
Rodney Mullen Interview, Slamtrick 2003 Italy - jcr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekzjzFFE_pY
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stevelaz
This is such a great point. It can be applied to any job/career. I think that
being humble like that gives you a certain ability to see the bigger picture
in things. We always get caught up with too many materialistic details.

I've heard extremely passionate programmers say things like "I don't ever want
to see a computer again" or "I wish I could do something else, this sucks".
But on the other hand, when you work with them and they're actually 'in it'
and they're not distracted by external stresses, you see that they actually
love it, and they wouldn't trade it for nothing.

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johnwatson11218
I am not sure about the details but Rodney Mullen has some kind of
math/engineering background. There were old videos of him with what looked
like calculus problems and books spread out on his table. I think he may have
worked as an engineer (not computer related) in the Los Angeles area before
giving it up and focusing full time on skateboarding.

He has a very nerdy/technical style and invented much of modern street
skating. There are still tricks that he is the only person to have been filmed
doing.

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johnjlocke
I saw this guy talk at TED. What a humble guy for all he has accomplished.
Bottom line, it has to about the love of the game, because in the end, that's
all you have. Not the glory, not the spotlight, just the passion.

~~~
stevelaz
Link for the lazy:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/rodney_mullen_pop_an_ollie_and_inno...](http://www.ted.com/talks/rodney_mullen_pop_an_ollie_and_innovate.html)

~~~
andygcook
My favorite quote from this talk is his comparison of the skate boarding
community to the open source community (starts around 12:30)

"What is it to hack? It's knowing a technology so well that you can manipulate
it and steer it to do things it was never intended to do.

And they're not all bad. You can be a Linux kernel hacker, make it more
stable, more safe, more secure. You can be an iOS hacker, make your iPhone do
stuff it wasn't supposed to. Not authorized, but no illegal.

Then you have some of these guys. What they do is very similar to our creative
process. They connect disparate information and they bring it together in a
way that a security analysis doesn't expect. It doesn't make them good people,
but it's at the heart of engineering, the heart of a creative community, an
innovative community.

The open source community, the basic ethos of it, is take what other people
do, make it better, give it back so we all rise further. Very similar
communities, very similar."

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contingencies
Massive thumbs down for product placements and branding. However, fair point.

I remember, before connectivity arrived, that sense of wonder: anything was
possible with these machines. _Anything._

Hungering for knowledge, exhausting all of the libraries, finally a modem
came. The BBS. Knowledge! Software! Vast capabilities for exploration.
Exchanging ideas with other people. _My_ people.

And then, finally, the internet. A simple search prompt, Altavista. That pure
rush of untapped potential! The realisation of _the immense scope and breadth
of what was possible_! Search for anything, anywhere, anytime! Communicate
freely! Never again be trapped by geography!

Experientially, I believe the main thrust of the experience was the fulfilment
of the insatiable curiosity that I believe all children are born with but few
manage to carry much of through to adulthood. However, secondly there was
definitely an anti-authoritarian, egalitarian, individual empowerment (dare I
say _left wing_?) side to it. In the angst of teenage years, perhaps at times
not substantially differing from
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Manifesto> (which many of us probably
read).

Pragmatically, it was never a problem to resist other actors (parents, school
teachers, etc.) who sought to dissuade research by disconnecting phone lines,
setting arbitrary limits, imposing temporal wonts. Once it became clear that a
starting salary was higher than that of many teachers, drudgery became
optional and the first steps upon the path were set. What a strange and
amazing journey it has been. I sincerely hope that it continues, and that
through my own actions I can help others to discover and explore freely. For
at no time have we as a group been more highly politicised, romanticised, or
perhaps misunderstood. Many turn their backs on ethics and take the money. But
we must not forget that we are the shepherds of network effects, and that our
actions sometimes powerfully affect others, the environment, and the future.
Instead of allowing ourselves to be motivated by greed and malice, let us work
toward taking those feelings of awe, freedom and exploration that we held dear
from youth and make them a reality for the many.

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calhoun137
I might not ever get a chance to work at Google, I probably won't ever get to
go to the Institute for Advanced Study, I may never discover anything in
science that makes me famous; but if I had those things, deep down I know they
wouldn't truly make me happy.

Programming makes me happy because I love to create new things, hacking makes
me happy because I love to figure out how things work, and holding on to that
same feeling I had about it when I was a kid is what keeps me going everyday.

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gosukiwi
True. I just want to do what I love and make a living from that, I love
programming, freelancing is what I do.

I read new things, discover new things, use what I want. It's important to
enjoy what you do, and just relax, and enjoy.

