👋 Hello!
And thanks for taking interest. This is my 'get to know me' page.
Things I focus on now:
- Organizing a global community of founders, scientists and hackers with catalyst.place
- Two PKM startups I'm passionate about (TBD)
- The Systematic Mastery podcast
- Supporting and learning with other founders in my network
- Reading (let's connect if we read similarly!)
- Mentoring technical builders - book a call here:
What I do
I'm interested in public interest technology, and fascinated by the idea of flourishing/Eudaimonia with the aid of technology. And I work with engineers and other entrepreneurs to build companies.
Work(ed) extensively with: Obsidian, Python ecosystem, Golang, TypeScript, Flutter, Terraform, blockchains (particular interest in Cosmos/Avalanche/bitcoin/Ethereum). I run things using Docker, Kubernetes, Google Cloud and my note taking system. Other than that I dabble in new technologies quite frequently so won't name them all.
And I enjoy reading about a large random set of other topics largely related to futurism, psychology, economics, philosophy, building companies and productivity.
As part of my personal OKR's, I want to do more with hardware, and help more startups grow. I've made a ton of mistakes, and think I've done an OK job of learning from them so far. On to more :)
My work story
I enjoy building software, ideas and companies. My programming journey started at a young age, and developed professionally from age 16 and onward. My first language was C on a noob level, inspired by my fathers' collection of programming books. I eventually came to love Python's design and ecosystem. Ever since, we argued about why I didn't choose Java.
In my work, I'm focused on building and understanding productive systems of engineering collaboration, products and startups. I've moved from purely coding to more of a 'builders' mindset over the years, seeing technology as a tool to solve relevant problems in the world, rather than relevant problems just in tech.
Since I started professionally, I've worked on systems in the hospitality industry, politics, insurance, fashion, recruitment, real estate, fintech, crypto, healthcare and even esoteric advice. This has helped me form a holistic view of the modern startup space and its capabilities.
At age 19, I started working as a contractor using Python, AngularJS and Ansible. I did this for around 2 years and was asked to build Kieskompas from scratch. When I was 21, this work grew into a web development agency that scaled to 8 people. We used Kubernetes and Google Cloud extensively. We scaled this company down at the end of 2017, and I co-founded Blockport as a CTO. I might write more about why I decided to scale down a properly running agency, but in short I was young enough to take stupid risk and I didn't enjoy scaling it enough.
Blockport's early engineering team was the most experienced team I ever got lucky enough to work with. I built confidence in my hiring skills, learned a ton about blockchain, architecture, DevOps, security and engineering culture. And about the do's and don'ts of funding :) The feedback I got from most teammates was that it was one of the best engineering teams they ever joined. A hint of what we built is here and here.
We have been acquired by BUX in January 2020. I functioned as the Head of Technology for BUX Crypto, eventually focusing more on-chain innovation and helping BUX weather a pretty big tech market downturn in 2022/2023. I'm exploring new ambitious ventures for the future while I build the small bets mentioned above, together with others.
Interests and hobbies
I’m striving to become a better learner and thinker. Topics I’m currently curious about include:
- Building systems for performance (habits, reflection, meditation)
- Personal development (psychology, relationships, leadership)
- Science and innovation (augmented thinking, machine learning, neuroscience, system theory, complex adaptive systems, computer simulations, cryptography, software engineering, biology)
- Philosophy (stoicism, metaphysics, phenomenology, existentialism, eastern, objectivism, socratic and presocratic period)
- Entrepreneurship (branding, futurism, strategy, economy, marketing, storytelling)
- Holistic health (fasting, nutrition, calisthenics, sports, sleep)
Physical and mental fitness is something I value a lot. I started kickboxing quite intensively when I was younger and have been doing sports all my life. Having tried karate, kickboxing, MMA and a little BJJ, I eventually transitioned into calisthenics to learn the planche (a 2 year goal, which is now more realistically 4 to 8 years with my length, weight and overuse injuries I deal with). At this point, I'm not even close. But continue to train consistently!
Find me:
You can mostly find me trying to build ideas, my body and mind, infrastructure or software. Maybe some more physical things soon. Or just something I broke by accident ;)
Find me online:
- Walkthroughs of my second brain
- Podcast with Nils Paar: YouTube channel and Spotify
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zowielangdon/
- Github: https://github.com/Zowie
- Blog: https://zowielangdon.nl / https://eclecticrhetoric.com
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/zowielangdon
- Media (YouTube, news etc): NRC (Dutch newspaper) on getting women into coding, Telegraaf 'Bridge to bitcoins', Blockport meetup #1 (talk), Future of Blockport (talk), Commercial on Dutch national television, Empower the digital economy (promo), Interview on Crypto Beadles, Political Persona project attracting millions of users in Australia ('What kind of Aussie are you?' with Fairfax media)