Episode 4 - Zach Inglis

More Than Code

Ben is joined by Zach Inglis to discuss his sleep schedule, nomadic life, and how he approaches making the world a better place.

Zach is a designer and developer, perhaps best known for organizing HybridConf. He runs a studio with his best friend. He also enjoys losing at poker.

Links -

• AmongUs
• Factorio
• The Diary of a Bookseller

Transcript -
Ben:
All right. Welcome to the latest episode of the More Than Code podcast. Today I'm super excited to have Zach Inglis here with me. Zach, how's it going?

Zach:
Oh, it's going well, thank you. How are you?

Ben:
Oh, I'm good. Getting settled down here in Georgia.

Zach:
Nice. Nice.

Ben:
I guess you recently moved as well. Where are you at now?

Zach:
I'm in Wales right now. I moved from Malaysia back to Wales which is nice. It wasn't completely my choice. I think the situation we're all in right now has dictated we have to do some things we don't necessarily want to do such as moving. It's really beautiful, very rainy. I'm happy to be back.

Ben:
Nice. Are you from Wales are where are you from?

Zach:
I'm from around the U.K. My parents are Scottish. I was born in London and I moved to the southwest. A place called Devon which, I guess you could say is the Iowa of the U.K... All farming. Wales, I've got the most affinity for. It's got the city, the sea and the countryside all at your doorstep. Which I think you can understand, right?

Ben:
Yeah. Yeah, that's great. We actually just drove down to the beach for just a day this past weekend because it's a couple hours away. That was super, nice for mental health right now in these COVID times.

Zach:
Yes. I'm living by the water right now and it's just so calming.

Ben:
Yeah, awesome. Tell us a little bit about what you do for those that don't know. Yourself, Superhero Studios, the whole story.

Zach:
I run a two person studio with my best friend who I live with. We've been doing that for six years now. I'm a designer and a developer. I've had a successful career in both over the years. I think I've been doing it for around about 20 years now... A mixture of things. I tend to stick to design mostly nowadays. My business partner Laura, she tends to do the development. I'm grateful for knowing both. It means that I can foresee the problems coming before they come, stuff like that.

Ben:
That's very cool. I think that's pretty rare. Do you feel like you're stronger in one area or the other? How did that happen?

Zach:
Yes and no. I feel like overall I was weaker for being a generalist rather than being focused. However, having had two decades in this industry I've got to where I want to finally. It was a slower start but I think I'm stronger for it now. It's been good with work. Being able to bill yourself out as both means clients can feel a bit more relaxed knowing that you can communicate with the rest of the team.

Ben:
Makes sense. When I've done consulting, I've always had to be pretty upfront that I can make it work but I have no idea if it's going to look good or if it's not going to look good. It's always a hindrance.

Zach:
Yeah. I mean, having the smallest bit of knowledge about it is always helpful.

Ben:
Nice. You're in Wales. Is your family nearby? Where's your family nowadays?

Zach:
My family are all in London. In spite of loving big cities like Kuala Lumpur or New York, London just isn't for me personally so I'm out here. Yeah. Not as expensive and not as stressful.

Ben:
Excellent.

Zach:
Yeah? My brothers all live there and my nephew and niece and stuff. Unfortunately, I'm not getting to see them much but chatting every day.

Ben:
Oh, that's good. Pretty close to them?

Zach:
Yeah. Very, very close to them. I personally am not somebody who wants kids but having a nephew and niece is perfect. I can hand them back and get on with other things.

Ben:
Yeah. I like it. You were in Malaysia for a while and now you're back. How was the experience of being in Malaysia for you?

Zach:
I originally moved to Malaysia the first time 15 years ago. My ex-fiancee was from Malaysia. We'd go back and forth between America and Malaysia and I missed it. I missed the food and I missed the people. It's ridiculously beautiful, the jungle everywhere... Even in the city. So, I was super happy to go back. I made sure to stock up on all the food that I missed over the years. I miss it still every day. It's one of those things though. I think the grass is always greener. No matter where you are, you'll always miss something from the other side.

Ben:
Yeah. I'm definitely feeling that. and the lack of travel right now.

Zach:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

Ben:
How long were you in Malaysia this time?

Zach:
This time, a couple of years. Two years. I had a base in Malaysia and I traveled around Asia going to Thailand and stuff like that. I was very, very fortunate to be able to do that with how I work and my work schedule. To try to decompress I would then go a beach island and I'd go diving. That was my present to myself for working hard.

Ben:
I like it. What does diving do for you? Is it mediative? Is it physical? Sell me on it. Give me a pitch.

Zach:
Okay. Diving is the only place in the world where I do not think, where my brain does not run at 150 miles an hour. I go under the water and I'm just blank. Yeah. It's like meditation. I just feel relaxed and chill, and nothing else worries me except watching out for fish. I'm a water baby. Just being in the water makes me happy.

Ben:
Yeah. There is something just really special about water.

Zach:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Ben:
Do you get to dive there in England or is that not a thing in Wales?

Zach:
Sorry. It broke up.

Ben:
Do you get to dive where you're at now in Wales or is that not a thing there?

Zach:
There are diving experiences here like going to the quarry. The water's freezing, it's not great visibility. So, not really. When this all opens up again, who knows when, I'll go diving again. I'll travel to do so because it's very important to me. My whole left arm is tattooed with an underwater scene because of what it means to me.

Ben:
Awesome. Love the tattoo by the way.

Zach:
Thank you.

Ben:
I saw a picture of it. You mentioned it wasn't a big deal to be in Malaysia with the way you work. What is that way you work? I would especially think working with clients with the time zones could be weird. How do you manage that?

Zach:
Okay. I have a very weird sleep pattern. It doesn't matter where I live in the world, my body naturally pushes towards it. I have a delayed circadian rhythm. My body is always pushing me to sleep a little bit later every day. I've done a chart once and it just goes diagonally down as my sleep drifts so I tend to stay up at night until 7:00 or 8:00 A.M., and I go to sleep. I like it because there's no one else around with me and I can just focus. Whether it's work, or video games, or whatever I want to do personally. There's such a culture for eating food at random times of the day. It's a Muslim majority country, drinking is not as strong as the U.S. or the U.K. You can go get tea at midnight or at 2 A.M. and that's a very normal thing to do. People go and watch soccer at 3 A.M...