The Way I Work: Justin Kan of Justin.tv

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100701/the-way-i-work-justin-kan-of-justintv.html

by evansolomon • 16 years ago

114 62 16 years ago

inc.com

evansolomon2• 16 years ago

I submitted page 2 by accident, here is page 1 http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100701/the-way-i-work-justin-k...

ronnier• 16 years ago

Looks like it was fixed by a moderator.

pjhyett• 16 years ago

"Lunch gets delivered to the office every day at noon. We asked our former office manager to order lunch every day, because I didn't want to worry about it. I just wanted food to show up. He did it for a year before starting his own business, which now provides this service for us and for other start-ups in the area, too."

Anyone have the name of this service?

alexyim• 16 years ago

ZeroCater

abstractbill3• 16 years ago

Clickable: http://zerocater.com/

arram5• 16 years ago

Hey PJ - that's me, the service is called ZeroCater.com Yeah, it was pretty cool to be almost mentioned in Inc.

Feel free to get in touch with me: a@zerocater.com

Thanks!

Arram

sachinag• 16 years ago

I'd be hesitant to use your service without a referral. Your site doesn't list your restaurants, your fees, or your happy clients. It's just a Google Doc lead gen form. Why?

hooande• 16 years ago

ZeroCater is an amazing service. I recommend it for any startup.

rumpelstiltskin• 16 years ago

Do you guys do new york as well?

samd• 16 years ago

I thought they chose Just In TV because streaming content is always just in, but it awkwardly sounded like someone's name. Now it's awkward for a different reason: what does that guy's name have to do with streaming internet TV?

jey• 16 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin.tv#Lifecasting_origins

arnorhs3• 16 years ago

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100701/the-way-i-work-justin-k...

Printer friendly version. All the text on one page with no ads.

pkaler• 16 years ago

Just ⌘-⇧-R in Safari. No need to hunt for printer friendly versions.

arnorhs3• 16 years ago

Cool. You're talking about their readability rip off (I use readability all the time). Does it also display the whole article on one page?

herdrick2• 16 years ago

Justin wears a suit now?

rokhayakebe• 16 years ago

I really like the transformation. Changing from the outside most definitely affects you internally.

kenjackson• 16 years ago

Dressing up for work is something I'd love to see studied more. At my first job I wore a suit everyday. Wasn't a biggie except cleaning a bit of a hassle, but I always felt really good going and coming from work.

Now I wear jeans when we have important customers coming by. I definitely like the freedom, but I do think that maybe I should dress it up a bit more. It sometimes just felt really good. Not sure why, or if it matters. Inertia is the main thing holding me back.

justin7• 16 years ago

Only some days, and rarely now that it's the summer and our office doesn't have AC. Seriously though, I definitely feel a lot better on days I wear a shirt and tie to work, especially since it is a very marked contrast from the rest of Valley culture.

herdrick2• 16 years ago

since it is a very marked contrast from the rest of Valley culture

I think you're onto something there. The typical valley firm has almost as much of a uniform as a bank.

The subversive suit. Interesting.

fleaflicker• 16 years ago

My job is to help other people do their jobs well.

straight from the Spolsky school of management

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/DevelopmentAbstractio...

patrickk• 16 years ago

+1 for that link. There's so much of Joel's writing, I don't know where to begin ;-)

vollmond• 16 years ago

Glad to see some love for Iain M. Banks. Easily my favorite scifi author at the moment.

bbhacker• 16 years ago

Is anyone aware of the long-term effects of taking melatonin before you go to bed every night? Just curious, maybe worth a try?

justin7• 16 years ago

I'm hoping it is benign :)

I actually don't take it every night, but find I can sleep much more regular hours the nights I do.

natrius• 16 years ago

As of a couple of years ago when I asked my sleep specialist, no one knows.

rms• 16 years ago

Your body will naturally produce less melatonin at sleep time. It adjusts back if you stop taking melatonin. This isn't an issue at the doctor recommended 1mg dosage of melatonin, but at 3mg it is and most melatonin pills are 3mg.

As a fake doctor of herbal medicine, my recommendation is to take 1mg of melatonin when you want it, not 3mg. Also, if you take it sublingually (letting it dissolve under your tongue) it takes effect right away.

Psyonic3• 16 years ago

Interesting. I generally take 3mg, and I think I pretty much need it at this point. I may try and lower my dosage over time. That said, are there any negative effects from relying on melatonin? Sure, maybe I can't sleep well without it, but having access to it isn't much of a problem.

city41• 16 years ago

I phone interviewed with Justin.tv soon after they launched. A good chunk of the interview was asking me how I would use grep to solve various problems. It was an interesting interview. I liked that they were clearly looking for people that can get stuff done and didn't want to BS around about it.

jmintz• 16 years ago

Any idea which book called "Influence" Justin was talking about? Looks like there is more than one: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dap....

abstractbill3• 16 years ago

It's this one: http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Busine...

misterbwong• 16 years ago

Similar tangent: Is this the Shogun book that Justin was talking about? http://www.amazon.com/Shogun-Tokugawa-Ieyasu-Tuttle-Classics...

vinhboy• 16 years ago

7am - 11pm? So do you have make a lot of sacrifices with your personal life? Like girlfriend, wife, family?

Also, why did you decide to act on the whole "professionalism" feedback? Did you just thought it would be fun, or did you notice it was affecting the company?

I envy your drive. Amazing really.

evansolomon2• 16 years ago

Our basic operating idea at the company is that if people think something makes it harder to get their job done then it's a problem worth fixing. Professionalism in the office is just one example.

abstractbill3• 16 years ago

7am - 11pm? So do you have make a lot of sacrifices with your personal life? Like girlfriend, wife, family?

No one person at justin.tv works those hours (and the article didn't say that).

Many people worked long hours in the early days (when I first started here, I worked 12 hours on weekdays, and 8 hours each on Saturday and Sunday). I haven't done that in a while though - it isn't sustainable.

justin7• 16 years ago

I get into the office around 10 to 10:30 (not mentioned in the article). So, leaving at 7:30 is around a 9 hour day (pretty reasonable I think). On some occasions I leave later (last Friday we were at the office until 11!), but that's certainly not every day.

Also, generally we don't work from the office on weekends any more.

ojbyrne• 16 years ago

Justin TV in May 2007: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ojbyrne/505415469/

I remember it being a little more informal than the Inc picture suggests, but look - dress shirt.

bretpiatt• 16 years ago

This article describes the difference between "a job" and "being paid to do what you love". This doesn't mean you have to start your own company. It means you need to find a team you enjoy working with where you get to do things each day you where you get to do your best.

For work/life balance, it is about priorities and setting clear expectations with your significant other. If you love working a lot and start dating don't fake a shorter work week, don't fake that you'll make it home every night for dinner at 5pm. For some people, it will be a deal breaker, and for others they'll appreciate the time you do spend together because during that time you'll be happy, fulfilled and fun to be around.

Would you rather have a SO that comes home every night at 5PM and does nothing but complain about how horrible their day was until 9PM or that needs 4 hours to decompress from work or would you rather have somebody that comes home at 9PM happy to see you with a positive attitude?

dan00• 16 years ago

"This article describes the difference between 'a job' and 'being paid to do what you love'."

Perhaps, but he says: It's just the way I was raised. So I think, it's more cultural, that he only feels right, worth, if he's working.

There's nothing wrong to feel good when you're working, but there's something wrong, if you feel bad when you're not working.

justin7• 16 years ago

I often times feel unsettled when not working -- even when I rationally know that working more at that time isn't necessarily productive, efficient or sustainable. That's probably not the most optimal attitude.

Also, I've debated it a lot, and at this point am not convinced that working all the time == success, having seen many examples both ways. Consequently I find it pretty hard to justify telling people to work all the time now (in order to achieve success), and in order to justify however much I'm working I just say that I think it is the moral thing to do.

freshfey2• 16 years ago

Justin, how do you help the engineers on their problems if you say yourself that you're not that much of a programmer?

justin7• 16 years ago

I'm not a great programmer, but:

- I'm a pretty decent web developer

- I have a lot of web development experience and often times can solve web related problems with little direct knowledge of the particular code

- Generally scaling problems all follow the same patterns and really there are only a few things that go wrong on websites

- I am a decent communicator and can help communicate ideas (whether they are my own or others)

- I have a good sense of timing around the work flow of web development, and can help line things up (design meetings, QA resources, releases) around the work flow of developers

- I can be a sounding board for technical ideas

- I can record a brainstorming / design meeting and turn it into a spec (although I could probably be better at spec writing!)

- I can help people get excited about an idea

When I started Kiko with Emmett 5 years ago I could barely do any web development at all (don't tell PG!). Since then, I think I've become quite adept at building web apps (and some of those skills even apply to mobile apps). That's not to say I'm exceptional -- I think most people should be able to learn something in 5 years! However, I've noticed that there are a lot of people in the tech startup / HN community that don't necessarily have a ton of programming experience but want to launch tech startups. There are quite a few examples among my friends of people who have done that successfully -- building web apps isn't just about programming.

freshfey2• 16 years ago

Wow, thanks for clearing that up! I'm really in that position right now, great to hear that from you.

Psyonic3• 16 years ago

The folks in the picture don't look terribly happy to be following him around. The guy in the black jacket looks damn near depressed.

That said, I'm sure it's just the picture. I actually like walking meetings most of the time. And I find Justin's attitude inspiring.

justin7• 16 years ago

The photo was staged. That shot was probably the 15th or 16th time we walked past that garage, so I'm pretty sure no one was extremely happy at that point :)

Psyonic3• 16 years ago

Makes sense. I should have considered that possibility, but being featured in articles is something I haven't had the chance to experience yet ;)

The Way I Work: Justin Kan of Justin.tv

Related Stories