Henry's Zoo

I stumbled into the world of open source through Jon (I asked, "who is working on these projects, and why?"). I ended up manually fixing enough lints in angular.js that they sent me a t-shirt (ty Igor)! This happened to be enough motivation that I ended up learning about the linter itself, JSCS.

My first contribution was adding a table of contents (a feature now automated by GitHub). After a year of working together online, I received an email for an opportunity at Behance because 2 JSCS maintainers (Mike/Joel) were there. JSCS eventually merged with ESLint, and I found out that Babel existed. From there, I found myself accidentally becoming the maintainer there after answering some issues.

Along the way, I slowly discovered what I cared about wasn't the code, so I left that job in 2018 for a pursuit of positive freedom: of code and of life.

Projects, talks, podcasts, and writing by year

Show

  1. 2026

    1. Talk: sauntercast: walking a long wayaci-d tasting: random walks
    2. Talk: Talking in Circles: Ivan Illichaci-d club
    3. Talk: every medium is lossy: biblerotvalues based software
    4. Podcast: Code, Community, and CallingThe Thread & The Pursuit #8
      56m
    5. Podcast: Babel to BibleNo Signal #11
      20m
    6. Project: fm.henryshared queue for youtube/soundcloud, synced p2p
    7. Project: reflowsentence-at-a-time reader for text, essays, and websites
    8. Project: mta.henrylive NYC subway map, every train moving in real time
    9. Project: qr scannerscan a code, trigger an action. play spotify, youtube, anything

  2. 2025

    1. Talk: BiblerotBrooklyn Web Workers
    2. Talk: Screenshot as sacramentScreenshot Conf
    3. Talk: Software's Agentic Future (Panel)GenAI Collective NYC @ Deep Tech Week NYC
    4. Talk: Code is a chorusTower Research: Synthetic Software
    5. Project: henry's biblerethinking reading
    6. Project: Sauntercasta walking podcast
    7. Project: are.na searchfind are.na channels by url
    8. Project: henry.inkshow bsky posts as you browse
    9. Project: qr quizplay trivia using a barcode scanner (or phone)
    10. Project: vibe searchsearch for a feeling, not just a literal word
    11. Project: book club (dm to try)annotate PDFs together, async book club

  3. 2024

    1. Talk: An Experiment in SerendipityChinatown.js
    2. Project: receipt printerssend me a message/photo, like a fax
    3. Project: riff with friendsexquisite corpse: each person writes a line, shares the link

  4. 2023

    1. Writing: Creating the World in His Image
    2. Writing: More on Images
    3. Project: kairosan app for serendipity
    4. Project: boxesfactorio-inspired programming on a canvas

  5. 2022

    1. Writing: The Limits and "Good" of Public Goods
    2. Project: sound of codeplays video game sounds as you type keywords
    3. Project: text expanderexploding/zooming in on a sentence at a time
    4. Project: bible karaokememorize verses using speech recognition + blurring the words
    5. Project: code equalizercode itself is an equalizer with lofi girl in the bg

  6. 2021

    1. Podcast: Community and culture-centered codeCommonplace #1
      60m
    2. Podcast: Quitting a steady job to chase intuitionThe GitHub Podcast
      33m
    3. Talk: Trapped in the Open Source Supply ChainDevX Conf
      26m
    4. Talk: Open (Source of Fear)OS101
      34m
    5. Talk: IF HE'S IN, I'M INJSWorld
    6. Talk: X is a CompilerCodesmith
      67m

  7. 2020

    1. Podcast: Building BabelReact Podcast #119
      57m
    2. Podcast: Community is EverythingEnjoy the Vue #36-38
      23m
    3. Podcast: Staying Hum-BabelSustain #34
      37m
    4. Talk: Everything as CompilerVueConf US
      21m
    5. Talk: Open Source at Face ValueOS Festival Africa
      23m
    6. Talk: React as CultuseReactNYC
    7. Talk: An Open Source JourneyHack Lodge Boston
    8. Project: localized keywordswrite JavaScript keywords in other languages

  8. 2019

    1. Talk: Defining Open Sourcejsconf.jp
    2. Podcast: The Human Side Of Open-SourceChats with Kent S2:E4
      33m
    3. Talk: Guest LectureBerkeley INFO253
    4. Talk: Don't do Open Source full timeMongoDB, FB, Netflix
    5. Talk: Open Source as LiturgyThe Maintainers III
    6. Talk: Open Source and Work-Life BalanceFlatiron Hacktoberfest
    7. Talk: Open Source and Work-Life BalanceAtlantaJS
    8. Writing: Seeking Serendipity
    9. Podcast: Open IndependenceWeird Trick Mafia #12
      40m
    10. Talk: Open Source: Charity or BusinessJSNation
      31m
    11. Podcast: When in doubt, log an issueJS Party #74
      60m
    12. Writing: (Open) source of anxietyIncrement
    13. Talk: Maintainers AnonymousJSHeroes
      26m
    14. Talk: Open Sourcing "full time"A Function
    15. Podcast: Maintaining BabelShopTalk #344
      61m
    16. Writing: Maintainers Anonymous
    17. Writing: Maintainer Hackathon
    18. Writing: Maintainer's Podcast

  9. 2018

    1. Podcast: Henry ZhuPodcast Your Data #73
      28m
    2. Writing: Hope in Source
    3. Talk: Maintainer's VirtueATO
      14m
    4. Writing: Living Out in Faith
    5. Podcast: Behind the Scenes of Babel 7Web Platform Podcast #172
      54m
    6. Talk: Through the (Open Source) Looking GlassReact Rally
      22m
    7. Podcast: Maintainer of BabelEgghead.io #20
      55m
    8. Podcast: BabelSoftware Engineering Daily
      67m
    9. Podcast: Humans of Open-Source SoftwarePG Podcast #37
      39m
    10. Writing: An Issue with Issues
    11. Talk: In Pursuit of Open SourceZeit Day SF
      20m
    12. Writing: In Pursuit of Open Source (Part 2)
    13. Podcast: Babel and Open Source SustainabilityThe React Podcast #4
      47m
    14. Writing: In Pursuit of Open Source (Part 1)
    15. Writing: Leaving Behance
    16. Podcast: Maintaining a Popular Project and Sponsored TimeRFC #18
      62m
    17. Project: Hope in Sourcea podcast on faith and open source

  10. 2017

    1. Podcast: Next Generation JavaScript TodayWeb Platform Podcast #147
      54m
    2. Talk: The Future of Babel with preset-envPGD
      23m
    3. Talk: Maintainer, Heal ThyselfReact Boston
      20m
    4. Talk: So How Does Babel Even Work?React Rally
      21m
    5. Talk: Role of Babel in JSTC39
    6. Talk: Maintaining an OSS Project (Babel)JSConf EU
      16m

  11. 2016

    1. Podcast: Publishing JavaScript PackagesJavascript Air #32
      69m
    2. Talk: How Writing a Babel Plugin Is like...BrooklynJS
    3. Project: contributors on githubbrowser extension highlighting contributor activity on PRs and issues

  12. 2015

    1. Podcast: Babel, the JavaScript CompilerJavascript Air #2
      69m
    2. Project: babel & open sourceI never expected to be a part of xkcd #2347. became a maintainer by accident

interviews