Thinking through and building tools that work with us, not for us.

Hope in Source · receipt printers · walking podcast · book club

hope/expectation · image/idol · serendipity/control


Projects

Explorations in code, community, and thought

experimental 2026

reflow

sentence-at-a-time reader for text, essays, and websites

dim, highlight, or hide everything else. one sentence at a time

2025

Sauntercast

a walking podcast

taking Hope in Source on the road, archiving my walks

experimental 2025

are.na search

find are.na channels by url

2026

qr scanner

scan a code, trigger an action. play spotify, youtube, anything

works with phone, usb, or wifi scanners

2025

qr quiz

play trivia using a barcode scanner (or phone)

fast like a clicker, but uses QR codes

2025

vibe search

search for a feeling, not just a literal word

discover related tweets in the community archive via embeddings

paused 2025

book club (dm to try)

annotate PDFs together, async book club

what if each PDF became a shared room, with conversations in the margins?

2024

riff with friends

exquisite corpse: each person writes a line, shares the link

paused 2023

kairos

an app for serendipity

why none that can deepen friendships? only for creating new ones

2023

boxes

factorio-inspired programming on a canvas

seeking collab 2022

sound of code

plays video game sounds as you type keywords

what if you could write code that sounds good?

seeking collab 2022

text expander

exploding/zooming in on a sentence at a time

paused 2022

bible karaoke

memorize verses using speech recognition + blurring the words

2022

code equalizer

code itself is an equalizer with lofi girl in the bg

2020

localized keywords

write JavaScript keywords in other languages

what if you could write code in your native language?

seeking collab 2016

contributors on github

browser extension highlighting contributor activity on PRs and issues

what does it mean to welcome someone into a new community?

2015-present

babel & open source

I never expected to be a part of xkcd #2347. became a maintainer by accident

less about fixing bugs, more about ecosystem sustainability. the digital commons.

influences
Tools for Conviviality

Tools for Conviviality

wiki

Ivan Illich

balancing industrial and communal via tools that work *with* us, not for us.

interdependence, proportionality, counterproductivity

Death and Life of Great American Cities

Death and Life of Great American Cities

wiki

Jane Jacobs

an attack on modernist urban planning, celebrating cities as their own liturgy.

eyes on the street, organized complexity, sidewalk ballet, mixed-use

The Timeless Way of Building

The Timeless Way of Building

wiki

Christopher Alexander

philosophy disguised as architecture. explores the "quality without a name" that empowers everyday people to turn spaces into places.

wholeness, pattern language, centers

The Medium and the Light

The Medium and the Light

wiki

Marshall McLuhan

in jesus christ, there is no distance or separation between the medium and the message: it is the one case where we can say that the medium and the message are fully one and the same

extension of man, media tetrad

Personal Knowledge

Personal Knowledge

wiki

Michael Polanyi

knowledge is a process of knowing, requiring personal commitment. no certainty, only confidence

indwelling, tacit knowledge, subsidiary-focal integration

You Are What You Love

You Are What You Love

wiki

James K.A. Smith

we are what we worship. can't think our way out of addiction. loves are disordered.

cultural liturgies