Writings
Essays on politics, philosophy, technology, and the spaces where they intersect.
The Tyranny of Default Settings
We accept the world as it is presented to us, rarely questioning whether the structures we inhabit were designed for our benefit or for someone else's. The most powerful ideas are those that make themselves invisible.
PoliticsPost-Ideological Politics
What happens when the old axes of political alignment lose their explanatory power? A look at how technology and culture are reshaping the landscape of political belief.
TechBuilding Software Like a Garden
The best applications grow organically. They are tended, pruned, and allowed to evolve. This is the antithesis of the "move fast and break things" mentality.
IdeologyThe Cathedral and the Bazaar Revisited
Twenty-five years after Raymond's essay, open source has won the battle but lost the war. What does software freedom mean in an age of cloud computing and AI models?
PhilosophyOn Boredom and Creativity
The modern world is an assault on boredom. Every idle moment is colonized by a screen. But boredom is the seedbed of creativity — the empty space from which new ideas emerge.
PoliticsThe Local Maximum of Democracy
Liberal democracy may represent a local maximum — the best system achievable within current constraints. But what if those constraints are themselves products of the system?