[28:52]
where the ATVs can drive. I don't see
[28:55]
any out there, though. But maybe we'll
[28:57]
get to see one before I end this video.
[28:59]
So, let me keep
[29:00]
[Music]
[29:03]
going. I'm looking for a partner in my
[29:06]
client. Somebody with
[29:08]
resources, somebody with a
[29:11]
vision, somebody who's not going to feel
[29:15]
small.
[29:18]
um by being around someone like
[29:23]
me, someone who's going to listen to my
[29:25]
ideas and want to see them
[29:27]
implemented cuz I promise you I have
[29:30]
very good ideas. I'm not
[29:32]
apologizing for that effort. Here comes
[29:35]
the Here comes the ocean. I am
[29:38]
myself. I am whole. I am integrated. my
[29:42]
my ethics, my integrity, my emotions, my
[29:47]
cognition, my somatic self, my body, all
[29:51]
of it. One
[29:52]
field. I have spent a lifetime building
[29:56]
myself up into the person I am. And most
[29:59]
people cannot match it. I've never met
[30:01]
anyone that
[30:02]
could. I know who I am. I know the value
[30:06]
I bring. Now, I want to know if you can
[30:08]
see it.
