I recently watched the Joe Rogan interview with Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary from December 2024. Found it fascinating enough to write about.
Quick context: they both worked together at a video rental place called Video Archives back in the day. While Quentin is a household name, some people asked me who Roger is. He’s a director too, and he co-wrote the script for Pulp Fiction with Quentin.
Two moments stood out to me.
The Guy at Video Archives Who Changed Quentin’s Life
Tarantino tells a story about a guy named Stevo who worked at Video Archives with him. Stevo basically told him: life as an idiot doesn’t change. If you keep working here, you’ll keep doing the same thing, surrounded by the same people, forever.
Quentin took that to heart. He realized if he wanted to make movies, he needed to spend time with people who were already making them. He was living outside of Hollywood at the time and couldn’t afford Hollywood proper, so he moved to Koreatown. Close enough to matter.
That’s where he started meeting guys who were making horror films and low-budget stuff. And here’s the key insight: he realized these people were no different from him. No better. No more talented. Just further along the path.
That opened his eyes. Everything was possible.
”From Today, You’re a Director”
Roger Avary shared a different story. One of Video Archives’ customers, already plugged into Hollywood, asked Roger what he wanted to do with his life. Roger said he wanted to be a director.
The guy’s response: “Okay. From today, you’re a director.”
His logic was brutal and simple. The direct path to the top is the easiest path. If you try to climb the ladder (screenwriter, then producer, then finally director) two things happen. First, it takes forever. Second, you never take your shot because when opportunity comes, you’ll introduce yourself as something else.
So Roger quit Video Archives and started telling everyone he was a director.
It took him three years before that self-assigned title became reality. But it did.
My Take on All This
I agree with the core idea. If you’re pursuing a specific goal, if you want to change your lifestyle and the quality of your life, you have to define what you want to do and start doing it as early as possible. Don’t create these long chains of “first I’ll do X, then Y, then finally Z.”
The earlier you start being an indie hacker or internet entrepreneur, the sooner you actually become one. If you keep postponing it for your company job, you stay an employee. A developer, a marketer, whatever your title is.
Now, on the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people (the point Tarantino made) I mostly agree. But I’d add something.
In 2026, it’s not just about where you physically live. It’s about what content you consume. Are you actually following and learning from people whose lifestyle you want? Or are you just consuming random content from people who don’t match your goals and interests?
The old advice would say: to become an internet entrepreneur, move to San Francisco as soon as possible. And sure, there’s truth to that. But we’ve seen enough examples by now of people launching successful projects from Europe, from Asia, from everywhere. The internet is the great equalizer. If you’re deeply immersed in the context through Twitter and YouTube, geography matters less than ever.
The question is whether you’re actually immersed, or just scrolling.