Sketching what I'll work on next
And looking to start conversations
I'm exploring full time roles. I'm most interested in work that sings to my creative, tech, and community skills more holistically. This post goes into my superpowers and also includes a summary of my work history below.
There are gigs out there I’d love but i'm not aware of, and my hope is this post will help start new conversations. I’m primarily focusing on the SF bay area because it’s a nexus for generative AI.
🚀🚀🚀 If folks come to mind, please let me know, or even better, put us in touch. Contact and unoffice hours on whichlight.com.
A quick lookback on my year so far:
The first half of the year I built different AI prototypes. I explored a bunch of tools, built a few apps, participated in a couple hackathons, and hosted several events, including a generative AI show and tell in SF and creative tech show and tell in Boston.
For the second half of the year, I planned on picking an idea to go deep on. I spent a couple months researching and having conversations looking into different problem areas. My hunch was that there would be valuable problems in industries currently overlooked by most folks working with AI tools.
I haven’t felt a deep conviction around any ideas so far. My plan now is to find fulltime work, ideally in the AI space. I’ll keep building up experience, and thinking up ideas and prototyping. Once an idea comes up that compels me, I’ll pursue it.
You can find more details in the past posts of this newsletter.
My superpowers
Based on reflections from colleagues and peers, here’s what’s come up as my superpowers i.e. skills I excel at and enjoy.
Rapid creative prototyping on new technical platforms. I love quickly exploring new tech, getting creative, and showing what’s possible. I use the prototypes to tell stories and start conversations. Through talks, meetups, and writing I make the tech more welcoming and inspire ideas.
I’ve created highly interactive and expressive web experiences building on web APIs and open source browser libraries. You can see recent rapid prototyping of graphics, interactivity, and sound in synthruary, draw+play, and genuary. My most viral site is bloopdance, using the mobile browser accelerometer and web audio api.
I’ve deployed a range of AI apps including chat and image generation apps, and custom classifiers, using both APIs and open source local LLMs. Highlights include open-sourcing my streaming chat app with a tutorial, making it easier to make your own custom AI chat bots, and creating a drawing and image generation app.
I’ve explored hardware for creative projects, installing them public art pieces, and teaching electronics and Arduino workshops.
Cultivating community. Throwing and attending events are essential for me in learning, finding meaning, and getting motivation around the work I do. After throwing events for 15+ years, it’s natural to who I am.
The event series I’m most proud of is a set of conferences bringing together journalists and developers, called Hacking Journalism. The goal wasn’t to win a prize, instead, it was to build relationships across tech and media companies through building news tech prototypes together. I put together a team and hosted events at the MIT Media Lab, Conde Nast, and the Washington Post.
I’m thrilled when events continue for years. In 2012 I started a creative tech meetup in Boston that still meets to this day, over 10 years later. In 2016 I started a spinoff creative tech meetup in SF for a couple years. In 2018 I started Radical Art Directors, a monthly meetup for a year, co-hosting design talks and workshops. Variations of these workshops continue to this day in the form of creative happy hours and show and tells. In 2021 I started a weekly drink n draw in Oakland, which still meets every Thursday.
Storytelling, public speaking. I love connecting with audiences by sharing insights, humor, and moments of meaning.
I’ve given talks at Facebook, Google, EYEO, FITC, JSConf, The New York Times, and the Society of News Design. These talks were on the topic of opportunities new technologies, HCI, and society, sharing prototypes of my work. Here is an example from EYEO.
At Medium I gave weekly updates at the company all hands and offsites, sharing the vision of products and cultivating enthusiasm internally. At Embedly I regularly met with customers across tech and media, sharing the latest tools and building relationships.
Creative vision and collaboration. I thrive working on zero-to-one problems that involve researching, talking to customers, and developing a vision. Because these initiatives are new, they often involve working with teams across a range of functions. I love coming up with new structures to facilitate these collaborations. A few highlights:
Worked across editorial, engineering, and design to start Medium’s machine learning team, launching topics and the curation pipeline to improve post quality in reader recommendations.
Launched new projects to support Medium creators, including a newsletter to 100K+ writers. Grew relationships with creators and expanded programs internally to bring in additional functions to support them.
Cultivated relationships with journalists and developers at Embedly, got feedback to inform new, easier to use products.
What I’m most excited about right now
I’m drawn to the media and tech space, because it’s where most of my experience is. I’m also curious to see where my skills can help in other sectors too, specifically areas that can benefit from my skills in creativity, prototyping, community, and PMing.
There’s a lot to figure out in the AI space as generative AI gains adoption. I’m interested in opportunities in human-computer interaction for AI-driven tools. As LLMs become more powerful and generalized, how might we identify specific valuable use cases, and design tools leveraging LLMs that are welcoming and easy to use?
I’d love your help
I need to connect these superpowers to valuable problems, and I want to find teams that are inspiring and supportive to work with. Are there areas you recommend I look into? What do you find inspiring right now? Who should I get in touch with?
Summary of what I’ve worked on
Experienced in product, development, and community — I ideate, design, and build apps that invite people to be expressive and creative, and I regularly organize meetups and give talks about my work in technology and creativity. I'm currently building out ideas in the AI space, exploring what's next, and interested in conversations on new opportunities.
Previously, I was a data scientist at the New England Complex Systems Institute, awarded a patent in HCI and producing research in social systems. My interest in tech led to me join Embedly as a machine learning engineer, soon leading product and strategy, ramping up the product, design, devrel, and marketing functions. In 2016 I joined Medium via acquisition of Embedly. There I was a product manager for three years before founding an initiative to build a stronger connection with creators across the platform, which I led for two years. I launched the machine learning team, launching topic classification to the platform and rolling out the tech to internal tools and recommendations.
In the space of creative technology, I’ve been invited to share my my work at companies and conferences. I co-founded a company making interactive and public art. Talks and workshops include MIT, Google Creative Lab, Facebook, Society of News Design, EYEO, FITC, and JSConf. My work has been covered in publications including the Atlantic, Science, Vice, NewScientist, Make, Core77, the New York Times, The Guardian, and the Globe.
Links: Personal website, LinkedIn, Talk
Impressive accomplishments!