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 ongoing behind-the-scenes updates and early access to new work.
What comes after the book? My current focus: the theory and practice of transformative enabling environments.
What comes after the book?
Barriers and opportunities, joint with Michael Nielsen
An experimental “mnemonic book,” joint with Michael Nielsen
On designing media to reflect how people think and learn
Extending the reading experience over time; joint with Michael Nielsen
An index of the questions and ideas I‘m exploring
Design properties, evidence of impact, top questions
Methods for developing ideas over time
Incomplete notes on a new kind of growth environment
Systems which systematically orchestrate your mind
Athletes and musicians vs. knowledge workers
Work from my time at Khan Academy, where my team worked with teachers to invent novel interactive learning environments.
Creations from my time at Khan Academy.
Beyond right and wrong: scalable open-ended learning activities
Designing digital manipulatives to reveal numbers’ hidden properties
Reframing early numeracy around adventure, wonder, and creativity
When author and learner share a canvas
A syntactic trick to emphasize student agency
Reflections on the team’s design process
Mastery learning’s limits for complex skills
Bridging behavioral interviews and prototypes
The gulf between application and explanation
Designing peer interactions to avoid abuse
The limits of teaching without words
Using student work to arrange social learning
Notes from literature / market review
Enabling open-ended online learning activities
Designing math manipulatives for fluid use
Making abstract properties more visible
Introducing our math manipulative project
Helping students surf their learning edge
I’m fascinated by interfaces which can’t be designed through pictures: native to the dynamic medium, only designable with code.
Designs which can only be explored with code.
A pen which draws its own future using a realtime recurrent neural network
A realtime illusion of 3D depth using the device’s gyro and accelerometer
Balancing uncertainty and responsiveness in multitouch interfaces
Turning a virtual 3D page with your finger
Reflections on how I approach making and thinking.
Reflections on thinking and making.