Topics
Safety architecture, neurodivergence, governance mechanics, and usable safeguards.
Writing
Writing & essays
Signals from research, lived neurodivergence, and product practice—kept concise for practitioners and policymakers.
Read on Syādvāda
New essays land there first before they make it into the highlights below.
Format
Concise essays and audits written for practitioners, policymakers, and founders.
Cadence
New work lands monthly with field notes added as systems evolve.
Writing
Latest essays
Filtered essays
Published
Pending: The Politics of Non-Decision
The loading screen is a weapon. "Pending" is a governing strategy of attrition designed to make you carry the weight of the process until you give up.
Quick take
The loading screen is a weapon. "Pending" is a governing strategy of attrition designed to make you carry the weight of the process until you give up.
Published
Not Belief. Standing.
We keep describing our institutional crisis as one of 'belief' or 'truth.' But in practice, the bottleneck is 'standing.' An essay on why 'we hear you' is a trap, and how to distinguish between providing input and triggering obligation."
Quick take
We keep describing our institutional crisis as one of 'belief' or 'truth.' But in practice, the bottleneck is 'standing.' An essay on why 'we hear you' is a trap, and how to distinguish between providing input and triggering obligation."
A guide to the difference between moral language and structural constraint
Quick take
A guide to the difference between moral language and structural constraint
Published
Assume Maximum Awareness
Stop assuming leadership is ignorant. "Tragic Institutionalism" argues that institutional harm is priced in, and your burnout is the fuel.
Quick take
Stop assuming leadership is ignorant. "Tragic Institutionalism" argues that institutional harm is priced in, and your burnout is the fuel.
Published
The Worldview with a Gun
From Chicago to Gaza, AI is turning "threat scores" into self-fulfilling prophecies. A critique of epistemic laundering and the automation of state violence. AI systems like Palantir and Axon don't just predict risk, they manufacture killability.
Quick take
From Chicago to Gaza, AI is turning "threat scores" into self-fulfilling prophecies. A critique of epistemic laundering and the automation of state violence. AI systems like Palantir and Axon don't just predict risk, they manufacture killability.
Published
Institutional Apoptosis
We build institutions for every crisis, then forget to give them an off-switch. This piece argues for “institutional apoptosis”: designing governments, programs, and platforms that know how to die before they devour the people inside them.
Quick take
We build institutions for every crisis, then forget to give them an off-switch. This piece argues for “institutional apoptosis”: designing governments, programs, and platforms that know how to die before they devour the people inside them.
Published
The Capture of “Maintenance”
We must reclaim the maintenance that keeps people alive rather than the one that keeps systems standing.
Quick take
We must reclaim the maintenance that keeps people alive rather than the one that keeps systems standing.
A theory of Primitive Accumulation applied to time. Just as capitalism once enclosed land to create value where there was none, it is now enclosing intervals (waiting, boredom, sleep) to capitalize assets that were previously outside the economy.
Quick take
A theory of Primitive Accumulation applied to time. Just as capitalism once enclosed land to create value where there was none, it is now enclosing intervals (waiting, boredom, sleep) to capitalize assets that were previously outside the economy.
Published
The Death of Slack
Modern efficiency hasn't solved volatility; it has just offloaded it onto you. An analysis of how the removal of buffers, inventory, and downtime created a brittle world where every mistake is a crisis.
Quick take
Modern efficiency hasn't solved volatility; it has just offloaded it onto you. An analysis of how the removal of buffers, inventory, and downtime created a brittle world where every mistake is a crisis.
Older essays (11)
Published
Governance by Caricature
Exploring how modern systems are built around an imaginary “reasonable” user, blaming real people for design failure and arguing for infrastructures that accommodate messy, complex human lives.
Quick take
Exploring how modern systems are built around an imaginary “reasonable” user, blaming real people for design failure and arguing for infrastructures that accommodate messy, complex human lives.
Published
You Can Design Harm Out
Explore how system architecture, not intent, makes harm the path of least resistance in institutions. Learn why brittleness and structural fragility offload damage onto vulnerable humans.
Quick take
Explore how system architecture, not intent, makes harm the path of least resistance in institutions. Learn why brittleness and structural fragility offload damage onto vulnerable humans.
Published
The Cowardice of Inference
Predictive systems don't "find patterns," they establish rules about who gets access, who faces scrutiny, whose harm matters less. Their builders claim neutrality while governing lives. It's time to name it and accept accountability.
Quick take
Predictive systems don't "find patterns," they establish rules about who gets access, who faces scrutiny, whose harm matters less. Their builders claim neutrality while governing lives. It's time to name it and accept accountability.
Published
Lucid Disorientation
AI's fluency removes the friction that keeps our heads on straight. On lucid disorientation, and rebuilding resistance to machines that never say no.
Quick take
AI's fluency removes the friction that keeps our heads on straight. On lucid disorientation, and rebuilding resistance to machines that never say no.
Published
Engineering Mutuality
Critiquing the myth of self-sufficiency and outlining a new politics of shared dependence, where care, maintenance, and cooperation become the foundation of autonomy.
Quick take
Critiquing the myth of self-sufficiency and outlining a new politics of shared dependence, where care, maintenance, and cooperation become the foundation of autonomy.
Published
Variance ≠ Deviance
We have a deep-seated instinct to punish what doesn’t fit. Here's how data, management, and moral culture pathologize deviation.
Quick take
We have a deep-seated instinct to punish what doesn’t fit. Here's how data, management, and moral culture pathologize deviation.
Published
Everyone is a Crumple Zone Now
Machines once bent to save people. Now people bend to save machines. A design essay on how digital systems reverse the ethics of safety, making people the shock absorbers for machine perfection.
Quick take
Machines once bent to save people. Now people bend to save machines. A design essay on how digital systems reverse the ethics of safety, making people the shock absorbers for machine perfection.
Published
Puncture the Cleanroom!
"Sterile control" makes systems fragile. Why reason must move from purity to porosity, embracing error, feedback, and accountability to survive.
Quick take
"Sterile control" makes systems fragile. Why reason must move from purity to porosity, embracing error, feedback, and accountability to survive.
Published
To Be is To Be Maintained
A new framework for understanding persistence. This essay redefines stability, arguing that justice is the allocation of repair and proving collapse is a political choice.
Quick take
A new framework for understanding persistence. This essay redefines stability, arguing that justice is the allocation of repair and proving collapse is a political choice.
When "okay" stops being a feeling and becomes a clearance code, care collapses into compliance. A new essay on "clearance culture" and the ethics of being cleared to return.
Quick take
When "okay" stops being a feeling and becomes a clearance code, care collapses into compliance. A new essay on "clearance culture" and the ethics of being cleared to return.
Published
Finitude As Love
Why embracing human limits can make our relationships, ethics, and systems more resilient. An essay on how dependence and maintenance define love, freedom, and what it means to live together.
Quick take
Why embracing human limits can make our relationships, ethics, and systems more resilient. An essay on how dependence and maintenance define love, freedom, and what it means to live together.
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