This is part one of the Crossover Project. Part two is here and part three is here. A conference talk based on this work is now available here. I sat in front of Mat, idly chatting about tech and cuisine. Before now, I had known him mostly for his cooking pictures on Twitter, the kind that made me envious of suburbanites and their 75,000 BTU woks. But now he was the test subject for my new project, to see if it was going to be fruitful or a waste of time.
Resetting on engineering expectations in the age of AI
I’m accepting new sponsorships for The Modern Leader for 2026. If you’re interested (or you think your company may be interested), you can learn more here.
The 1989 CBC Massey Lectures, "The Real World of Technology"
Technology has always been a part of human existence. Today though, says the experimental physicist, Ursula M. Franklin, technology has large-scale effects on culture itself. Ursula Franklin is an experimental physicist, University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, a former board member of the National Research Council and the Science Council of Canada, and a companion of the Order...
My fireside chat about agentic engineering at the Pragmatic Summit
I was a speaker last month at the Pragmatic Summit in San Francisco, where I participated in a fireside chat session about Agentic Engineering hosted by Eric Lui from Statsig. …
Building tech in the world’s secret R&D hub
Zurich has created a technology ecosystem nearing the density of Silicon Valley.
We Need To Stop Calling Entertainers ‘Artists’
Expert in building reliable digital platforms and leading high-impact technical teams. 20+ years experience at the intersection of technology, teams, and learning.
Ex Oil-Engineer Turned Climate Whistleblower: We Face COLLAPSE | Aaron Bastani Meets Kevin Anderson
The machines are fine. I'm worried about us.
On AI agents, grunt work, and the part of science that isn't replaceable.
AI, I tried to love you – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider
Among my peers who study the cultures and economies surrounding technology, I often find myself more tech-positive than most. On the whole I like computers, like the internet, and like in general the emergent human creativity that these things have enabled and revealed. A source of my appreciation is that I expend a lot of effort on the practice of “slow computing,” which is to say, choosing tools and technical communities that I can feel in right relationship with. I tend to approach new socio-technologies (like gig economies, blockchains, and social media) not from a perspective of why is this so bad? so much as asking how could we do this right?
What It's Actually Like to Build a Tech Company in Canada | Tyler Bryden
The honest version of building in Canada — the funding gap, talent reality, what's genuinely good, and what I'd tell someone starting here today.
The future is low-tech: lessons from the early 2000s ft. Jésabel DC | Config 2026
Vibe Maintainer
Some attendees at an AI Tinkerers meetup in early Feb were asking me what it’s like to be the maintainer of a big OSS project where the…
We need a PIT Crew for news
Zohran Mamdani has unveiled a radically collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach to building internal technology capacity. News has a lot to learn from it.
Home | Calm Tech Institute - Harmonious Design Principles
The Calm Tech Institute exists to redefine how people think about human-technology interaction, and provide a new UX standard for designing technologies that improve human life.
The Shape of Friction · Matthias Ott
Web design engineer, UX designer, teacher, and speaker – helping teams build websites and digital products with a focus on CSS, accessibility, and performance.
The Future of Software Engineering Isn’t What You Think
Over the past two decades, I’ve watched software eat the world, then hardware catch up, then Generative AI reshape both at the same time…