Hello, Medium
From software guy to aspiring renaissance man
Here I am writing my first post on Medium. Actually, this is the first time writing anything since I had to knock out those requirements in college. Where to start? Well from the beginning I guess. I’m a software engineer by training, but I tackle everything the same way I tackle programming: Starting with “Hello, world.” Wikipedia says ‘A “Hello, World!” program is a computer program that outputs “Hello, World!” [and] is often used to introduce beginning programmers to a programming language.’ Yup, nailed that one in the title. Maybe this writing thing won’t be as difficult as I thought it would be… Nope, this is hard.
“Just do it, you’ll get better the more you do. Eventually you’ll nail it.” I’ve told myself that countless times in the last year, since I started working with Charvi at KNOX. When I first quit my job (woohoo!) and joined her as a co-founder, I thought I’d just be there working on the software. Sure, that’s where I spent a bunch of my time, but theres so much more to it than that. The first thing I needed to learn was talk to people about what I’m doing. Talking to real people? Terrifying. I had the fortune of meeting great people, but when they teach, its always easier said than done. Just like that owl up there. How many hours have I spent just trying to get a few sentences right? How many times did I recite those few words in my head? Okay. I’m ready. I got this. “Hi, my name is Huyson and here’s my owl.”
Crash and burn. Tried again. Crash and burn again. But hey, at least this time the explosion wasn’t so big. “Just do it, you’ll get better the more you do. Eventually you’ll nail it.” I can’t say I’ve nailed it yet, but I’ve gotten better. The same story goes for so many of the things I’ve worked on. First pitch deck? Do a pitch. Crash and burn. Prototype #1? Show someone. Crash and burn. Learn to solder? Test chip. Chip is destroyed, hand is burnt. The hardest part is when you think you got something, you show someone, and they tear it apart. But also it’s the most valuable bit. This is where you get the most valuable feedback. This is where you learn the most, and how to improve.
The most important feedback is always from the people who care about it. This has been the core of our design process for building a product that helps people. Theres no substitute for putting what we’re working on in front of the parents and children that we’re building this for.
After a million crashes across a million things, I can say that I’ve picked up a million skills. That’s one of the things I love about starting a company from scratch. You get to learn the skills across the board instead being stuck doing the same thing all day, everyday. Actually, you have to. You don’t have time (or money) to find someone else to do it, but its better this way.
The best part though, is all of this never (well, rarely) feels like ‘work.’ I’m building something to help people. People who I can relate to. I had asthma growing up (more on that in another post in the future), and all this ‘work’ is to help families much like my own. Creating something to help people live the lives that they want is as much a part of my identity as anything else I do.
Of course, that also means I get to chase snowstorms in Tahoe on Wednesdays and take midday bouldering sessions at Dogpatch Boulders as Charvi mentioned in her post. Check it out!
Also, check our website if you’d like to help us crash a little less.
