Jesse founded and moderates the HoloLens Developers Slack group (signing up is easy), which currently has close to a thousand members. It is hard to overstate the importance of this community in fostering a sense of shared vision among mixed reality devs. While Microsoft’s official forums are a great place to go to get your technical questions answered, Jesse’s Slack Team is the place to find camaraderie, mentoring, and the occasional pat on the back when you really need it.
Jesse is also a fulltime mixed reality consultant (Roarke Software) and has a Patreon page where you can follow and sponsor his MR endeavors.
What movie has left the most lasting impression on you?
Les Miserables is one of the movies that I go back to over and over for the story and for the different stages of life, changes, and redemption shown.
What is the earliest video game you remember playing?
The Legend of Zelda – I remember play this as a kid when we first got our Nintendo. At the time the puzzles and the amount of time it took to win the game felt like such a feat. I remember my mom playing it, and drawing a pretty detailed map of the world so that she understood it better. Thinking back on that memory, it shows how she approached solving a large problem with a fairly simple yet effective solution.
Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think?
I would definitely say my parents on this one. They both have unique ways of looking at the world, and I talk to them often to get advice and work through my own thought processes. I often call them to gut check what I am thinking before I react or move on a decision, and I am sure I have managed to avoid some painful situations because of that.
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
I try not to be so static in my thoughts and opinions that changing my mind is a rare occurrence. I tend to be an optimist, so if anything, I dislike changing my mind to a more negative thought…
What’s a programming skill people assume you have but that you are terrible at?
Programming – People assume I’m good at it, but I feel like I’m not. That may be the impostor syndrome talking though. In all seriousness, I think I am terrible at some of the soft skills. Time Management, Focus, Organization – Those are definitely things I struggle with daily.
What inspires you to learn?
I have a very natural desire and curiosity to learn new things and how they work in general. This has served me well in being a self-taught developer because I just want to learn all these new things that I come across. If anything, I have a harder time with deciding which things I don’t need to learn right now!
What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?
More than anything I need to remember that I have accomplished much in my life, and that I have more ahead of me.
What’s a view that you hold but can’t defend?
I still rock at Windows Phone… 🙂
What will the future killer Mixed Reality app do?
I actually think that with Mixed Reality we will still use apps, but they will be less effort to use, because they won’t seem like apps. Right now, I have to consciously open my To-Do app to see what is on my plate.
However, as the platform emerges and all of this technology starts to really integrate (AI/Bots, IOT, Mixed Reality) then we start to see apps that behave more naturally in our world and take less effort to use. My To-Do list app will just look like a To-Do list on my wall, or even just be me conversing with my AI assistant, who can even notice when I am getting off task and remind me what my real priorities of the day should be.
What book have you recommended the most?
I actually recommend The Count of Monte Cristo to everyone. It’s a HUGE book, with so many layers of story and character development that it takes reading it multiple times to even come close to noticing all of the different ways everything is tied together. When you look at the fact that it was written in 1844 is really impressive. How did Alexander Dumas even keep track of such a large and complicated story in his head?
[…] 10 Questions with Jesse McCulloch (James Ashley) […]