In this episode, I interview front-end developer Daniel Kao. Daniel has been running his site, Diplateevo.com, since his freshman year in high school. Daniel is a brilliant individual, and happens to be only 20 years old. He has already had a chance to meet some of his heroes, like Chase Jarvis, Ramit Sethi, Peter Thiel, Randy Komisar, and more. This past year, Daniel did something that took a lot of self control: He cut sugar for a whole year. In our interview Daniel tells me why he made this choice. Finally, Daniel is moving into a complicated field (grant writing) that he has no experience or training in. In the interview, we discuss why this can actually be a great idea for your career. If you are enjoying the show, please consider buying me some tea: http://www.developertea.com/buy-me-tea
In this episode, I interview front-end developer Daniel Kao. Daniel has been running his site, Diplateevo.com, since his freshman year in high school.
Mentioned:
Hey everyone and welcome to Developer Tea. My name is Jonathan Cottrell and today I have the privilege of interviewing Daniel Cowell. Daniel has a fantastic site at Diplativo.com which of course will be in the show notes but I was impressed by the content on Daniel's site. Daniel's a front end web developer but he's an entrepreneur as well and we were both added to a Slack chat community where we have been talking a little bit and I went to Daniel's site, read a few of his posts and I realized the thing that stuck out to me is that he's been writing pretty consistently since 2012 or so and I asked him how old he was just to kind of get a feel of where he is in life and Daniel's only 20 which kind of blew me away. So Daniel's an incredibly smart guy. He's moving into a field that he doesn't know very much about. Now at first that might strike you as kind of strange for an entrepreneur to move into a field that he doesn't know too much about but in the interview we actually kind of talk about why that might be like a superpower of sorts, like why it's actually a good thing that Daniel may not know everything about the field that he's about to start working in. So I hope you enjoy the interview with Daniel Cowell. Daniel, thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you for having me. So I'd love to talk just kind of about your life because what caught my eye on your site, which by the way, if you can pronounce this for me because I'm going to butcher it, is it Diplativo? That is correct. Oh, awesome. All right. So Diplativo.com, which will of course be in the show notes, the very first story on your feed. is one year without sweets. And it's kind of recapping your 2014 where you went entirely like a full year without eating anything sweet intentionally. Is that correct? That's right. So are you still holding up? I've caved in a little bit here and there. But for the most part, anything that is extremely sweet like cakes, cookies, desserts, I've been, I've, I've come to a point where I've been off of it for a while. I've been off of it for a while. I've been off of it for a while. I've been off of it for so long that those things don't even really appeal to me anymore. Like I'm at a point where I drink my coffee black and you know, don't, don't get any sweetener in my tea or anything like that. So it's, it's kind of a different place than where I sit. Sure. So you probably, for the people who are listening to this and actually taking a coffee or a tea break, you might've just given them a little bit of conviction. So, oh, that's awesome. Okay. Uh, so can you, first of all, a lot of self-control and I think self-control is, is such an important part of anybody's life, but especially developers. So I'd like to know, like, what was the kind of the reason why, uh, you chose to do a year long commitment like that? Um, so there are a couple of reasons. First of all, um, a lot of my friends in California have been kind of being more, have been more aware of their health as of recently. And a lot of them were starting to go vegan and I did, didn't quite make sense to me because, you know, I'm a very kind of logical thinker and, you know, I, I wanted to get like the big wins. I'm always about like, you know, what's, what's what 80 or what 20% will generate 80% of the results. And so I jumped in and started doing a little bit of research just to improve my own health. And I realized that probably more effective, then cutting out meat from a health perspective is probably cutting out sugar. Um, and so while all the rest of my friends were, you know, trying all these different like vegan things, I decided, you know, I'm going to try something a little bit more out there and see how this, you know, see how this affects my energy and, uh, among other things and health. So, so I, um, decided to, all right, I'm going to do a year without sweets. And as a, and I, I guess as the second point that probably isn't, it wasn't, isn't as important as the first one, but also, um, quite significant is also just this idea of, um, being able to control myself a little bit more, like, like build up that self-control and that, you know, ability to kind of, um, like have control over, you know, my will and what I, you know, what I'm, what I might, what I instinctively want. Right. Great. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So before the show, we were, we were talking and, uh, Daniel asked me, you know, what I wanted for this show to kind of focus on. And I guess naturally, actually, we've just kind of stumbled on a good theme, I think, for this one, which is self-control. Um, and I think Daniel has, has a inspiring amount of self-control to be able to do this. Um, I know I, myself, I've, I've recently kind of taken up some, some, uh, positive health, not, not recently as in this year, but in the past, like year and a half, two years, uh, kind of adopted some, some more regimented health, uh, um, habits. So including eating significantly less sugar. So I really, I, I, uh, identify with this move. Um, and also with the research, like I, that was one of the driving factors for me as well. Um, and so I decided that, you know, no matter, what it is that I'm putting in my body, I want to be in control. Um, not in the sense that like, I felt out of control, but more in the sense that I want to maintain a high level of integrity with myself. Right. And not just like with my day-to-day work, but also with, you know, my day-to-day behavior. So, uh, so that's, that's a really interesting thing, um, that you've done. I, I think it's inspiring simply regardless of what it is, just saying that you didn't do anything for a year. Uh, I mean, it could be as simple as like, I didn't say, you know, a certain word this entire year. It's like, wow, that is dedication, you know? Right. Um, so in this, in this year review, you also said that you met some of your personal heroes, uh, including, you know, Chase Jarvis and Peter Thiel and a couple others. Right. What was that experience like? How did, how did that actually occur if you don't mind sharing? Well, so there were a lot of different instances and I met each one of them kind of in a different, you know, in a different context. So I can't give you kind of one specific, uh, instance where I met all of them. So it wasn't like, uh, it wasn't like a one, you know, like, uh, uh, killing all the birds with one stone type of thing, but it was a, it was a variety of different meetings where, you know, or, or instances where I was just able to, you know, which for example, with Chase Jarvis, um, I, I just did, uh, I just did some research and then I found that, you know, he does his Chase Jarvis live shows every, you know, every so often in the studio and you can sign up to be a part of the studio audience. And so I did that. And then, um, you know, I, I talked to him and then talked to him a couple of times since. And so, you know, it's, it's, it's cool that he like recognizes me now. Whenever I go up to, you know, creative live in San Francisco. So that's just one. Right. Cool. Yeah. That's, uh, you know, it's always an interesting thing when you meet people that you, that kind of seem afar. Um, I, I live in Chattanooga, so Chattanooga is relatively speaking. There's not many like of my heroes walking around town here, not to say that there aren't some incredible people here, but, uh, it's, it's just not like ripe with a bunch of people in, you know, web development community, you know? And so, so I don't have the same kind of, uh, experiences probably as you do. Uh, so that, that puts you in a unique position to be kind of constantly surrounded, um, by a lot of people that probably are in like headlines, you know, or, or being, uh, shared online quite a bit. So that's cool. Awesome. Uh, well, so tell me about what, what you've been working on recently that you can share with people that you've been working on. Share about, um, that's really interested you. Okay. Um, I, I, I'm someone that I like to work on a million different things at the same time, which probably is something that, you know, I should apply some of my self-control that I learned from my year without sugar and start saying no to some more things. Um, but, uh, give me a second. Um, but, uh, I think that, one of one project that I'm really excited to share is, um, this past year, um, in probably around summer of 2014, um, I helped, uh, I, I co-founded a company, um, and we're currently building out an alpha, um, hopefully to launch sometime in the next couple of months. And what we're building is we're building a, we're rethinking the grant, um, process, the grant application process. Um, and we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, and the grant matching project process with, with research and others. Um, and so basically the idea is that, you know, right now the grant processes is very fragmented. Um, there's a lot of different, every different foundation has their own, um, type of system and their own application process and every, you know, and, and, and, and when it comes time for a researcher to kind of apply for those grants, it becomes a very long ordeal where they have to look into every single foundation's website, all their mailing lists and everything in order to get, you know, the information that they're looking for. So we're looking to solve that problem. That's awesome. And so what is your role in that company currently? So I've been doing a lot of more front-end development as well as just kind of the product decisions and user interviews. So everything from, you know, like contacting different foundations all the way down to writing the, you know, front-end code and, you know, also some of the back-end as well. That's awesome. Quick, just completely practical question. What is your site built on? So our tech stack, we're using Meteor, which I absolutely love. It is a brand, like relatively new framework based on Node. And it is completely reactive. You know, I love the fact that you're able to write both front-end code and back-end code under the same framework. And it's definitely, it's definitely, I see it as a game changer in the future. Yeah, absolutely. Are you using Meteor for, your personal site as well? My personal site is built off WordPress, so it is not Meteor. Okay. Yeah. It has a, has a great, a great kind of experience with reading a post. And then I see that you've included the, it's kind of like the kudo button. I don't want to, I guess it is a kudo button, actually. I'm looking at it now, which I have experience with that when I used to write on, on Subtle. Um, so that's, that's, I love that interaction is really interesting. I love that. Thank you. Cool. So, uh, so the grant process, um, that's relatively complex, uh, like a complex field to get into. Um, do you have any background, uh, working with that kind of, um, I guess it's legal, right? Like something that is, that is that complex from the legal perspective? Absolutely. So I actually don't have too much, uh, experience in that field. Um, it's kind of interesting how we just stumbled across it because a lot of the people that, um, you know, me and my co-founder, we, I met him through, um, at my school and, you know, we just, we were just kind of brainstorming different things that we wanted to do and like different problems that we could solve. And, you know, both of us knowing a lot of our professors to a lot of their office hours realized that that was a very big pain point for them. And so as a result, we decided to, you know, let's, let's, let's go ahead and try to solve this. We know absolutely nothing, but at the same point, there's, there's, there's something to be said about, you know, um, absolute beginners, um, just trying to, you know, see things in an industry that's been around for so long, you know, being able to see and spot different opportunities that, you know, maybe people, with a lot of experience, you know, haven't seen. And that's why there hasn't been a lot of change per se. Yeah. I think it, I think it provides you, uh, with a particular, um, advantage actually, because, and so this is what's so awesome about, uh, I'm going to say something really broad about our world today, right? Uh, is that we can, we can go into almost any industry that we want to. And because information is so, widely available, we can learn enough about that thing to actually participate in that industry and create something valuable. Um, and even use our inexperience as like an up, like a step up, you know, it, it helps sometimes it helps to be inexperienced, which is kind of a bizarre situation to be in. And I think the world has changed. Um, and that has not always been the case, but it certainly is the case for things exactly like what you're involved in now. Right. That's great. So, um, uh, it's an alpha you said, right? Well, currently we haven't even launched a, uh, alpha version yet. We're hoping to launch an alpha very soon. So, um, I'll keep you updated on how that goes. Awesome. Yeah. And so if anybody wants to learn about you or about what you're doing, uh, I want to direct them, I guess, to Diplativo.com, correct? Awesome. Daniel, I, I really appreciate your time. I know that, uh, tonight you're going to be watching the, uh, State of the Union. Uh, so I'm, I'm going to let you go and, and, uh, I, I appreciate your time again. Thank you so much for being on Developer Tea. No, thank you. Thank you so much for having me, John. Make sure you go and check out Daniel's blog at Diplativo.com, which will be in the show notes. Thank you for listening to Developer Tea. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at developertea.com. You can reach me on Twitter at at developer tea, or you can email me at developertea at gmail.com. You can also go to developertea.com where there's a comments section on each of the different podcasts pages. Uh, and there's also a contact form there as well. Thanks again to Daniel. And until next time, enjoy your tea. Thank you.