Excitable, by design

The many algorithms that curate my news and entertainment are ever-changing. Rarely, if ever, have they counterbalanced a theme as it held my attention. Instead, content feeds are always amplifying, intensifying, and exaggerating anything that the...

Published on Wednesday, July 30th at 01:42 AM from Kobe, Japan

Do Better

It’s been a decade since my last trip to Japan. Reading through my journal from that time, I find myself again experiencing the same quiet sense of awe. The attention to detail, the discipline, and the deep-rooted respect that permeate nearly ever...

Published on Saturday, August 2nd at 04:26 AM from Gora, Japan

A Poor Country Is Not a Developing Country

I’m seated in a very hip health food restaurant located in the premier Sea Point neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa. Outside, the stunning view of the Atlantic Ocean stretches endlessly, and the imposing presence of Table Mountain and Lion’s ...

Published on Sunday, August 10th at 09:41 AM from Cape Town, South Africa

Winter isn't White

Classifications help us navigate the flood of information every thinking person encounters. Practically speaking, “red” is a color; technically, it’s a range of wavelengths where someone might even mistake violet and orange. Knowing when to say “t...

Published on Thursday, August 14th at 21:07 PM from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Prediction frameworks

For years, I’ve frequently shared an idea about belief and the human experience. It often comes up when discussing the many paths to "truth" that societies have developed. I’ve tentatively called this idea “Prediction Frameworks.” This is the firs...

Published on Thursday, September 18th at 02:00 AM from Zurich, Switzerland

For Who?

2025 marks my 10-year anniversary of working in tech.  In that time, I’ve worn the hats of software engineer, product manager, founder, sales rep, and support person — working alongside an eclectic cast of characters. All of them held different ex...

Published on Saturday, October 25th at 14:03 PM from Cape Town, South Africa

Reinventing the Wheel

People love saying “don’t reinvent the wheel” as if it ends the conversation. It doesn’t. It’s a lazy metaphor that dodges the real question: What do we gain or lose by building something ourselves? Most “wheels” in tech aren’t wheels at all—they...

Published on Sunday, November 16th at 00:07 AM from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Frantic development

About six months ago, I wrote and deployed ZAR’s first Solana program. It was simple; let users send money to each other without knowing the recipient’s account address, with some discreet logic around transaction sponsorship and a few guardrails....

Published on Saturday, November 29th at 16:47 PM from Amsterdam, Netherlands

The future is improbable

In 2008, financial models predicted a housing market collapse. Traders, trusting these models, began selling their positions. Other traders, seeing the sell-off, followed suit. Within weeks, the prediction had fulfilled itself - not because the mo...

Published on Saturday, December 20th at 17:38 PM from Amsterdam, Netherlands

The adventure of conversation

I have never met a state champion in high-school conversation, nor have I met anyone who has ever “won” a conversation. I have, however, encountered many who mistake the emotional texture of a challenging discussion for the structure of a debate. ...

Published on Monday, December 22nd at 20:56 PM from Madrid, Spain

Hanging up the abacus

Over the past several months, I’ve developed a number of quiet prejudices about “ways of working” - prejudices I’ve only recently become fully aware of, along with their implications. I’m hardly early to this realization. Years of AI popularizatio...

Published on Friday, December 26th at 13:47 PM from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Thinking before doing

Most people don't plan. They just start. "I'll figure it out as I go" is the default mode for nearly everyone, in nearly every field. It feels productive. It feels like progress. But it's usually just motion. I used to work this way. Early in my...

Published on Monday, January 5th at 23:16 PM from Amsterdam, Netherlands