Hi! I’m a software engineer, designer, and researcher. I work on technologies that expand what people can think and do.
Hi! I’m a software engineer, designer, and researcher. I work on technologies that expand what people can think and do.
My methods meander between academia and Silicon Valley: I explore theories by expressing them in real-world systems, which produce insights I use to improve the theories, which I use in turn to improve the systems, and so on.
Prior to my current work, I helped build iOS at Apple and led R&D at Khan Academy.
I’m now an independent researcher, supported by a crowdfunded grant from my Patreon community. If you find my work interesting, you can become a member to get patron-only "letters from the lab" and early access to new work.
Projects:
tools for thought
Projects: tools for thought
Augmenting cognition and creativity; "how to create magicians?"; "what comes after the book?"; enabling environments.
What comes after the book?
How can we develop transformative tools for thought?
Barriers and opportunities, joint with Michael Nielsen
Quantum Country
An experimental “mnemonic book,” joint with Michael Nielsen
Why books don’t work
On designing media to reflect how people think and learn
Timeful texts
Extending the reading experience over time; joint with Michael Nielsen
More
More work
Notes
Working notes
What‘s top of mind
An index of the questions and ideas I‘m exploring
The mnemonic medium
Design properties, evidence of impact, top questions
Evergreen notes
Methods for developing ideas over time
Enabling environments, video games, and the Primer
Incomplete notes on a new kind of growth environment
Programmable attention
Systems which systematically orchestrate your mind
Taking knowledge work seriously
Athletes and musicians vs. knowledge workers
Letters from
the lab
Letters from the lab
Informal essays and project updates. Most are initially written for my patrons, but a subset are later made available to the public.
Less formal essays (some patron-only)
Ethics of AI-based invention: a personal inquiry
Grappling with my moral obligations as a designer
Memory systems and problem-solving practice
Difficulties in knowledge transfer
Becoming a Wizard-of-Oz learning assistant
Field work experiments in adult learning
Three years of crowdfunded research
Reflections on my membership program
Towards impact through intimacy
Tentative plans for my 2023 research
Cultivating depth and stillness in research
Notes on whatʼs worked for me
Lessons from summer 2022 prototype
Synthesis on new mnemonic medium
Breaking the mnemonic medium out of its box
Demo/talk of a new floating design
Prospects for consumer silent speech interfaces
Systems for dictation without audible sound
The joyful surprises of user observation
Notes from testing a new mnemonic medium
A peritextual mnemonic medium
Demo/talk of a redesign around reader control
Implicit practice: a sight reading parable
One way implicit practice fails in knowledge work
Exponentials and forgetting in Quantum Country
Patterns in preliminary data
Lessons from 2021
Reflections on creative work, the field, crowdfunding
Tools for thought: science, design, art, craftsmanship?
Lenses for progress in interface invention
Quantum Country’s suspiciously flat forgetting curves
Surprises in analysis of conceptual memory
Doing-centric explanatory mediums
Board game instruction manuals… and Figma
Architectures for a more flexible mnemonic medium
Interface approaches for reader control
Revamping the mnemonic medium for reader control
Expanding beyond primers' assumptions
Armories for tool-maker/-user collaborations
Notes on bridging skills and ideas
Finding research–context fit
A challenge for tool-builders
Crowdfunded research vs. the NSF CAREER grant
Open-sourcing Orbit; technical collaborations
Too easy to be effortless
Surprising distributions in Quantum Country
Ratcheting progress in tools for thought
How to accrete insight as a field?
In search of better questions
From memory systems to meaning
Reflections on 2020 as an independent researcher
Funding, culture, limitations, process
Liquid olives and iPhones
Problem-solving and -finding; The Uncertainty Mindset
Working with authors: entangled skills
Text-writing needs prompt-writing needs text-writing
The carrying capacity of a regular memory practice
Tensions with deliberate practice and flow
The galaxy brain problem; speed-running UIs
Challenges in explaining new mediums
“Skip”: exponential-backoff deferral mechanisms…
… and fuzzy inboxes
Thoughts on crowdfunding tools for thought
Remarks on a milestone in crowdfunding
A nascent art direction for Orbit
Escaping educational aesthetics
Demonstrating a personal mnemonic medium
Integrating spaced repetition into prose notes
Bringing ideas into your Orbit
Extending the desktop for programmable attention
Projects:
ed-tech
Projects: experimental ed-tech
Work from my time at Khan Academy, where my team worked with teachers to invent novel interactive learning environments.
Creations from my R&D work at Khan Academy.
Building complex skills online
Beyond right and wrong: scalable open-ended learning activities
Numbers at play
Designing digital manipulatives to reveal numbers’ hidden properties
Playful worlds of creative math
Reframing early numeracy around adventure, wonder, and creativity
Blog
Research Blog
Narrated explorables: three mental models
When author and learner share a canvas
Students are the subjects of our sentences
A syntactic trick to emphasize student agency
Looking sideways at the design squiggle
Reflections on the team’s design process
Mastery learning and creative tasks
Mastery learning’s limits for complex skills
Sorting product “baseball cards”
Bridging behavioral interviews and prototypes
Explanations from ‘masters’ of geometry
The gulf between application and explanation
Safely showing students peers’ comments
Designing peer interactions to avoid abuse
Games vs. education on unguided instruction
The limits of teaching without words
Rich tasks which crowdsource more rich tasks
Using student work to arrange social learning
Surveying the open-ended task landscape
Notes from literature / market review
Amplifying open-ended questions
Enabling open-ended online learning activities
One medium, many contexts
Designing math manipulatives for fluid use
Old and new ways of looking at numbers
Making abstract properties more visible
A medium for exploring quantity
Introducing our math manipulative project
Student agency and flow
Helping students surf their learning edge
More, misc, meta
Miscellaneous writing, appearances, and projects scattered across the web.
Miscellaneous writing, appearances, projects.
Podcasts
Selected podcasts
Econtalk with Russ Roberts
2019-08-05
Tools & Craft with Devon Zuegel
2022-06-08
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg
2021-07-29
Metamuse with Adam Wiggins and Mark McGranaghan
2020-09-03
Free Thoughts with Aaron Ross Powell and Trevor Burrus
2021-01-22
Venture Stories with Erik Torenberg
2019-10-24
North Star with David Perell
2020-04-06