About me
Hey I'm Chris Basson. 🖖
I've lived all across South Africa and now call Cape Town home. I'm married to my favorite human, Lara, and we live together with our favorite cat, Hobbes. I'm a builder and technologist at heart. I absolutely love a good dad joke or pun. I built my first product when I was 16. Spending time outdoors refreshes me.
This is a page about things that shape who I am. If you’re curious about what I’m up to right now, check out /now.
Lara ❤️
I met Lara late on a Friday night at a sokkie club outside of Cape Town. We connected over our shared interest in ballroom dancing and rock climbing, but soon found ourselves in deeper conversations around how we dealt with our ADHD, how we had grown up and cultivated incredibly meaningful friendships online, and our a shared interest in nerdy media.
We've been together since 2011 and married in 2014. So much has changed during this time, but Lara remains my favourite human - she has supported me through a variety of interests, jobs, endeavours, and changes, and I feel at my best when I am able to do the same for her.
Neuro Spice 🧠
I was diagnosed with ADHD at 11 years old. While taking Ritalin helped me massively with my school work, it also had a poor impact of my (already limited) social life and eating habits. The result was that I went unmedicated until I was 28, at which point I was re-diagnosed and took a far more measured (adult) approach to being medicated and working with my psychiatrist to find the right dosage and approach to being medicated.
With my ADHD I struggle immensely to get stuff done which already feels "done" - in other words if it isn't challenging, or I already know what the exact solution/output looks like, or I am not learning something new - if this is the case, I can barely get the task done. I also struggle with emotional regulation, rejection sensitivity, and (as of yet) I don't feel able to form habits.
All that said, I find that my ADHD also allows me to think and process very deeply, whether it be about problems, ideas, or people. I like to talk very openly about my ADHD, share with people how it might influence my relationship with them, share how I've created processes and reminders in my life to help, and create safe spaces for others to talk about things neuro-atypical.
It is important to know that you are a normal zebra not a strange horse. You can't find a community with other zebras if you think you are a horse all the time. It is also impossible for a zebra to live a healthy life if it feels like a failed horse all the time. 🦓
Gaming 🎮
If I can call anything a hobby, it would be gaming. I vividly remember first playing games on my father's home computer using 5¼-inch and 3½-inch floppy disks - most notably Top Gun (1986) and Lemmings (1991). I’ve been gaming ever since. Check the /now page to see what’s currently in rotation.
I started modding games around the time of Command & Conquer Red Alert, and in 2008 joined (and ultimately lead) a team working on the Tropical Tower Wars custom game for Warcraft 3 which reached ±1M monthly active players across PVPGN, Battle.net, and GArena servers.
I've spoken on panels, to teenage learners and their parents, about the positive benefits of gaming, how to create positive conversations about gaming in homes, how gaming is a source of tangential learning, and the negative effects of too much gaming.
I've even tried to run my own game development studio.
Career 💻
I really enjoy working. When the culture is right, my work gives me energy, purpose, and drive.
I started my career as a developer but soon found a passion for designing products (and solutions) that genuinely delight people. I thrive in startup and scale-up environments where I can focus on product and strategy, while contributing as a generalist and leader. I'm most fulfilled when I help others do their best work and create the conditions for teams to succeed.
I've been working in the product management space for the better part of 2 decades and am always eager to share my experience and learnings with others in this space.
Learning 🧭
I enjoy learning new things, especially when they challenge the way I think.
Over time, I’ve realized that learning and mastering new skills almost always begins with being bad at them. As we grow older, we get used to feeling competent, so the discomfort of being a beginner becomes harder to accept. That discomfort often holds us back from trying something new.
The best way to stay open to growth is to keep learning. When we regularly put ourselves in situations where we’re not yet good at something, we stay comfortable with that early awkwardness. And that makes it easier to take on the next challenge.