hi there!

Welcome to my website, the place where I try to keep it together. 

In general, I'm all over the place. Maybe you'd like to subscribe to polytrope, my podcast/newsletter/thingie, or hit me up on Twitter.

recent developments

Hello World

Today's measures of potential – things like grades, test scores, and extracurriculars – fail to notice the diversity of perspectives and talents that our world desperately needs. So we founded Hello World – a non-profit out to notice, develop, and connect the world’s young talent. If our mission resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you.

Read more >

Home Scream

Home Scream is a collection of poems and products from 2008 to 2018, coinciding with the launch and ten-year anniversary of the App Store.

It's a playful kind of elegy for the "good old days," which may or may not have ever existed, in which mobile applications promised to open up powerful new ways for us to think, create, and express ourselves. Home Scream will be published in 2022.

Ask me for an advance copy >

Developing critical thinking skills online

How might we design open-ended activities for online platforms which help students develop complex reasoning skills while still delivering rapid feedback?

The Early Product Development group at Khan Academy began investigating this question in early 2017. We worked with teachers across the country to run classroom pilots and to iterate on our solution.

Read our report >

Product Deck

An in-progress deck of "product lenses" – ways of seeing and thinking about your product. I aspire to print these out at some point; in the meantime, lenses are being collected in a Google Spreadsheet. Maybe you'd like to add your own?

Inspired by Jesse Schell's work in game design.

View the spreadsheet >

Pablo, a one-line drawing app

Pablo is a drawing app with a fun gimmick: you submit your drawing by lifting your finger. The result is an anonymous collection of crude one-line drawings.

Free, for iOS, developed hastily and not well-maintained.

Download the app >