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Running Tech Workshops and Lego Great Ball Contraptions with Treehouse Founder Ryan Carson
11:57 with Ryan CarsonIn this episode, we talk with the naive optimist, lego fanatic and founder of Treehouse, Ryan Carson
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Hi, I'm Crag,
welcome to the Treehouse Show.
0:00
The Treehouse Show is our weekly
conversation with the Treehouse community.
0:02
[SOUND] In this episode,
we'll be talking to the naive optimist,
0:05
LEGO fanatic, and Founder and
CEO of Treehouse, Ryan Carson.
0:11
Thanks for being on the show today, Ryan.
0:17
>> Sure, yeah, it's awesome to be here.
0:19
>> I have a question for you.
0:20
How did you get started in technology?
0:22
>> Boy, it's a long and storied tale.
0:24
>> Let's hear it.
0:27
>> Basically, I was lucky to grow up
in a home where there was a computer.
0:29
>> Okay.
>> And so,
0:33
my dad was one of those technology
curious type people, and so
0:34
we generally had, I think we had a Mac,
maybe an Apple IIe first.
0:39
>> Okay.
0:44
>> And really I thought you
just played games on it,
0:45
didn't understand what computers did or
anything like that.
0:48
So played on computers as a kid, and then
the Internet explosion began to happen.
0:53
And I remember specifically, Christmas,
0:59
where I think I was maybe a junior
in high school, and it became clear,
1:03
like, you could make websites,
but what are websites?
1:08
>> Right, right.
At that time, what were websites?
1:13
[LAUGH]
>> Yeah, what does that mean?
1:15
And so, basically,
got I think I got a book.
1:17
I think it was a Dummies book.
1:18
>> Okay.
>> An HTML.
1:20
>> Right.
>> And I basically thought,
1:22
well, I guess I can learn this stuff.
1:24
>> Okay.
>> But is was so vague,
1:26
like how do you get things online?
1:27
Andthen what does that mean?
1:30
>> Sure, yeah, yeah, totally.
1:31
It was harder then too, right?
1:32
>> Yeah.
>> Something as easy as, yeah.
1:34
>> No, I mean hosting.
1:36
There was definitely
nothing like the cloud.
1:37
>> Yeah, right.
1:39
>> So we basic kind of started
experimenting and playing with stuff, but
1:40
I didn't think of myself as technical.
1:45
>> Okay.
1:47
>> Or, anything like that.
1:48
>> Why were you building that?
1:49
Was that first HTML page?
1:50
>> I think it had an under construction
sign that said coming soon.
1:51
>> Like digging.
>> Right, yeah.
1:56
[LAUGH] I mean it was really dumb and
1:56
not useful, but
that kind of began the Internet interest,
1:59
but I would say going back actually,
I owe almost everything to this
2:02
amazing teacher named Ms Bruce.
>> Okay, Ms Bruce.
2:07
Tell me about Ms Bruce.
2:10
>> Well, in looking back,
I know you look back at your childhood and
2:11
often the people that changed
you the most are surprising.
2:14
They weren't charismatic or
exciting, or even interesting.
2:19
And this was Ms Bruce,
she was my calculus teacher.
2:25
>> Okay.
>> And honestly,
2:28
Ms Bruce, I love you, if you're watching,
but I didn't think she is cool.
2:30
>> Okay.
2:35
>> But she said to me,
do you know what coding is?
2:36
And I was like, no.
2:40
And she said, basically,
2:41
it's teaching the computer what to do and
giving instructions.
2:42
>> Okay.
>> And that just kinda blew my mind.
2:46
I was like,
you can tell the computer what to do?
2:47
>> Wow.
2:49
>> And so she said, yeah, well we have
an elective class called Pascal, and
2:50
you can take it.
2:54
And so I said, I'll do that.
2:55
And now I run Treehouse.
2:57
>> Wow, thanks Ms Bruce.
2:59
>> I know, Ms Bruce, you rock.
3:01
So, it really started back in high school.
3:02
>> Okay, awesome.
3:04
What made you actually
want to start Treehouse?
3:05
What drove you there?
3:07
>> I wanna start Treehouse because,
3:09
I have a deep innate
desire to help people.
3:12
>> Okay.
>> So I was raised in a fairly religious
3:18
environment and,
it was just drilled into me.
3:20
It's really important to serve people,
to make the world better, to help people.
3:24
And I'm not really religious now, but
it instilled in me this deep desire
3:30
that really, the most important thing
I can do in life is help people.
3:35
>> Cool.
3:40
>> And so it started with that foundation.
3:41
But where teaching technology came
from is really from this idea that,
3:47
I love technology.
3:53
I ended up getting
a computer science degree.
3:54
I love helping people.
3:56
So, maybe if we taught people technology,
we can actually empower
4:00
them to change their own lives, and
build things and create things.
4:04
It's like you're giving
people super powers.
4:09
>> Right.
4:10
>> So, I think the idea kinda came from
that, and it was very vague at first.
4:12
It was well, in 2005, which is when
I started really thinking about this.
4:18
You could do in person training workshops.
4:24
>> Okay.
>> That
4:26
was kinda like the way you
taught technology, or books.
4:27
>> Right.
>> And so, we did that.
4:30
And it was like, well, let's do an in
person workshop, and teach PHP,
4:33
because I taught myself PHP, and
4:38
we titled the workshop the best
title that you've ever heard.
4:40
It was called How to
Build Enterprise PHP Web Apps.
4:45
[LAUGH]
>> Okay.
4:49
>> And shockingly it was really,
really popular.
4:51
>> Okay.
>> What sort of enterprise app were you
4:53
building there?
4:56
>> I think it was a content
management system.
4:57
[LAUGH]
>> Still,
5:00
that's revolutionary at the time,
like control your own website dynamically.
5:01
>> It was, and
I mean there's nothing like this existed.
5:05
And anybody who's watching that's
our age will understand, but
5:08
if you're younger you're saying,
how did you even live?
5:12
>> Right, yeah.
5:15
>> You just use Word Press or
you use Medium or Twitter or Instagram.
5:17
>> Yeah, totally.
5:22
>> All the platforms are built.
5:22
>> And it was so expensive back then even
to make a site that seems static, right,
5:23
like to design your own page, you'd
have to go out and hire a web developer,
5:27
different times.
5:30
>> Right.
5:31
>> Different times.
5:32
So you're showing how to
make this backend server.
5:33
>> Right.
5:37
>> It's letting people
control it themselves.
5:38
>> Right, yeah.
5:39
Build the system, you can use it to
publish content and we sold 30 seats and
5:41
it totally sold out.
5:45
And the interesting thing was just how
happy people were after the workshop.
5:47
>> Right.
5:53
>> And they came to me and shook my
hand and said, thank you for doing,
5:54
this was fun and I'm excited, and
I'm just really thankful for this.
5:58
And I thought, that's weird,
you just paid me,
6:03
I think it was 500 bucks
to run this workshop.
6:05
So that's weird, you're thanking me and
6:07
you just paid me,
there must be something here.
6:09
>> Right.
6:12
And so, I think I just spoke to this fact
that, when you learn things, it's just so
6:13
empowering and exciting.
6:17
>> Sure.
6:19
>> So we did another one,
and then that sold out.
6:20
And then we did another one,
and that sold out.
6:23
And then it just kind of turned into
this in person training company.
6:25
And then, I did that for a while.
6:30
We did it all over the world,
and we did big conferences too.
6:33
And then in 2010 I think, I'd been doing
it for five or six years, and I just
6:37
thought, what I started out to do which
just to empower people by teaching them
6:42
technology, I don't think that I'm going
to be able to help many people this way.
6:47
>> Got you.
6:54
>> We're helping a small
number of people but,
6:54
we can't really scale this and
help more people.
6:57
>> So
you're getting the scale problem there.
7:01
There's only so
many of these presentations you can do.
7:03
>> Right, yeah.
7:05
And they're very expensive for
people to benefit from them.
7:05
>> Okay.
>> And so,
7:08
you have to be able to get on a plane,
you have to get time off work.
7:09
You have to do these
things in order to learn.
7:13
And honestly,
I want this to be more accessible.
7:16
>> Okay.
7:19
>> And so, I talked to my wife about it,
and I think we were getting ready and
7:20
I was brushing my teeth one morning and
I said,
7:25
we had gotta figure how to scale this.
7:27
And she said,
why don't we just hire a teacher,
7:29
film them and put them on the Internet.
7:33
[LAUGH]
>> Ta da.
7:37
[LAUGH]
>> Ta da.
7:38
And in 2010, no one had done that really.
7:38
I mean lynda.com existed but
7:40
it wasn't what we were trying to
do is just let's give people trade
7:42
skills that get them jobs, so
that they can change their lives and
7:47
built things.
>> Right, back to the original idea there.
7:52
>> Yeah, so I Tweeted out.
7:55
Anybody out there who's good on camera and
7:58
likes teaching web design and
web development, and Nick Pettit and
8:01
James Hoskins said, that's us.
>> Nice.
8:04
>> And that was literally the beginning
8:07
of Treehouse.
>> Nice, awesome.
8:08
Thanks, that was great.
8:09
[INAUDIBLE]
>> Okay so,
8:11
you are a very transparent person.
8:13
I think a lot of your
information on the Internet.
8:16
So, one of the things that we
like to do on the show is,
8:19
we like to find out something that
people wouldn't know just by,
8:20
usually, I've been having
a lot of teachers on here,
8:24
but what would they not about you
by just looking at Treehouse?
8:26
By Googling you?
8:30
So, I did some Googling beforehand and,
what I've found-
8:31
>> Couple of things I didn't know.
8:33
[LAUGH]
>> So,
8:35
you've got a couple of
Podcasts out right now.
8:36
>> I do.
8:37
>> What's going on those
Podcasts right now?
8:38
>> So, we're working high on
the Podcast called Educate Yourself.
8:40
>> Okay.
8:42
>> Which is really,
to empower people to educate themselves.
8:43
>> Okay, nice titles.
8:46
>> Yeah, It's very self explanatory.
8:48
And we bring on interesting guest,
who are teaching themselves or
8:51
empowering people to learn.
8:55
>> Cool.
8:56
>> And we talk about that, so if people
are watching, please check it out.
8:57
>> Okay.
9:02
>> And also just launched a really
fun podcast with Kevin Rose.
9:03
>> From Digg?
9:05
>> From Digg, yeah.
9:07
>> Wow, cool.
>> From good old Digg and Diggnation.
9:08
And really, it's kind of Diggnation but
for adults.
9:10
>> Okay.
>> And we focus on health and
9:13
tech and, kind of life hacks.
9:16
>> Fun,
yeah cuz you have a lot of that stuff.
9:19
>> Yep, so, and we've only
recorded episode one of that, but
9:22
that's coming out soon.
9:25
>> Cool, that's fun.
9:27
So, I googled that I found that,
9:29
what something that the students are not
going to know just by googling about you?
9:31
>> Okay, I have
9:37
this ridiculous fascination with
Lego Great Ball Contraptions.
9:40
>> Okay
>> [LAUGH] GBCs.
9:45
>> GBCs, okay.
9:47
>> And
there's this whole world of this stuff.
9:48
And what people do is,
it's usually out of Lego technique.
9:54
You create a machine that can transport
the little Lego soccer ball from
10:00
this side to that side,
and very specific ways.
10:06
It has to be able to have an entry point
over here, and an exit point over here.
10:11
>> Okay.
>> So they're all interchangeable and
10:14
connectible.
10:17
And there's these crazy conventions
where people go to these things.
10:18
>> All right.
>> And they bring their GBCs [LAUGH] and
10:21
they connect them up.
10:24
>> Are there motors?
10:25
>> Yeah, so
you basically use a Lego technic motor.
10:26
>> Okay.
10:28
>> And it's just so fun and it kinda
combines my love for technology with Lego,
10:29
which I love but also in the physical
world, cuz I'm sure you feel like this.
10:34
>> But after all day you're in a computer,
10:40
it's just nice to have
this physical thing.
10:45
And the other weird thing
about GBCs is that,
10:48
there are a couple kind of
genius type people out there.
10:51
And one is this man in the Netherlands,
and
10:54
what he does is,
he takes a Lego technic set, and
10:57
then he figures out how to use the same
pieces to create this amazing GBC machine.
11:01
>> Wow.
>> And then he releases the PDF and
11:07
you can basically create it.
11:10
>> Cool, so it's like
an open-source sort of thing, okay.
11:12
>> Yeah.
>> Awesome, neat.
11:14
>> And so Jackson, my son and I, we have
this crazy GBC now that has a Ferris
11:15
wheel, and a conveyor belt, and
the gearing on it is amazing.
11:20
>> And the kids are picking it up really?
11:25
>> Yeah, they seem to like it.
11:27
And actually, my son figured out,
he was essentially figured
11:28
out a problem that I couldn't figure out,
and how to swap it out and fix it.
11:33
And he's like, I fixed it, dad.
11:37
I'm like, way to go nine year old.
11:38
[LAUGH]
>> [LAUGH]
11:40
>> I feel dumb.
11:41
[LAUGH] So that was a lot of fun.
11:42
>> Awesome man, cool.
11:45
[SOUND] Thanks for
watching the Treehouse Show.
11:45
To get in touch with the show,
reach out to me on Twitter, or
11:52
hit us up in the Treehouse community.
11:54
See you next time.
11:55
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