# GTA co-creator's advice for young people - When you get a chance, take it | Dan Houser *Lex Clips* · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VnDKdM-bv8 ## Summary In this short clip, Dan Houser, co-creator of Grand Theft Auto, shares career and life advice for young people: take chances when they come, don't worry too early about a career, and build a rich intellectual inner life rather than doing a vocational degree. He recounts how a dangerous episode in Cartagena, Colombia in the late '90s led him to accept a six-week job in New York, which coincided with the founding of Rockstar, where he ended up staying. ## Key points - Dan Houser's core advice is: when you get a chance, take it, which he says he did well. - He advises young people not to worry too early about their career and to avoid vocational degrees as an undergraduate. - He recommends cultivating a rounded intellectual inner life because you spend your whole life in your own head. - He says success in jobs is simple: turn up in person, be enthusiastic, and help people. - At 25, while making poor life choices in Colombia, he fled a mugger with a machete on a beach in Cartagena. - After the mugging incident, he checked email at an internet café and got an offer to work on a game for six weeks in New York. - He arrived as Rockstar was starting, wrote mission statements, helped set the tone, and ended up staying. - He found late-'90s New York under Giuliani less fun than London, with rules against dancing in bars, but loved its energy. - He now lives in LA, which he considers a good decision because of its creative and entertainment environment. ## Notes ### Advice for young people - Dan Houser describes his life as lucky, saying he "fought to mess things up" but fate kept throwing him a bone. - His main piece of advice: "When you get a chance, take it." He believes he was good at taking chances when they appeared. - He advises not worrying too young about a career, and instead building a "rounded intellectual inner life," since you spend your whole life in your own head. - He argues against doing a vocational degree as an undergraduate — study something random and focus afterwards. He had previously argued against the obsession with STEM subjects, noting AI may make them irrelevant anyway. ### How to succeed at any job - "Turn up, be enthusiastic" — specifically, turn up in person. - Help people. He says you'll be fine in any job if you do these things. ### The Colombia machete story - At 25, Houser was in Cartagena, Colombia during a war, making "a series of very poor life choices." - He got up too early — police started work at 9:00 but muggers started at 8:00 — and was walking on the beach when a Rasta he'd talked to the day before approached with two other men, one carrying a machete and another a broken gun. - He sprinted down the beach in "silly shoes," jumped into a taxi, and screamed "Take me anywhere!" The driver saw the man with the machete and drove him to safety. His only injury was cutting his foot on a rock. ### The chance that changed his life - At an internet café (late '98), he received the chance to work on a game for six weeks in New York. - Feeling he'd get himself killed if he stayed in South America, he went — arriving just as Rockstar was starting. - He wrote the mission statements, helped set the tone, and ended up staying, initially telling himself "I'll stay for a year 'cause New York's pretty fun." ### New York and LA - He describes late-'90s New York under Giuliani as "the height" before "he was a maniac" — you couldn't dance in bars, so it was less fun than London, but had great energy. - He loved working hard and going out for dinner late, and was exposed to "the madness of New York capitalism." - Moving to LA was a good decision: it remains amazing for creativity and the wider entertainment industry. ## Transcript [00:02] analog internet, that world they build around the main character. - What advice would you give to a young person today about, let's say, a career? How to have a career they can be proud of? How they can have a life to be proud of? You've had a non-standard life. - I've had a lucky life in which I have fought to mess things up, and fate has always thrown me a bone. - You've traveled in South America and had hobos chase you with machetes. - Yeah. Once. - Yeah, yeah. So that happened. - That was a series of poor life decisions. And I ran, I ran away. You know, I ran away to South America. That was a poor decision. I ran away from the guy with a knife. That was a good decision. I came to America. That was a good decision. [00:50] I came to LA, that's, I think, been a good decision. It's been fun to see a different side of America and be in a different creative environment. LA is still amazing for creativity and entertainment, the wider entertainment industry stuff. I think that's been fun. What would I say? I would say, [01:11] when you get a chance, take it. That was one thing I did do well. When I got chances, I was good at taking them. I would say, do not worry too young about your career. I would say, worry about having a rounded intellectual inner life, 'cause you're gonna spend your whole life in your own head. So the more interesting you find your own head, the more interesting you find the world, the less you're gonna annoy yourself. So I would say, I would, I would say, do not do a vocational degree as an undergraduate. That's been my... I would say, do something else. Do something, you know, random and then focus afterwards. That would be, I think I was advocating against the obsession that people had about four years ago with [01:56] STEM subjects. And now AI is gonna make them all irrelevant anyway, perhaps. So, you know, it's interesting to see everything changes. Jobs are not that hard. You know, turn up, be enthusiastic. Be, but turn up in person, be enthusiastic. Help people. Say, "You'll be fine in any job." People is, you know. - Did you always know when the chance to take showed up? Like this is, okay, this is interesting, this is new, this is different? - Not always, no. But the big times were the chance to move to America. For me, that was a big moment. My life was a mess in... - That was weird timing. So I read that Sam wrote you an email. What, what... in South America? - I literally, I was in South America... [02:43] ...in Colombia where there was a war raging there. I was making a series of very poor life choices and a lack of life skills, age 25. My latest poor choice was to get up too early, because the police didn't start work till 9:00, but the muggers started at 8:00. And so I was out walking along the beach at 8:00 and these... guys, this Rasta who turned up, who I'd been talking to the day before, started trying to talk to me. And then two guys came up to talk to him, and I couldn't tell... if they were trying to mug him 'cause he owed them money or he brought me to them. But I did notice one of them had a machete and the other had a kind of broken gun. So I thought, "This is not good." And I ran off, sprinted down the beach in my silly shoes. [03:29] And got the chance, for once in my life, to run over to a road, jump into a taxi and scream, "Take me anywhere!" I felt like I'm in an action movie, and a guy's chasing after with a machete. The taxi driver looks back, sees the dude with the machete, and goes, "?" And I'm, "No, no, no, they're not my friends." "Get me out of here." He drove me up the street into a bit where the town was. It's kind of between the old town and the new town in Cartagena. And I got out of the car and then cut my foot on a rock. That was the sum total of my injuries. Then I went to an internet café, cause this was probably late '98, and got the chance to come and work on a game for six weeks in New York. And I was like, "Well, if I stay in South [04:14] America much longer, I'm going to get myself killed," 'cause this was when I was getting into silly stuff. And so I went to New York, and they were just starting Rockstar. I got to sort of write the mission statements and whatnot there, and help set the tone for that and just ended up staying. I had to come and go a bit while all visas got sorted out. And then I just ended up staying, "I'll stay for a year 'cause New York's pretty fun." It actually was not that-- this was the height of Giuliani before he was a maniac. So you couldn't-- when you went to bars, you were told you couldn't dance. 'Cause they were trying to clamp down on New York being fun. So it was actually less fun than London, but there's still a great energy in New York. [04:57] And I got exposed to the kind of madness of New York capitalism. - By the way, as we hear sirens in the background, that always makes me think of New York. - Yeah, of course. - Whenever I'm in New York... - Yeah - ...there's always sirens. - Steam coming out the floor, people screaming at you. I mean, you get people screaming at you in LA, at least. - Yeah, but it's more distributed, it's more, uh... - Yeah, it's more spread out. - ...spread out, yeah. - You can get a bit more quiet here. I love the energy. It was great to work hard and then be able to go out for dinner late. And New York was really, really a fun experience for me.