James Lyne: Hacker. Uber geek. Insomniac. Cyclist. Gamer. SANS instructor. Public speaker…and, as Eleanor Dallaway discovers, that's just for starters
Despite both living in Oxfordshire, I meet James Lyne in San Francisco and spend more than two hours being thoroughly entertained by one of the most self-deprecating, intelligent and hyper human beings that I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing.
James is the most confident, bubbly ‘introvert’ (his description, not mine) that I have ever met. When he tells me that when he first started out in this industry he found any type of communication, let alone media or public speaking, excruciatingly difficult, it’s almost inconceivable. Here’s a guy who has built an impressive career on the exact notion of communication: translating technical security flaws in a comprehensible way.
Whilst you and I would call it ‘an impressive career,’ James refers to it as his “passion and hobby.” I can’t emphasize enough how much James loves what he does – it literally radiates out of everything he says and does. “My work is my hobby, I would do this stuff even if I didn’t get paid, but don’t tell anyone,” he laughs, later admitting, “I do get tired sometimes. The saving grace is that I love it – I couldn’t keep my schedule up if I didn’t. There is so much cool stuff going on and I don’t want to miss a second of it.”
I wonder if that FOMO (fear of missing out) plays into James’ self-confessed insomnia. Given that he gets four hours of sleep on a good night, he has many extra hours in his day to cram in additional reading, “playing with new tools” and gaming. “I love sitting there at two in the morning unpicking interesting malware samples, playing with cool exploits and reading new papers”, he says.
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