Justin's brain

Justin Jackson
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Hi, I'm Justin Jackson. Here, I'm sharing brief thoughts on building a better life, bootstrapping, improving society, growing older in tech, being a dad...

  1. 28 Aug

    Don't over-engineer it; just hit the ball (Golf analogy)

    There's a great quote from a 2020 Hacker News thread: Sales is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated as to be impossible, or you can simply walk up and hit the ball. I've been leading and building sales orgs for almost twenty years, and my advice is to walk up and hit the ball.I keep coming back to this quote. In software, it's so easy to over-engineer things, to ask "what if?", to try to prepare for every eventuality. But more and more, I'm realizing, for most things, you just need to walk up and hit the ball. Chapters: (00:00) - The Golf Quote and Simple Sales (01:09) - The Michael Zoom Call Experiment (03:32) - Scaling Through Personal Touch (05:56) - How Small Actions Create Big Scale (07:03) - Manual Work for AI SEO Success Links: 2020 Hacker News threadTransistor: podcast hosting and distribution platformSavvyCal: scheduling service for booking meetings

  2. 20 Aug

    Well, that was easy!

    Last episode I recorded a voice memo on my walk home, dropped the file into Claude Code on my laptop, and said "publish this episode." It normalized the audio, made a transcript, wrote the show notes, uploaded it to Transistor, and published it. Easiest podcast publishing I've ever done. So now I want to know if I can do the whole thing without the laptop. Just the phone. This one is attempt two: recorded in the Dolby On app, which normalizes right on the iPhone, then handed off to Claude on my phone. [00:00] One command on my laptop did the entire publishing workflow [00:53] Attempt two: can I do all of this from my phone? [01:56] Why Caleb records several episodes back to back. Once you take away the friction, you can feel the inspiration happen. You have a thought, you get it out, you move on. An hour later you have another one. [02:33] Steven Robles has some magical iPhone shortcut that does a lot of this. I want to try it. [03:10] Auphonic stripped out the trucks and airplanes behind me, which is impressive because it was loud. What it couldn't strip out is me wheezing up a steep hill in wildfire smoke. Next time I'm recording in the car.

  3. 20 Aug

    This should be easier

    What's the minimum viable podcast publishing experience? I decided to test this out by recording it in Voice Memos on a walk home (with plane and truck noise included). Feels like if you can record a show quickly on your phone and just hit "publish" on it, you're far more likely to actually hit publish. This episode is the experiment itself: after I was done recording this voice memo, I just handed it to Claude to clean up the audio, write the notes, and publish it using Transistor's MCP. A lot of my feelings on this are inspired by Caleb Porzio, who has a really minimal workflow for recording his show, Notes on Work. And then yesterday, my friend Chris Enns decided to try publishing a podcast episode every day. Chapters (00:00) The friction in publishing (01:26) Caleb Porzio and Chris Enns (02:56) Testing the easiest thing Links: Transistor's MCP announcementCaleb's Notes on Work podcastChris' Daily(ish) podcast

  4. 18 Aug ·  Video

    An Update on Justin and Wildfires

    A lot of people have been messaging me after seeing wildfire footage on the news — so here's an update. There are three fires burning west of us here in the Okanagan Valley, and the lakes are acting as a wall between them and the city. The fires aren't the problem. The smoke is. Smoke gives me headaches, burns my eyes, keeps me indoors, and wrecks my ability to think and work. So my son and I got in the car and drove out of it — through a mountain pass where the air quality index hit 1,000, over to Vancouver, and onto a ferry to Victoria. Along the way: a band in karate outfits that put a spell on an entire festival crowd, a full day working in person with my Transistor colleague Josh Anderton, and a walk-and-talk with Mike Vardy, one of Transistor's longest-running customers. Plus a growing suspicion that remote work, which I've championed for years, still has no answer for what happens when you sit beside someone. Chapters  00:00 Why everyone's been messaging me 00:21 Three fires, and a wall of lakes 00:43 Smoke doesn't respect borders 00:56 What the smoke does to my head 01:10 Hitting the road with my son 01:46 An air quality index of 1,000 02:10 Over the pass, the air clears 02:32 The ferry to Victoria 02:49 The Thoons put a spell on the crowd 04:05 A day in person with Josh Anderton 04:28 There's no equal to working beside somebody 04:59 Catching up with Mike Vardy 05:34 Don't take clean air for granted

    An Update on Justin and Wildfires

  5. 29 Mar ·  Video

    An update on what we're building at Transistor

    Hey friends, wanted to give you an update on what we're building over at Transistor.fm. The big thing I'm really excited about is video podcasting. Transistor customers will soon be able to publish video podcast episodes on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and any other apps that support HLS video. We have a waiting list here if you're interested --> We were one of only about five hosting platforms to get an HLS video show working inside Apple Podcasts, and uniquely, Transistor is the only one that also placed the HLS feed inside the RSS tag, meaning independent apps like Pocket Casts and Fountain can also pick up and play those HLS video feeds. We also just shipped a Ghost integration that connects Transistor to one of the most popular platforms for independent publishers. The integration was born out of a real overlap in customers (like 404 Media and The Lever), and the partnership was sparked by a lunch conversation with Ghost's John O'Nolan at Laracon. Links: Apple's launch of HLS video podcastsDoes Transistor.fm support video podcasts?Transistor's integration with GhostThis is a clip from The Panel podcast. Listen to the full episode here.

  6. 5 Mar ·  Video

    Marc Andreessen: "There's Mexican standoff between roles on a software team"

    AI coding tools like Claude Code are blurring roles on software teams. As Marc Andreessen said on Lenny's podcast: " There's a Mexican standoff happening between those three roles: product manager, designer, and coder." Links referenced in this episode:→ Mark Andreessen on Lenny's Podcast→ "The Five Stages of Losing Our Craft"→ Kent Beck's tweet on 90% of skills becoming irrelevant→ Good vibes, bad vendors

    Marc Andreessen: "There's Mexican standoff between roles on a software team"

  7. 10 Feb ·  Video

    Why you should build some fake AI products

    I prototyped a full video podcasting app in a couple of days using Claude Code, and it's completely changed how I think about building new features for Transistor (the podcast hosting product I co-founded). 🔥 Timestamps:0:00 – Why you should build fake products first0:27 – The podcast countdown timer experiment0:56 – Taking on video podcast hosting at Transistor1:08 – Just start building it1:47 – Demo: the video podcasting prototype2:32 – What people actually want vs. what I assumed (HLS vs. simple upload)3:53 – "Usage is oxygen for product realizations."4:54 – Live demo: one-click publish to YouTube + Transistor5:57 – Scheduling episodes and real user testing (the church sermon use case)6:39 – Handling 15GB video uploads7:25 – Why everyone should be building fake products7:49 – Private podcasts → unlisted YouTube playlists8:28 – The FreshBooks "compete with yourself" story9:44 – How does this change your product process?10:17 – Claude Code + Slack: anyone on the team can start a PR14:05 – YouTube analytics vs. audio downloads in one view14:51 – Freedom to use a fresh tech stack15:18 – Night and day: old codebases vs. new ones ★ More about me: ★I'm Justin Jackson. I co-founded Transistor.fm (a podcast hosting and analytics platform). I write, podcast, and make videos about bootstrapping, startups, marketing, calm companies, and business ethics. My blog: https://justinjackson.caBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/justinjackson.ca

    Why you should build some fake AI products

  8. 28/11/2025

    These are the voice memos I sent to Adam Wathan last night

    My friend Adam Wathan has a new podcast called Adam's Morning Walk, and in the last episode he talked about how he's thinking about building with AI: How can someone sit in front of a text area and explain what they want in enough detail that the AI is gonna produce something good?I was listening to this episode last night and it brought up all sorts of thoughts for me. So I opened up telegram and sent him a series of (slightly inebriated) voice memos. I'm publishing these here in case they spark some thoughts/ideas for you as well. F-stop example If you have a response, let me know! Reply on Bluesky

    These are the voice memos I sent to Adam Wathan last night
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About

Hi, I'm Justin Jackson. Here, I'm sharing brief thoughts on building a better life, bootstrapping, improving society, growing older in tech, being a dad...

Information

  • Creator
    Justin Jackson
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Justin Jackson
  • Show Website
    Justin's brain