Interview with Michael Wang

Co-Founder and CFO of Bowtie, an AI messaging startup

We’ll talk

Got it

Yeah… Eldridge blast is really nice because I can make three of these and they’re so over powered. It’s 1d10 force damage plus probably my spell attack modifier.

What else, what other spells do you have?

Well I have a familiar. I can do detect magic at will which is really nice.

Does that just mean you can use it whenever you want?

Yeah so I don’t have to spend a spell slot because warlocks only have really limited spell slots compared to wizards or sorcerers. I haven’t used this and I really want to use this one. Basically I can craft an illusion in somebody else’s mind where they think that something’s there but it’s actually not. So I can make a projection of a bridge and if then somebody tries to walk over it they’re gonna fall and die.

That sounds really useful. Have you seen the new Star Wars movie?

Yeah. gasp SHE SHOULD’VE DIED IN SPACE! Oh I was so pissed off about that.

That scene was so ridiculous

It’s just like “I’m frozen in space” bzhhhh NOOOO you can’t do that!

Oh also I heard something. I was listening to a podcast the other day explaining what would happen to you if you actually were in space.

Yeah wouldn’t you implode? Cause it’s a vacuum? No sorry you would explode.

Yeah you would explode but you wouldn’t freeze.

Really?

So the fastest way that something freezes is by conducting heat away from it.

Right.

But in a vacuum there’s nothing to conduct heat to so you don’t actually get cold.

Interesting. But you would explode because of all pressure inside your body.

Yeah you would bulge. They said you would look like the Michelin man.

Oh I thought you would just straight up explode like your skin wouldn’t be able to handle the lack of pressure. Normally, you’re constantly under one atmosphere of pressure at all times.

Right.

So your insides have to be able to balance that.

Right but I think you would slowly explode within fifteen seconds.

laughs That’d be so…you would explode and be conscious about it.

Right.

Because you could hold your breath.

You wouldn’t like combust right? You would just sort of expand out.

But wouldn’t you would still be really cold?

No you wouldn’t actually.

But if you’re at zero degrees Kelvin? Imagine you go outside and it’s zero degrees Celsius.

But it’s because the air is cold, so you’re losing heat to the air. So if you’re in space…

But i guess, there are some particles. There are few very spread out particles. It’s not a complete vacuum.

Right but like much less so, so you wouldn’t lose heat as quickly. So if you were in a spaceship and there was a fake atmosphere in the spaceship, with no heating you would freeze. But if I literally took you right now and teleported you into space all of a sudden, then I think you wouldn’t necessarily freeze right away.

That’s kind of scary. laughs Don’t teleport me into space.

laughs Not that i’m going to do that to you.

So I’ll actually ask you questions now.

Is this the type of thing where you have to actually ask me questions because you said “I’m gonna record our conversation.”

Yeah, but it did say interview so I’m guessing that I should probably ask you questions.

Ok.

Interview

Um… Tell me a fun fact about yourself. Something that I don’t know.

Um… God I hate this question. laughs

What, you’re not fun? There’s just too many fun facts.

Oh man, then lay them all out.

laughs Um… Well I used to create electronic music.

Oh really?

A little bit. Then my friends made fun of me. So I stopped.

Wait why? Cause it was really bad at first. Theres a few. I can probably send you one on Youtube. It’s like trance-y stuff.

Like if you were high or at a spa?

No it’s a genre. A type of music. Sort of like house.

Oh, I though that was called trap?

Well trap is different.

Oh I didn’t know that trance was a thing.

Trances has a really regular beat and it’s an off beat. And it’s usually feel good music.

Why did you stop? Was it just because your friends made fun of you?

No. That was in high school and then I made some more stuff. But it just takes a lot time. And I was trying to do things.

Were you always into music? It seems like you were interested in it.

Yeah I know. I still occasionally think about buying a keyboard so I can do this stuff again.

Yeah you should! That would be fun.

Yeah but I have zero time these days.

But have you always been into music? Because you played the ukulele and the trombone.

I played the trombone. I played guitar for two years in high school. And then I told you I played piano when I was twelve. Cause I’m Asian. laughs

laughs Classic. And then you stopped because you were a bad Asian son.

Yeah because I was a horrible son.

Describe that one day when you decided to stop playing.

When I discarded my identity as an Asian-American? Um, that didn’t happen. I like Pikachu. I like Pokémon. I think I still maintain that side of me.

White rice versus brown rice?

I mean I eat brown rice because it’s supposed to be better for you, right?

Yeah.

But I actually like white rice better, to be honest. I mean, does anybody like brown rice better?

Green people?

I guess. But white rice goes so well with pork and Asian things.

laughs Pork is specifically an Asian thing. So then what do you eat at home? With your parents?

Well, my mom is actually a pretty diverse cook, but mostly Asian stuff. There’s this meat, I don’t know how to say it in English but it’s cooked in soy sauce and it gets all brown, and it’s really good.

What is it in Chinese?

Hong sao ruo.

tries to pronounce Hong sao ruo.

And then we eat a lot of bok choy sometimes. Usually just stir fry. But she also makes other cuisines too, so we have frittatas in the morning, which is really good.

Really? And bacon?

And bacon. In the microwave.

Did you always want to do either music or entrepreneurship or computer stuff? Because you said before that you played video games but you didn’t know what you wanted to do