8: Not Living on Automatic with HB Siegel

11/12/18 • 73 min

H.B. Siegel is Prime Minister of Ideas at Amazon and also one of a very select group of people who have been at Amazon now for almost two decades. In that time, H.B. has been the Director of Media Technologies, the CTO of IMDB (an Amazon subsidiary), and helped launch the "search inside the book" feature for Kindle.

H.B. graduated with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering with a focus in computer graphics. Prior to Amazon, H.B. worked in a series of animation related companies including Wavefront, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and Pixar. At Wavefront, H.B. helped developed Maya, a premier 3D animation platform used to create animations for games and films that is still widely used today. At ILM, H.B. worked on the special effects for now iconic film series such as "Star Wars" and "Men In Black".

In today's conversation we'll talk about pranks and not living live on automatic, we'll discuss H.B's career and what he's learned, and we'll talk about investing in ideas versus people (and techniques for telling apart the good from the bad).

Notes

cocktail party introductions
star wars and industrial light and magic
pranks and not living life on automatic
the department of ideas
catalyst and the university of washington
investing in ideas and people
trends in film making and animation
early work at wavefront and developing Maya
experience from nearly two decades at amazon
peccy
removing inefficiencies
werewolves
unexpected productions and improv

Links

Companies
Film Series
- Star Wars
- Men in Black
Books
Other
- The Uncanny Valley
- Catalyst Program
- The Dutch Reach
- Maya
- Werewolf
- Peccy
- Unexpected Productions: Nonprofit Improv Theater located at Pike Place Market, next to the gum wall
- GISHWHES: Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World has Ever Seen
- Jay Hitt
- UP Christmas Show
- H.B. IMDB Page

These shownotes are also available at http://folkstories.org/8

Notes

cocktail party introductions
star wars and industrial light and magic
pranks and not living life on automatic
the department of ideas
catalyst and the university of washington
investing in ideas and people
trends in film making and animation
early work at wavefront and developing Maya
experience from nearly two decades at amazon
peccy
removing inefficiencies
werewolves
unexpected productions and improv

Links

Companies
Film Series
- Star Wars
- Men in Black
Books
Other
- The Uncanny Valley
- Catalyst Program
- The Dutch Reach
- Maya
- Werewolf
- Peccy
- Unexpected Productions: Nonprofit Improv Theater located at Pike Place Market, next to the gum wall
- GISHWHES: Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World has Ever Seen
- Jay Hitt
- UP Christmas Show
- H.B. IMDB Page

These shownotes are also available at http://folkstories.org/8

Previous Episode

7: Running the Distance with Evan Williams

Evan Williams is a man of many miles and talents. He has degrees in both physics and biomechanical engineering and for his day job, Evan works as a design engineer at MSR (Mounstain Safety Research), a firm which designs and manufactures high performance gear for the outdoors.

The outdoors is also where you'll most likely find Evan, though good luck pinning him down as he dashes past you at five minute mile pace. When it comes to racing, Evan is just shy of elite, which means he's about as fast as you can be without doing running as a full time job. His PR (personal record) for a marathon is 2:28:15 (~5:40min/mile for 26 miles).

We cover a lot of ground in today's talk. We go over all things running including training, meal plans, race day rituals, and racing strategies. We will talk about equipment, different sorts of footwear, why Evan runs in crocs and differences between a midfoot and a heel strike. We also talk about depression, experiences with it and how running has helped.

The topic of mental health, especially depression, is something that is very near and dear to me because of both personal experiences and seeing people close to me go through it. Unfortunately, there's still a lot of stigma attached to this topic and it's not something that is easy to talk about publicly. Therefore I really appreciate Evan's openness to talk to me about it and hope that this might be helpful to those out there that are going through similar experiences.

As always, thanks for listening and if you want to leave feedback or nominate folks to the show, please send emails to feedback(at)folkstories.org. If you want to follow the show and get access to extended interviews and updates on guests, you can subscribe to my mailing list here

Notes

training and racing routines
why middle school is the worst
swimming, ultimate and the return to running
injury prevention when training
race training, nutrition, rituals and strategy
running shoes
heel strike vs midfoot strike
running in crocs
running through depression
running under 2:40 and making it to 30
what's next

Links

These shownotes are also available at http://folkstories.org/7

Next Episode

9: Telling Stories with Paul Currington

Paul Currington runs the Fresh Ground Stories(FGS) meetup in Seattle. If you're not familiar with FGS, its a meetup that comes together ones a month to share personal stories (based off "The Moth"). Every month, there's a theme and people tell stories based on that theme. Anyone can go up on stage and tell a story, provided that they are true, personal and under 8 minutes.

I've gone to a couple of these events and have always been struck at how raw some of these stories can get. I also told two stories at FGS and found the audience there to be overwhelmingly supportive and kind hearted. I've been wanting to talk to Paul ever since I started this podcast because I think the work that he does, both in telling his stories and enabling others to tell theirs, is incredibly important and has touched the lives of many people, myself included.

Paul has a history in stand-up comedy and has done that for over a decade before switching over to storytelling. He was drawn to the format because he found it to be a richer medium in which to tell stories that were not just black and white. Paul is a man of many stories and a lot of them center around the theme of mental health and depression (themes which we will cover in today's podcast).

In today's episode we'll talk about FGS, storytelling and why you might want to share your own story, we'll talk about the dark nights of the soul and how Paul got through some of the lowest moments of his life and what he's learned, and we'll talk about Paul's principles, how faith is a choice and how turning something into a story can be the start of being able to live with it.

Notes

fresh ground stories (FGS), what it is and how Paul got involved with it
how FGS brings out really personal stories from people
storytelling vs stand-up and how pro-life and pro-choice people can be moved by the same story
Paul's first memories of depression
what happened on December 2012 and life afterwards
AA and the 12 step program for depression
why Paul doesn't monetize FGS
how Paul started talking about depression publicly, starting with a conversation with his son
advice on talking to a significant other about depression
advice for people who want to help people with depression

Closing Questions

inspiration:
- an African American musician who got a clansman to burn his robes through empathy
surprising fact:
- Paul is a fan of boxing (life is punching you in the face every day and it's how you deal with it)
principles:
- faith is a choice
- if you can turn something into a story, then it's the start of being able to live with it
closing notes:
- try telling one (safe) person something thats scary and see what that feels like