Jason Hunter Watson

Explo(r|it)er. Truth-teller; reputable fabulist.
Everlasting ephemeral practitioner.

Made in Los Angeles, CA.

Where I’ve been

I do my best work when I have the freedom and time to explore complex ideas, clarify complicated systems, and consciously collaborate between specialty teams with humor, candor, and integrity.

Over the years, I have refined my discernment in these areas as a software designer, web developer, project manager, product strategist, information architect, writer, fitness trainer, line cook, theatre projectionist, rare coin and diamond merchant, amateur horticulturist, glassblower, and postal worker.

In 2009, I created a recipe blog to teach myself SEO which landed me a multi-book deal that has since produced a national bestseller, seven translations, and sold over 300,000 copies.
From 2010 to 2015, I designed and developed over 100 websites for small to medium-sized businesses under my Designpx WordPress brand.
From 2014 to 2020, I was part of the core leadership team (CTO) at GMB Fitness. I led product development, implemented project management, and improved team cohesion systems and practices across the company.
From 2020 to 2022, I took a work hiatus to pursue unencumbered thinking, reading, and other philosophical, spiritual, and fitness-related interests. Much of that led to further exploration of an emergent subculture sometimes referred to as The Liminal Web (contemplative philosophy, integrative psychology, authentic relating, complexity sciences, game b, web3, etc.).

Where I am now

Beginning in 2023, I emerged from my work hiatus refreshed, recalibrated, and ready to build and contribute. The first order of business has been joining The Vervaeke Foundation as I can’t think of a better place to focus my efforts, offer my talent, and explore the surrounding opportunities in an environment well suited to the pursuit of virtue and wisdom.

Concurrently, I am building Exploriter. This includes various information services and products as well as a highly selective web design and development studio as a successor to Designpx as a kind of steward as the world transitions to machine learning and other forms of AI for the majority of digital work.

I am also currently invested in, and investigating, various projects, DAOs, and NFTs in the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stacks ecosystems.

Where I’m going

I am most interested in the technologies that are integral to the creation, proliferation, and education of an ecology of practices that address, at a fundamental level, various civilizational challenges (i.e., crises of meaning, belonging, reality, globalization, addiction, information, etc.).

Technologies that aid in maintaining the right relationship between the physical, the virtual, and the spiritual. Tools of sensemaking, communication, governance, personal growth, and play.

I am seeking projects that assist people in cultivating wisdom, imbue them with meaning, help construct ideals, allow minds to effectively convene to focus on innovation, problem-solving, and wealth creation, and allow bodies to get busy laying out divine causal patterns.

Where I fit in

I thrive in the communal and active part of the ideation process—the work that brings clarity to an idea—and the expansion, enhancement, and attention to detail necessary once something is active in the real world.

Most projects go through similar inter/intra-looping phases; for simplicity’s sake:

Ideation (conceptual)
Exploration (play)
Shaping (à la Shape Up)
Assessment (risks and assets)
Building (concept to reality)
Presentation (actualized/contextualized)
Improvement (and maintenance)

Using this model, I excel at 2, 3, and especially 7. I enjoy 1 and 5 if it remains actively relational and not individual, and prefer to leave 4 and 6 to others.

I have, however, dedicated several years and significant attention toward acquiring above-baseline skills in many areas outside of my immediate interests. As a result, I am a competent translator between various organizational languages (e.g. leadership, management, design, development, marketing, sales, and support).

On the more technical front and with regard to building, I am attracted to front-end design and information architecture (I have significant experience building websites of various sizes and use cases with WordPress) where I can dedicate time and attention to explicating problems and providing elegant solutions.

I am quite indifferent to hierarchical, positions-based organizational structures and prefer a more horizontal, role-based approach for most endeavors, especially where technology and shifting contexts are concerned.

Ideally, the team I work with is on the smaller side (<20) and has a deep understanding, or at least awareness, of how group organizational archetypes (consensus, meritocracy, democracy) work together as a counterbalancing decision-making process for coherent and sustainable small group dynamics.

I am an ardent supporter of The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership and expect a commensurate level of maturity among the teams and organizations I am a part of.

In general, I am looking to do meaningful work that affords wholesomeness, evokes the pioneering spirit of adventure, and is with a team that is committed to the good, the true, and the beautiful.

Please get in touch if this resonates.