WEBVTT 00:00:02.930 --> 00:00:02.977 analog internet, that world they build around the main character. 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:05.660 - What advice would you give to a young person today 00:00:06.680 --> 00:00:10.517 about, let's say, a career? How to have a career they can 00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:14.126 be proud of? How they can have a life to be proud of? 00:00:14.209 --> 00:00:16.257 You've had a non-standard life. 00:00:16.340 --> 00:00:20.040 - I've had a lucky life in which I have 00:00:21.680 --> 00:00:25.077 fought to mess things up, and fate has always thrown me a bone. 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:30.200 - You've traveled in South America and had hobos chase you with machetes. 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:32.687 - Yeah. Once. - Yeah, yeah. So that happened. 00:00:32.770 --> 00:00:35.210 - That was a series of poor life decisions. 00:00:35.300 --> 00:00:39.057 And I ran, I ran away. You know, I ran away to South America. 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:43.140 That was a poor decision. I ran away from the guy with a knife. 00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:48.580 That was a good decision. I came to America. That was a good decision. 00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:53.837 I came to LA, that's, I think, been a good decision. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:57.197 It's been fun to see a different side of America and be in a different 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.977 creative environment. LA is still amazing for creativity 00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:04.657 and entertainment, the wider entertainment industry stuff. I think that's 00:01:04.740 --> 00:01:09.050 been fun. What would I say? I would say, 00:01:11.600 --> 00:01:16.537 when you get a chance, take it. That was one thing I did do well. 00:01:16.620 --> 00:01:20.190 When I got chances, I was good at taking them. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.880 I would say, do not worry too young about your career. 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:28.840 I would say, worry about having a rounded intellectual inner life, 00:01:29.080 --> 00:01:32.657 'cause you're gonna spend your whole life in your own head. So the more 00:01:32.740 --> 00:01:36.660 interesting you find your own head, the more interesting you find the world, 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:40.817 the less you're gonna annoy yourself. So I would say, I would, 00:01:40.900 --> 00:01:44.477 I would say, do not do a vocational degree as an undergraduate. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:48.457 That's been my... I would say, do something else. Do something, 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:52.480 you know, random and then focus afterwards. That would be, I think I was 00:01:52.580 --> 00:01:56.357 advocating against the obsession that people had about four years ago with 00:01:56.440 --> 00:02:00.810 STEM subjects. And now AI is gonna make them all irrelevant anyway, perhaps. 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:05.760 So, you know, it's interesting to see everything changes. 00:02:07.780 --> 00:02:10.697 Jobs are not that hard. You know, turn up, be enthusiastic. 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:17.780 Be, but turn up in person, be enthusiastic. Help people. 00:02:18.140 --> 00:02:20.917 Say, "You'll be fine in any job." People is, you know. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.488 - Did you always know when the chance to take showed up? Like this is, okay, 00:02:24.571 --> 00:02:26.397 this is interesting, this is new, this is different? 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:30.177 - Not always, no. But the big times were the chance to move to America. 00:02:30.260 --> 00:02:33.017 For me, that was a big moment. My life was a mess in... 00:02:33.100 --> 00:02:39.117 - That was weird timing. So I read that Sam wrote you an email. What, what... 00:02:39.200 --> 00:02:42.520 in South America? - I literally, I was in South America... 00:02:43.420 --> 00:02:46.220 ...in Colombia where there was a war raging there. 00:02:47.420 --> 00:02:54.180 I was making a series of very poor life choices and a lack of life skills, age 25. 00:02:55.980 --> 00:02:59.910 My latest poor choice was to get up too early, because the police didn't start 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:04.097 work till 9:00, but the muggers started at 8:00. And so I was out walking along 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:06.940 the beach at 8:00 and these... 00:03:07.100 --> 00:03:10.977 guys, this Rasta who turned up, who I'd been talking to the day before, 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:14.797 started trying to talk to me. And then two guys came up to talk to him, 00:03:14.880 --> 00:03:16.550 and I couldn't tell... 00:03:17.540 --> 00:03:21.397 if they were trying to mug him 'cause he owed them money or he brought me to them. 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:25.377 But I did notice one of them had a machete and the other had a kind of broken gun. 00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:27.478 So I thought, "This is not good." And I ran off, 00:03:27.561 --> 00:03:29.377 sprinted down the beach in my silly shoes. 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:33.377 And got the chance, for 00:03:33.460 --> 00:03:36.790 once in my life, to run over to a road, jump into a taxi and 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:40.720 scream, "Take me anywhere!" I felt like I'm in an action movie, and a 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.591 guy's chasing after with a machete. The taxi driver looks back, 00:03:43.674 --> 00:03:45.117 sees the dude with the machete, 00:03:45.200 --> 00:03:48.497 and goes, "?" And I'm, "No, no, no, they're not my friends." 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:52.517 "Get me out of here." He drove me up the street into a bit where 00:03:52.600 --> 00:03:58.320 the town was. It's kind of between the old town and the new town in Cartagena. And 00:03:59.180 --> 00:04:03.097 I got out of the car and then cut my foot on a rock. That was the sum total 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:07.100 of my injuries. Then I went to an internet café, cause this was probably 00:04:07.220 --> 00:04:10.620 late '98, and got the chance to come and work 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:14.537 on a game for six weeks in New York. And I was like, "Well, if I stay in South 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:16.772 America much longer, I'm going to get myself killed," 00:04:16.855 --> 00:04:19.540 'cause this was when I was getting into silly stuff. 00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:25.320 And so I went to New York, and they were just starting Rockstar. I got to sort 00:04:25.440 --> 00:04:29.237 of write the mission statements and whatnot there, and help set the tone for 00:04:29.320 --> 00:04:33.217 that and just ended up staying. I had to come and go 00:04:33.300 --> 00:04:36.957 a bit while all visas got sorted out. And then I just ended up 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:40.797 staying, "I'll stay for a year 'cause New York's pretty fun." It actually was 00:04:40.880 --> 00:04:47.880 not that-- this was the height of Giuliani before he was a maniac. So 00:04:48.460 --> 00:04:50.897 you couldn't-- when you went to bars, you were told you couldn't dance. 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:53.197 'Cause they were trying to clamp down on New York being fun. 00:04:53.280 --> 00:04:56.641 So it was actually less fun than London, but there's still a great energy in New 00:04:56.725 --> 00:05:01.657 York. And I got exposed to the kind of madness of New York capitalism. 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:03.735 - By the way, as we hear sirens in the background, 00:05:03.819 --> 00:05:05.377 that always makes me think of New York. 00:05:05.460 --> 00:05:06.197 - Yeah, of course. - Whenever I'm in New York... 00:05:06.280 --> 00:05:06.997 - Yeah -...there's always sirens. 00:05:07.080 --> 00:05:09.679 - Steam coming out the floor, people screaming at you. I mean, 00:05:09.762 --> 00:05:12.417 you get people screaming at you in LA, at least. 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:14.187 - Yeah, but it's more distributed, it's more, uh... 00:05:14.270 --> 00:05:14.947 - Yeah, it's more spread out. -...spread out, yeah. 00:05:15.030 --> 00:05:16.860 - You can get a bit more quiet here. 00:05:16.960 --> 00:05:20.817 I love the energy. It was great to work hard and then be able to 00:05:20.900 --> 00:05:25.970 go out for dinner late. And New York was really, really a fun experience for me.