Craig Long on how life is in the moments you didn't expect, quieting your inner intensity, helping others achieve complex goals when they don't know where to start, remote working, and disconnecting from technology.



Craig grew up in the mountains of Wyoming wanting to be an architect, and studied architectural engineering with an emphasis in mathematics at University of Kansas. He currently works at Autodesk, Boston, developing software for other designers that — like he did for several years at Zahner — heavily rely on computers to build intricate designs.

After knowing Craig for a few years, I couldn't agree more with Kevin Rooney's description: "Craig is the mentalist. He can tear apart a problem to its root core to reveal the best opportunities. He can move easily between general ideas to technical execution in order to make [things] happen. He is also an incredibly kind person."

Connect with Craig at (@craigalanlong).



Favorite quotes

"Life isn't always a deterministic process you know ahead of time."
"[Listening to podcasts on my commute] became this empowering and centering force."
"Part of growing up and growing older is learning that life is in the moments and things that you didn't expect."
"If I looked at the logistics and analytics of how often I pick up my phone there would probably be very disconcerting information. So that's what I'm trying to be. More attentive [and] intentional about turning off those those stimuli and being more present."
"Find what you love and do it to the best of your abilities."

Links

Zahner

Arup

Experience Music Project by Frank Gehry

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry

Stata Center by Frank Gehry

De Young Museum by Herzog & de Meuron and Fong + Chan

Grasshopper

Dynamo

CATIA

.NET Rocks podcast by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell

C#

Scala

This American Life by WBEZ

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Slack

Zoom

ShopFloor

Google Earth

Snowcrash by Neal Stevenson

Alto's Adventure

2048

Chapters

00:00 · Intro
00:53 · Craig Long
05:24 · The plan
08:44 · Challenges
12:03 · Starting a project
16:09 · Manual vs. automated
17:38 · The fun moments
20:48 · Zahner
28:16 · The last man
33:23 · ShopFloor
36:20 · Things you miss
42:57 · Commute
50:02 · Remote working
54:55 · Helping others
57:04 · Yourself
58:08 · Creativity
59:39 · Your best ideas
01:01:17 · Disconnection
01:02:42 · Email
01:04:09 · Flow
01:06:14 · Habits
01:08:37 · Finding what you like
01:09:59 · Digital workflows
01:12:50 · Work-in-progress
01:14:48 · Clutter
01:20:51 · A comfortable user interface
01:21:48 · Simple & intuitive
01:22:46 · Success
01:26:12 · One sentence to the world



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Show notes, transcripts, and past episodes at gettingsimple.com/podcast.



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