- The speaker got into hacking by taking things apart and learning how they worked.
- They were influenced by movies like War Games and Hackers.
- They started hacking into systems in middle school, using the school intranet.
- They also got into prank calls, which taught them social engineering skills.
- They realized they had a passion for storytelling and wanted to go to film school, but their father pushed them to study computer engineering instead.
- They studied computer engineering and focused on network security.
- They got a job in cybersecurity but knew they didn't want to do it forever.
- They saved up money and planned to switch jobs and work in the entertainment industry.
- They knew it was time to make the switch based on their financial calculations.
- They moved to LA and worked full time in cybersecurity while pursuing their passion for filmmaking.

- The speaker had a job in Torrance but knew they didn't want to stay there
- They adopted an apathetic attitude, which helped them succeed and move up the corporate ladder
- They had side projects and wanted to meet people in the industry, so they made the jump and started networking
- They used spreadsheets to keep track of contacts and projects
- They started as an unpaid intern, then became an assistant, and eventually worked on a show called Rush
- Through networking, they got the opportunity to work on Mr. Robot and their previous experience in cyber security aligned with the show's theme

- The speaker knew that the show Mr. Robot was special and unique before it was released.
- They were surprised that a show about technology portrayed realistically hadn't been done before.
- The show uses flash animation to make typing and on-screen actions look realistic.
- The use of flash animation is necessary to save time and ensure accuracy on set.
- The speaker has a team of consultants who help with the technical aspects of the show.
- The code used in the show is real, but not enough is shown for viewers to replicate the hacks.
- The show constantly looks for new vulnerabilities and attacks to incorporate into the storyline.

- The show uses undisclosed vulnerabilities and bugs to create hacking scenarios
- The timing of these vulnerabilities can be fudged to fit the story
- The show constantly finds new ways to create tension and fresh hacking scenarios
- Acquiring old versions of software for the show is becoming more difficult
- Flash videos and apps are used on the phones in the show
- Being a writer-producer allows for more control over the technical accuracy of the show
- The show incorporates an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) with puzzles and interactive elements
- The writers read online forums and interact with fans, but their involvement in the ARG is unclear
- The puzzles in the ARG may or may not be cumulative towards a larger goal.

- The video discusses puzzles and quotes in the show's ARG (alternate reality game)
- There is a grand puzzle that requires finding quotes from previous puzzles to unlock a meta puzzle
- The season 2 ARG winners will have something in store for them
- The kernel panic puzzle took months to solve
- The season 2 ARG progress will have an update soon
- Season 3 ARG may have already begun
- The show incorporates realistic hacking methods and tools
- The team sometimes wishes they could use future technology in the show
- The show's code snippets are functional in real life but not shown in their entirety
- The team sometimes gets jealous of new technology and exploits that they can't use until their timeline catches up.

- The speaker discusses incorporating certain elements into the show that are currently off-limits due to the show's timeline.
- They advise taking precautions when using devices, such as enabling two-factor authentication, using password managers, and using reputable VPNs.
- The speaker expresses concerns about companies storing personal information and not patching software, leading to data leaks.
- They mention the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in the show, expressing excitement about their potential.
- The speaker discusses the challenge of making technical concepts digestible for a wide audience in the show.
- They suggest watching YouTube videos, listening to hacking podcasts, and reading books to get started in hacking.
- For writing, they recommend writing as much as possible and trying to get internships in the industry.
- Moving to LA is recommended for those aspiring to be TV writers.
- A major theme of season 3 of the show is disintegration, with Elliot and Mr. Robot being separated in a unique way.

The speaker shares their journey from hacking to working in the entertainment industry. They discuss their experience working on the show Mr. Robot, which incorporates realistic hacking methods and tools. The show uses flash animation and real code, but not enough is shown for viewers to replicate the hacks. The speaker also mentions the show's Alternate Reality Game (ARG) and the challenges of making technical concepts accessible to a wide audience. They provide advice for aspiring hackers and writers, and mention that a major theme of season 3 is disintegration between the characters Elliot and Mr. Robot.

Kor Adana - http://twitter.com/koradana - is a writer and co-producer on Mr. Robot.

Mr. Robot season three premieres tonight - http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot

YC's podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon - http://twitter.com/craigcannon

Okay, so Cor, how did you get into hacking?

Well, when I was younger, I always took things apart.

I'm the son of an engineer, so I always had tools around the house.

I'd take apart TVs and VCRs and just figure out how things worked.

And I remember my dad had this old 48666 PC.

It's like the first PC that I started working with and learning, just messing around with.

And that kind of evolved into building my own machines.

I was fascinated by just ordering the different components, motherboard, RAM, the hard drive, putting it all together and it was a very painful process of like, oh I accidentally reformatted the wrong partition and lost all my files or I have to reformat because I infected myself with some Bullshit virus there.

was a great learning experience of just learning how hardware and software worked And then by the time I was in middle school, I was more interested in breaking into systems and learning how I wanted to be the cool hacker that was portrayed in war games.

What was the media that you were consuming at that point that you're like, ah, that's me?

Okay, I'm not ashamed, ashamed is the wrong word.

So I wanted to be that cool hacker guy that knew more than you did when it came to technology and computers.

So that was like a driving force in my stupid adolescent mind.

And it was cool though because I had that kind of mindset of like how do things work, I want to figure out how things work and I want to use systems in a way that they weren't supposed to be used for, which is a definition of hacking, so to speak.

So I remember I would get in trouble on purpose in middle school so I could go into the principal's office because the secretaries in the principal's office, when you waited there, were using the computers to log into this AS400 system.

would talk to them, I would look at their screens, I would hover over their shoulders, and I would get as much information as I possibly could, and my first real hack, so to speak, was in middle school when I broke into this AS400 system.

So is this like through the school's intranet, or are you doing this from home?

The only thing, I didn't really do anything from home until I started dialing into our library.

We had a public library that had a dial-up service connection, so I could dial into those servers.

But I did it from the school intranet, which was fun, which was awesome.

I was really paranoid and nervous about getting caught.

And it was awesome because years later in the writer's room for Mr.

Robot, and you'll see this in season 2, I think it's the fourth episode, fourth or fifth episode, in the beginning where there's this VO of Elliot talking about his first major hack.

And he's like, I broke into my libraries, or I can't remember if it was library or school, but I broke into this AS400 system using a vulnerable FTP service.

And that's his first hack and that was my first hack and it was just fun to kind of incorporate that into the show in that way.

So around that time, I would say middle school, high school, I also really got interested in prank calls.

And I would get together with my friends and call different businesses, impersonate different people, and really terrible way to spend your time and not really thoughtful.

But it was honestly a boot camp for social engineering.

And I think my writer brain was attracted to the character side of it and the narrative side of it, building out a story, getting the person on the other line to buy whatever bullshit story that you're feeding them, and in this kind of weird, twisted sense of manipulation that's taking place.

But that was kind of my foray into social engineering.

And was it like social engineering for comedy's sake?

Yeah, I was a huge fan of the Jerky Boys albums and yeah, Crank anchors came out around that time too.

So it was just like getting a laugh or humiliating the person on the other line or getting them to have a funny response or a funny reaction, which in hindsight is stupid.

But it taught me a lot because you could use it, I mean, when you're looking at it from a social engineering perspective, you could use it for the goal of obtaining information or obtaining any kind of protocol that the person on the other end is engaged in with whatever business they're at.

And if it kind of helped me in 2 ways, helped me in the hacker sense, and it helped me in the writing sense, because it was kind of like early improv classes for just like developing character and getting to the point and getting your information across in a short, you know, 3 minute span.

Like, why are you, you know, you have a short amount of time to get to, you know, achieve this goal.

Like what's the dialogue you're gonna use?

So it was interesting, it was a lot of fun.

And at that point do you realize, maybe I have a greater aptitude for storytelling and like this is my passion?

Well it was weird, I kind of, I danced around both for a lot of my childhood.

But ever since I was 11, I knew that I wanted to write and direct.

I was a huge film buff, I had a massive movie collection, was obsessed with, you know, just classic cinema.

And I told my dad, like, this is what I want to do.

After I graduate, I had it all planned out.

I'm going to go to NYU Tisch, School of the Arts, and I'm going to learn how to really become an auteur.

And he was like, no, I'm not gonna waste a bunch of money for you to end up some starving bum on the street.

Like you're never gonna make, I mean, I understand where he's coming from.

Both of my parents are fairly conservative.

So He was like, I'm not gonna help pay for college for film school.

And at the time it was a huge rift between my father and me because I really resented him for that and I hated the idea of that.

I studied computer engineering for 2 years, first 2 years in college, and then I got really specific, I got a really specific focus on network security, which was great.

And I remember taking classes, just learning how to work with router configurations and switches.

And there's this 1 Linux security class where we did like real red team, blue team simulations where like half the class were the defenders and they had a Linux box that they had to lock down and they had like an hour to do so.

And then the rest of the class or the red team, and like he gave us like a couple of systems and a Nopix live CD and he's like, go to town.

You have an internet connection and you have this CD, try and break in.

And then afterward we'd share notes and talk about different tactics, what worked, what didn't work.

So it was a lot of fun and it really helped because shortly after that, I ended up getting a cybersecurity job for a major corporation.

And at that point I was developing security policies and working with enterprise level servers and doing penetration testing and doing all that stuff.

While at the same time, in the back of my head, I'm always like, I always knew, I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life doing this.

Like if I'm gonna, if I had to do this for the rest of my life, I would kill myself.

So my plan was just like, live below my means, save up enough money, I'm making good money, working in IT, right?

Keep writing, keep making short films, try and make your own independent films on the side, learn as much as I can, and when the time comes, pull the plug and quit and switch jobs and get a job in the entertainment industry.

Cause this is like a very common thing across tech.

People are like offered a great job, you know, it's a cool company.

They're interested in the work, but maybe it's not like they're calling.

How did you know it was the point where you're like, all right, this is it, I'm doing it.

I had a spreadsheet and my girlfriend helped me put this together where if you save this amount of money every single month, this is how much you'll have in your bank account.

And like, it's really a question of how long could you go in the entertainment industry and like how much would you have to dip into your savings?

And the way we calculated all the numbers was like, hey, I could take an unpaid internship for 3 years.

3 years of working for no income, I would be fine.

And in my mind, I'm like, alright, if I can't make this happen in 3 years, then I'm not

I was working full time doing cybersecurity in LA.

I moved from Michigan to California knowing in the back of my mind like, all right, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen in LA.

And I was working out of Torrance and I was living in Santa Monica at the time and I just knew that, I always knew that in the back of my mind I wasn't gonna stay there and it was weird, it gave me this kind of freedom to like, this kind of apathetic attitude which was I guess perceived as like confident and you know, like I really know my shit because I don't care about the outcome.

And it did really well for my, like I ended up doing really well and moving up the corporate ladder relatively quickly in like 5 or 6 years because of that attitude, which is really weird.

But it did teach me a lot about just like how you present yourself, how you present your ideas, and it helped a lot in the writer's room and in different aspects of my life.

But yeah, once I realized I could, I'm giving myself some time, I'll do that.

And were your side projects finding traction while you were working full time?

This was another thing that was the impetus for it.

I had a lot of content, I had a lot of spec scripts, I was entering competitions, I was entering these fellowships, I had 0 contacts.

I didn't know any assistants, I didn't know any managers, I didn't know any agents.

So I was thinking like, all right, I have all this stuff that I want people to read.

So the only way I'm gonna meet people is if I make the jump and start doing this.

And I made it a goal that wherever I worked that I would try and expand my network as much as possible.

And something that's challenging for me because I'm an introvert, I don't really love to go out and grab drinks or go to social gatherings.

But I made it a point like, hey, every other assistant that I meet, every other intern that I meet, every other, you know, anyone working in this industry, I wanna get to know them, what they're working on, what they wanna do, and it really helped, because it really helped kind of like, help me navigate this new kind of uncharted territory of like, where am I gonna, like what my next job is gonna be.

And like if I look back on my career in entertainment, it's based on, you know, some of those early relationships that I made when I first moved, when I first made the jump.

And as a fellow introvert, like what were the most effective tactics for getting this like transitioning into that media space?

Okay, so this is super nerdy and weird and there's something oddly, in the entertainment industry, there's something oddly transactional about the relationships.

And if you go into it, kind of understanding that, like, it's not to say that it's they're insincere, because you obviously have friendships, but there is this kind of notion of, we're gonna grab drinks, because at some point, I can, I can help you accomplish your goal and you can help me accomplish my goal?

Something transactional in that nature, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So have that expectation going into it, that that's kind of what other people are looking for in the exchange a lot of the time.

And I had this spreadsheet, because I have a terrible memory,

So I had this spreadsheet of like, all right, here are all the people, here are where they worked, here's what we talked about.

Here is, you know, here are the projects that they're working on and here, you know, just like, just so I can kind of solidify it in my mind so I don't embarrass myself, because it has happened to me before where like, I meet someone and then like 6 months later I run into them again and I introduce myself like oh no we already met and then I feel like a terrible person.

I just was trying to avoid that and it's really just about making yourself indispensable and wherever you're at So whether it was an internship for a production company or whether I was an assistant for a producer

Right, so okay, so wait, yeah, to step back a little bit.

So you're just some nerd and you're like, I'm gonna make movies.

was an unpaid intern at a production company where I, along with a bunch of other unpaid interns, we sat in the basement all day and read script submissions and wrote something called coverage.

Which is basically a book report on a screenplay.

So instead of an executive having to read the entire screenplay, they read coverage that was written by an intern or an assistant.

And it's basically like a two-page summary of the entire story and then like a page of comments and critiques.

So my first day doing that, I'm like, this is great.

I get to read and like critique scripts all day and judge them, it's awesome.

And then like after a couple of weeks, I'm like, all right, this is getting old, exhausting.

Cause I'm like, these guys are working writers

And it was validating, even though I was at the bottom of the ladder, it was validating in some weird way that, you know, if they could do it, if they can get representation, if they can make a living doing this, then it gave me some hope.

So I did that for a couple months and I was able to turn that into an assistant position.

So I finally started getting paid, even though I wasn't getting paid much.

And that took like 4 months, 3 or 4 months, which is a lot less than 3 years, which is great.

And I kept this whole thing secret from my parents, by the way.

They thought I was still working cybersecurity, making 6 figures.

And then shortly after that, I was making like $600 a week.

Because when I told them both, My dad's reaction was acceptance.

He was like, fine, you already have a degree you can fall back on, you have contacts and in information security, you can always go back to that.

You're single, you're young, You don't have a family, you don't have any people depending on you.

was, the best quote from that conversation when I finally told her was me saying, mom, stop stressing about this.

And then she went, I'm not making myself miserable, you're making me miserable.

And she's like, why would you leave 6 Figures and, you know,

So was she like the puppet master when you were a kid and you didn't realize it?

No, I don't, it was weird because She was always, when I was younger, she was always supportive of my art projects or anything creatively that I was passionate about, like whether I wanted to buy a musical instrument or whether I wanted to go do a short film.

My dad was always like, you know, don't waste your time too much because you're not gonna make a living.

Like go down this sensible, logical path.

And then it was weird how they flip-flopped.

Exactly, yeah, success is like, all right, fine.

And so you eventually, you become this assistant, and then you worked on a show that didn't work out, right?

I worked on a couple of shows actually, just as assistants to producers, assistants to showrunners.

And I ended up becoming the showrunners assistant to Adam Fiero and Gina Matthews and Grant Sharbo were producers of a show called Rush that only lasted for 1 season on USA.

But through that experience, I got to know the executives and the assistants at USA really well.

And shortly after that show kind of died, I grabbed drinks with 1 of the executives at USA.

And he was telling me, like we were just talking, like you and I right now, and I told him a little bit about my history and my previous career and that whole thing.

And he was like, all right, I want you to read this thing that we have that's coming up from Sam Esmail, Mr.

So he sends me the script, I read it, I love it.

And I give him my feedback and then within a month he sets up a meeting with Sam and me because Sam was looking for an assistant at that time.

And Sam didn't know that I had a previous life as like a cyber security, you know, cyber security guy.

And basically what Elliot did on the show was my old job

But this is what I'm trying to piece together now because I knew some of your history before we met up but like So much of the show is just mirroring your life right you're just a guy.

It's a weird serendipitous Thing that like because he wrote a pilot he wrote that He wrote the pilot and shot the pilot before I met him.

So he had already had the pilot done and he had just got the series pick up.

So he had to staff a room and get a whole team together.

So that was around the time where I met him and I hadn't seen the pilot at that point.

I had only read it and even reading it, I'm like, all right, this feels like the perfect show for me And it's weird, we were kind of talking about this before, I spent so much of my life trying to leave the IT job and I don't wanna be known as the guy, like don't call me with your IT problems,

don't wanna be that guy, I'm a writer, like I wanna go pursue my passion, right?

Robot, those 2 worlds just collided in the coolest way possible.

Because when I was talking with Sam and I'm like, hey, I have done all this before.

Like, I can help you figure out, we can make E-Corp realistic.

Like, we can do all these things and we can have these different types of attacks.

And like, I think we were both really excited at the prospect of just like this new, this kind of partnership.

So you're worried about- Were you worried about coming on too hot?

When you read it and you're like, oh my God, this is the thing.

I was, I mean, of course with any meeting, like you're always hope for the best and then you, like personally, I leave second guessing everything I said.

Like after this, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna be like, what the fuck did I say?

Like I got the news like shortly after that meeting that we were gonna move forward and that was really exciting.

It felt like I knew about this magical thing that hadn't been released to the world yet.

And in hindsight, that is even a more kind of important observation for me because I knew that based on my taste, my history, that I was working on something special and all throughout season 1, when we were writing season 1, when we were producing season 1, like I knew that it was something that was creative, that was unique, that was something that hasn't been done before.

So it was just so kind of validating and satisfying to have it be released and get the kind of recognition that we got that like other people got it and they were craving this kind of, you know, hacker thriller story.

Because I like, I've worked on, I mean, even personally, creative projects that you're like, oh, this is good, but it turns out it's good for like 100 people that are super into it.

Was there anything that signaled to you before it came out that this would be interesting to like a larger audience of folks?

That's why I'm so captivated by this, because most of the time, that's the case.

Most of the time I'll write something or I'll work on something and I'll be like, this is awesome.

Like people don't feel the same way about it that I do.

And then I start second guessing myself, like is my taste off?

It's just not the right timing or, you know, what, where, where was the, where was the mishap, right?

Robot, it was 1 of those rare cases where, like, I knew it was good and had it not been successful, I would have started to like second guess myself in a way.

of like where you get into arguments with people about like what their favorite movies are and you know, you start second guessing their tastes a little bit.

But I knew that there were people out there like me who wanted like a very cool kind of stylistic character piece about someone like Elliot with the technology portrayed in a realistic fashion, which is something that I knew the community was thriving for, striving for.

And to be honest, I'm kind of surprised that it hadn't happened earlier.

There were so many opportunities for it to happen.

It always seems like a challenge, like making programming and even just being in a terminal interesting.

1 thing that I wanted to talk about we were talking about before is how you guys use flash.

Because even just typing is unbelievably boring to watch sometimes.

Why do you guys use flash and how do you do

So we shoot everything practically on Mr.

Meaning we don't shoot green screens, we don't burn anything in and post.

If you're like, you have a laptop and like you're shooting over someone's shoulder, you see in the camera what they see

Real code on the screens, ready to go on the day of filming.

Now in order to achieve that, we have to do, we can't put Rami in front of a terminal and then give him a list of commands that he asked to type and risk spending the whole day waiting for him not to make a syntax error.

Just 1 typo is gonna basically ruin the shot.

The schedule's already crazy, and every minute, I don't know how many thousands of dollars you're wasting of just waiting for other things to happen on set.

So my goal is to make sure everything is as seamless as possible and as foolproof as possible on the day we're filming.

And the way we achieve that is through flash animation.

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Mr. Robot's Co-Producer and Writer - Kor Adana