Hello everyone, and welcome to another exclusive interview!
I’ve returned to writing about people who deserve to have their stories told to the world.
I’m best friends with two very kind and intellectual men, SixFigures and Zitter, who are identical twin brothers based in Illinois.
Those aren’t their real names, by the way. Those are the names that represent their intellectual spectrums, and the names they chose for this article.
Each brother is proud of their accomplishments as of yet in their lives. Each have achieved what they wanted to achieve since they were kids. Each have experienced what they want to experience and always have more to go for.
They are kind and genuine in their character. They don’t have time to take on the b.s. and drama that goes on in social media platforms. They care about progress, about working toward something better.
I met them last year in a Discord server, which I’ll keep private for now. We have mutual friends and we all appreciate the community we’ve become so much a part of.
SixFigures and Zitter always stood out, not just because they were twin brothers, but because they were very much interesting in their own way of thinking and seeing the world from each of their lens.
In the mutual community we are a part of, there are many individualistic thinkers and each have their own expertise and genius levels. Most of us there are always thinking what can make the world a better place and pointing out the fraudulence, the lies, and the conspiracies that concern the world we live in.
We have mutual conversations, which is something we stand by. We have our rights to express our ideas, our thoughts, our perspectives of what’s going on, whether or not through multiple angles of those very things, or whether or not we agree with each other.
This community can sometimes be a whirlpool of chaos and hysteria, or a trolls’ paradise. But that’s in almost any increasingly large community, with each having their own snakes, troublemakers, and peacekeepers.
SixFigures and Zitter are all about being kind and respectful to your fellow person, no matter who they are. I’ve looked up to them in this sense of growing that very moralistic perspective within. My struggle is mostly to do with bad blood, but SixFigures and Zitter are slowly helping me embrace the fact that bad blood doesn’t have to be anything at all when you can just shrug it off, brush yourself off, and go on with your life still remaining a kind and respectable person that you can be.
Progress is slow, but that is still progress. Something that SixFigures and Zitter thrive on. Progress. Moving forward.
And I’m trying to do just that by following their moralistic footsteps. They are as much as my inspiration as they are my friends. And I appreciate them every single time I see them around, whether in the community we are involved in or in our DMs.
I thank them for this opportunity to allow me to interview them for my Substack. This is their story, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.
Zitter: Generally always had a friend and friendly competition.
SixFigures: We fought a lot. We had a lot in common and we played together.
Nightstar: What you played together?
SixFigures: We played Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog together.
Nightstar: So you were video game buddies. Was it via the Sega or the Nintendo, etc.?
SixFigures: Yes it was with the Sega Genesis and Nes.
SixFigures: Pink Floyd is very inspiring.
Zitter: Music generally helps me think or ignore things better. I like Radiohead, Debussy, Bach and Chopin and Philip Glass. I am most inspired by boredom.
Zitter: Increase my net worth and do cool things.
SixFigures: My goal was to be Bill Gates.
Nightstar: What was it about Bill Gates that makes you want to be like him?
SixFigures: I wanted to become good at computers like he was. But now he has done some pretty despicable stuff lately so I don’t want to be like him anymore. If I were to be someone now it would be Linus Torvalds.
Nightstar: And why's that?
SixFigures: He hasn’t done anything weird. Just keeps on making Linux better.
SixFigures: We both wanted to go into computers.
Zitter: Work in computers.
SixFigures: We went to UIC.
Zitter: College of Dupage / UIC
Nightstar: What did you graduate with?
SixFigures: BS in CS.
Zitter: Bachelors in Computer Science from the engineering college.
SixFigures: Mother Theresa.
Zitter: Looking up to people is a bad idea IMHO because you put people on pedestals and also you will do things that may or may not be something you can do. If you can do them though you should do it. You should instead treat them as humans since it will become better in that you won’t have fear interacting with them as much. Cold emails suck but they can work. I have emailed people like John McCarthy who created Lisp and Noam Chomsky and they replied. If you put them on pedestals you would never cold email people. Even I don’t do this enough.
Zitter: It’s hard to predict things right now. I think within 5 years we will have AI that can break out of safeguards we have implemented. In 5 years we will have cybernetic systems that can match most people.
SixFigures: AI will eat the world.
Nightstar: What did you mean by that exactly? That it'll destroy it?
SixFigures: It will change it.
Nightstar: Change it how? For better or for worse?
SixFigures: I have no idea. Probably in weird and strange ways.
Nightstar: Hmmmmm... like alternative realities? lol
SixFigures: Maybe.
SixFigures: Use AI to do your job. It won’t hurt. But you have to be a good programmer to use AI effectively.
Zitter: Do what you want to do. Stop worrying about AI but master the new skills you have to do to compete with them. Many people have existential crisis about this and I’m trying my best to sidestep that entirely by expanding my own skills.
Zitter: Both. I don’t find superheroes generally inspiring.
SixFigures: Both. Superman is my favorite because it’s my dad’s too.
Nightstar: What makes Superman the favorite?
SixFigures: He is very inspiring and has good stories.
Nightstar: Would you think Superman and Batman quite similar? With their morals and such?
SixFigures: No, they are opposites.
Nightstar: Oh? How come?
SixFigures: Superman relies on idealistic, outcome-focused altruism, while Batman operates on rigid, rule-bound personal restraint.
Nightstar: And Superman is extraterrestrial and Batman is human.
SixFigures: True. That makes a difference too.
Nightstar: And Superman has to hide as Clark Kent to live on Earth, while Batman is true to both his natural person, Bruce Wayne, and uses Batman as his way to conquer his fears and trauma and fight for justice through such forces.
SixFigures: Exactly. Superman is always Superman. Clark Kent is who he becomes.
Zitter: I don’t have a favorite president.
SixFigures: Barack Obama because he was a great leader and he was the first president I could of voted for.
Nightstar: What made him a great leader?
SixFigures: He gave awesome speeches. I remember my high school teacher gave us an assignment to go over one of his speeches.
Nightstar: Which one was that?
SixFigures: The first speech at the Democratic National Convention he gave before he ran for president.
Nightstar: What made it so special to you in his words besides his excellent effort of speech giving.
SixFigures: He was very inspiring and the way he gave the speech was good too.
SixFigures: Dog. I think it’s because I am very loyal.
Zitter: Dragon, Chinese zodiac.
Zitter: Long Beach, California, because of how cool it looks and the beach and food. Waterloo is maybe what I would think a research oriented college town, but I haven’t been to somewhere on the East coast to compare. Everyone is really nice. The closest I have been is University of Chicago.
Six Figures: Chicago, New York, London. I participated in the New Years Day parade in London.
Nightstar: Ohhhh niiice!! What was your participation?
SixFigures: I marched and played clarinet.
SixFigures: I love the sound. I am not sure why I picked it. I am professionally trained. I had many teachers. Practice practice practice.
Nightstar: Is it alright you give you the names of those mentors, or no?
SixFigures: Yeah. Mr Rosleib and Trevor O’ Riordan.
Zitter: I played euphonium because we had one and it was cheap.
Zitter: Communities of people giving constructive criticism even if that hurts the person who is being criticized.
Zitter: I want to be smarter and take care of my family and also see more places and do more things.
Zitter: Getting a poster in an artifical life conference, contributing to Cpython, having two talks at DEFCON and Skytalks.
SixFigures: Getting my first job and beating Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 3 CD, and Mania.
Nightstar: What was your first job? And what jobs have you taken on since?
SixFigures: My first job was a programmer at Unique Insurance Company. My second job was at Bank Of America.
Nightstar: What has stood out about them? What’s made you enjoy them?
SixFigures: Automation at my first job and only dealing with computers at my second one.
SixFigures: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd ed. and The Poignant Guide to Ruby. SICP is a very famous computer science book. The Poignant Guide to Ruby is a very entertaining book with its comics.
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd ed.
Zitter: What Is Life? by Schrödinger (gives a interesting concept called negentropy); How To Win Friends And Influence People (good for social skills); Little Schemer (introduction to functional programming)
Zitter: Refocusing into doing something else.
SixFigures: Video games.
SixFigures: From my job.
Zitter: Zitterbewegung is the theoretical frequency that electrons vibrate. That’s where I got my name from.
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This article was written to inspire. Thank you for reading, and, even more, thank you to my dear friends, SixFigures and Zitter, for contributing for this week’s interview article. You two will always continue to inspire me and others who know you, and we’ll always support you, encourage you, and keep rooting for you no matter the lengths you go to achieve what you’re meant to achieve. Keep going, keep achieving, and keep inspiring. We love you. - Charlotte
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