Becoming a Digital Nomad in 2021 with Justin Gary

Justin Gary is an award-winning game designer and entrepreneur.

He started his career in gaming at the age of seventeen when he won the Magic: The Gathering US National Championships. Justin then escaped from NYU Law School to pursue his dream of becoming a professional game designer.

He's since made games for global brands including Marvel, DC, World of Warcraft, and Bakugan. In 2010, Justin founded his own publishing company, Stone Blade Entertainment and released the hit deck-building game, Ascension. 

 Justin has taught creativity principles at the Wharton School of Business and to companies including Twitter, Zillow, and Google. Earlier this year, Justin and I launched Quality Questions (https://qualityquestions.co/), where we collect and send questions that help you apply the key lessons from self improvement books and lectures to your own life. 

Justin's latest project is the Level Up habit journal (https://justin-gary.lpages.co/level-up-habit-journal/), 

In this episode we talk about:

• Running a creative company remote vs in office 
• Learning to prototype games as a fully remote team
• The two weeks that changed everything ("It was a shock to us. Why weren't we doing this before!?")
• How not being allowed to come to the office turned into a new marketing strategy for Justin's company
•  The "kick in the ass" that finally prompted Justin to move out of his apartment
• "Fear setting" - What's the worst that could happen when you move out to travel?
• "The opportunity is never going to be better than now..."
• The mindset shift Justin had to make to become a digital nomad
• Being conscious of when your assumptions no longer hold
• Optimizing for "being open to what presents itself" and "Get what's good where you are"
• What was harder about being a digital nomad than Justin expected
• Nightmare in Costa Rica
• "Discomfort is the price of admission"
• How to balance the trade off between comfort, adventure, and productivity
• How things change once you've been a digital nomad for years
• How to plan travel when you have unlimited options
• Building travel around your bucketlist 
• The "positive pressure" effect of only being in a place for a short time
• The "surprising best part, by far, of being a digital nomad" for Justin
• What Justin would do differently if he started again
• When you should be willing to spend instead of saving money
• Preserving your morning routine as a digital nomad

Books and Products Mentioned:

• The LevelUp Habit Journal (https://justin-gary.lpages.co/level-up-habit-journal/)
• SolForge Fusion (https://www.stoneblade.com/solforge)
• Ascension Tactics (https://www.stoneblade.com/tactics)
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

Follow Justin:

• JustinGary.com - Justin’s main website
• Think Like A Game Designer - Justin’s book, course, and podcast on Game Design
• @Justin_Gary on Twitter