How I Became CreationixLife Hack

October 2, 2015

1982

● The Commodore 64 - 8-bit PC

● Intel 80286 - 16-bit CPU

● Tron - the first movie with CG

● Electronic Arts (EA) is founded

● Tim Caswell is born...

QBasic10 years of

programming QBasic

Before the web existed.

SORCERER.BASMy own

implementation of

Ultimate Wizard.

https://github.

com/creationix/basic-

games

The Web

● Internet (Dial Up)

● Web Browsers

● HTML

● JavaScript

1982

8-bit computers, games,

BASIC

1990

16-bit computers, DOS,

QBasic

1995

Web Browsers, HTML,

JavaScript

2003

PHP, Python, Ruby,

Meetups

2009

Node.JS, Conference

Talks, Social Media,

Blog Posts

Missio

n

Family ManPayin’ the Bills

● Digital Production at Print Shop

● Got Married and moved.

● Wrote app in Java!

● Then did IT at a Bank.

● Moved back to Texarkana.

● Went back to print shop.

● First child born.

● Then IT for the Newspaper.

● Moved to Dallas for school.

● Temp work linux admin.

Family ManPayin’ the Bills

● Temp work linux admin.

● Real programming job doing

Python.

● Full-Stack PHP + Web job.

● Freelance work.

● Second child born.

● Ruby Job.

● Document Cloud (backbone.js)

● Back to full-stack shop.

● Finally finished Bachelor's of

Science

Internet FameThe Rise and Fall

● Moved to Palo Alto, CA.

● Worked at Sencha, node.js job.

● Conferences, podcasts, meetups.

● Worked at HP/Palm (WebOS)

● Moved back to Texas.

● Third child born.

● Worked remote on Cloud9 IDE

● JS-Git on Kickstarter

● Work remote for Rackspace.

● Fourth child born.

● Done traveling and speaking.

Maintaining a Work / Life Balance● Minimal commute

● Work from home

● Set office hours

● Office out of house

● Use vacation

● Limit travel

● Continue Hobbies

● Church / Community

● Wash the Dishes

● Mow the lawn (2-acres)

● Play with kids

● Parent during breakfast / bedtime

● Hack at night when quiet.

● But not every night, sleep too.

● Don’t maintain all code!

● Always be Learning!

Tools of the TradeI like it simple

● Atom Editor

○ clang linter

○ luacheck linter

○ jshint linter

● OSX

○ iTerm

● Linux

○ Gnome-terminal

Test all the ThingsI collect gadgets (budgeted)

● Firefox, Chrome, IE, Safari, Edge

● OSX, Linux, Windows,

ChromeOS, FreeBSD

● Laptop, Desktop, Tablet, Phone

● Raspberry PI, Arduino

● Microcontrollers and 3D Printer!

Creation...is your opportunity in this life.

Creationix...is what I’m doing.

What will you create?