Start with context
Work should begin with the actual situation, not a blank prompt.
I build things that help people choose well.
AI systems, writing, and tools for attention, care, family, and public life.
personal AI tokens spent building
Over 105 billion personal AI tokens spent building, and counting.
AI makes execution abundant. It makes judgment more visible.
My eight-year-old shipped a game before lunch. That is remarkable, but it is not the point. The point is what a person chooses to make when tools stop being the limiting factor, and what kind of life leaves room to choose well.
My next startup
Russell is coming soon.
A new company for putting AI to work on the parts of a business that deserve more context, more follow-through, and better judgment.
Make room for judgment
The point is not to automate every decision. It is to give people the space to make the ones that matter.
Keep learning
The work that gets finished should make the next hard decision easier.
The writing is where I work things out.
Technology is never only technology. It changes the conditions under which people pay attention, heal, raise children, earn a living, belong to one another, and decide what matters.
Mind and machineThe Year the Phone Started Talking Back
How 2009 quietly rewired the human nervous system.
Read the essay
Work and societyStop Preparing Your Kids for Jobs
The economy is changing faster than parenting.
Read the essay
A life, measuredThe Arithmetic of Dying
How I’m learning to measure my life in hours, not years.
Read the essay IntentionalityThree Stones
A daily practice for choosing what deserves a place in the day.
Read the essayThings I have built over the years.
The throughline is simple: build useful things, learn from them, and take responsibility for where they land.
- WordPressCore contributor, plugin developer, and lifelong builder on the web.
- BruteProtect → AutomatticBuilt in a basement, acquired by Automattic, folded into Jetpack, and made free.
- Jetpack + AkismetLed the Jetpack development team and worked on software used across millions of sites.
- ReconnectCivic-justice technology for pretrial, reentry, and recovery across 31+ states.
- Russell’s orbitAI systems, humane computing, and the tools to build with more intention.
Photography
A few frames from the archive.
