(writing)
All my public writing is here in some form. I write for emotional resonance, so if something I’ve written strikes a chord, please send me a note!
why do I write?
I first caught the writing bug in third grade when I wrote a story about a wizard on a space adventure, but I treated the bug as an infection--a distraction from the “professional” classes that I needed to pursue the STEM career my parents desired for me. Math and science were to come before magical incantations and ethical dilemmas. In college, I found the freedom to explore my writing alongside my academic obligations of computer science and calculus and accounting and started a blog to share my inner thoughts with the world. Since then, I’ve continued to write on my blog (which has transformed into this website) in both reflective posts, argumentative essays, and short flash-like fiction and maintain a personal newsletter where I share thoughts and updates and personal essays.
I end up setting aside time every day before I start work to write and explore and sometimes find myself seized with bursts of inspiration that I must empty onto paper in the early morning hours. I rigorously give myself space to write even though I’m primarily a writer of passion because writing is how I think, explore, and dream. It’s my submarine to probe into the depths of my subconscious and excavate those submerged emotions and cravings. It’s my limitless blank canvas, where I can freely shape rules and assumptions as I please to convey a feeling or traverse an experiment. It’s the portal to entirely new worlds and universes, where I can play both god, in manifesting my emotions in the literary flesh, and the background observer, in watching how the characters and systems develop naturally in that artificial environment.
Subscribe to my newsletter for updates. No spam—I promise—only the things I find interesting.
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being inevitable in 2026
pushing bounds, making studies, and becoming nature
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software you can touch
[TI-23] being seen through experience and personal mantras
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alive internet theory
why the bots will never win and just hanging out online
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the visitors
an ode to a departing piece of art
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pinhole
notes on curation, seeing, and tuning to new forms of perception
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constellation of coincidences
the web of fateful encounters behind reality
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computing shrines: play as kindling for liberation
on communal websites in sculptures, the title of this newsletter, and perpetual energy
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field notes on being a creative (02)
making something with feeling
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pocket angel or demon
[TI-19] examining our devices as subjects & objects rather than foils
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delusion & reality
on believing in yourself, operating in an adversarial system, and fear as a direction for change
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what we're up against
[TI-18] an interlude on what I care about by detailing it's opposite, or the kind of technology i find so wrong
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a normal 2025
returning to basics, embracing entanglement, invite me to be your creative-in-residence
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a normal 2025
returning to basics, embracing entanglement, invite me to be your creative-in-residence
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gifting in 2025
a belated gift guide & how my opinion changed on gifts
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field companions
[TI-17] a world of computation all around us and infinite possibility
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the anatomy of motion
[TI-16] fine arts agency, interventions & subversions, the punctuated pause between every whirlwind
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public play
[TI-15] on museums, public art, and other environments that offer us a new normal
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moments i manifest
deciding to just do things, accruing the universe's energy, and living the life I yearned for
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the weight of dreams
on the burden of freedom and the institution of dreaming
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opening yourself to support
[TI-14] a reflection on in(ter)dependence, asking for help, and acknowledgements
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computing you can hold
[TI-13] webstones, mobile apps, and intimate handheld computing experiences
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one year of independence
what has passed, what's to come, and an ask for help
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one year of independence
what has passed, what's to come, and an ask for help
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touching computers
[TI-12] on carrying my website around, tangible computing, and computing shrines
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spiraling in 2024
First, a warm welcome to new members :) I suspect many of you found your way here from my guest post in Elan Ullendorff’s newsletter: Be Specific.
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spiraling in 2024
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[TI-11] dedications, gifts, odes
the things we make for the people and things we care for
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[TI-10] make small web tools
my growing internet toolshed
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spines for a lifetime
"...everything we do is at some level research for the next poem"
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field notes on being a creative [pt. 1]
learning to hear your voice & listen to your instinct for taste
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[TI-09] the internet is one big video game
I like newsletters that feel more like dispatches than editorialized posts.
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again & again & again
finding paths to move forward
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[TI-08] aliving the web
towards environments that empower us to invent new ways of expressing to each other
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two questions
(spoilers alert) who am I? and what do I want?
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[TI-07] my homecooked apps
the software i've made for me and my friends
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calm lunacy
or how to bring great ideas to the world
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[TI-06] people and computers
weird web stuff, halt and catch fire, believing in dreaming
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taking the time to see
"id like to give myself the permission to fill my time with attending to the things and people i love"
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[TI-05] html energy and human webs
less intellectual and more spiritual, less arguing for and more sitting with a particular feeling
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[TI-04] gestures at alternative internets
if we are to hallucinate, let us choose the kind of vision we picture
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motion, rhythm, gardening cycles
reflecting on 2022 🤲 and looking towards 2023 🌀.
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our internet [tiny internets 01]
A call for a new internet - "I want a new internet, one that feels like ours."
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the foil of narcissism
Can narcissism be a tool for self-expression?
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boundless shapeshifters
A shapeshifting poem.
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Mutualistic Flourishing: 2021 to 2022
🎰 2021 | 🤲 2022. My 2021 reflection and theme of mutualism for 2022.
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Spencer Wrapped 2021
My personal take on Spotify Wrapped
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Everyday Magic
Tech is magical, but it shouldn't be mysterious.
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living to provoke
I want my projects to push people to think in a different way and challenge them to reconsider reality in a new light. I want to make crazy ideas feel realistic, extreme fictional worlds feel relatable, complex creative environments feel approachable.
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Fits Stream
A stream of my daily outfits.
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re: take back the future - the magic is ours
a response to [reboot](https://reboothq.substack.com)'s manifesto on techno-optimism
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Liminal Illusions
exploring the liminality of vegas and how it exposes the absurdity of our day-to-day
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denim personality
an exploration of how fashion becomes a part of your personality, why it came to matter so much to me, and rejecting the “uniform”
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the technology paradox
on my paradoxical relationship with technology
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the gaps
A late-night poem
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uneven time
A world where time is uneven, the image to maintain, and the power of mindsets
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commitment and obligation
I was taught that hard work would bring you riches. That effort was the key to success in whatever you did...
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Rituals at Scale: How we remixed templates
The details behind Coda's custom templates system.
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craft over career
what if we chose to optimize craft over career? It means everything we're doing right now is the most important thing, not just a stepping stone towards some "better" future.
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the mid-twenties
a reflection on turning 24
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Gambling on Dreams
✌️2020 | 👋2021.
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Dilution
When the real and imaginary planes meet.
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Making the World a Better Place: A Valley of Smoke and Mirrors
A critical re-evaluation of the tenets of Silicon Valley and an exploration of society and identity.
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Making the “Right” Decisions
What happens when a majority of things that were "right" are now wrong?
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George Floyd
Sharing the photos from the protest I attended last week.
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Broken Lines
When the progress of things is broken by catastrophe
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a twinkle
Recounting a visceral experience. On light, humans, and meaning.
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Crowdsourced Birthday Recommendations
An experiment in crowd-sourcing birthday recommendations and the fruits of it.
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Live Spencer Monitor
A live monitor of how I'm doing fueled by my journal data
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Decoding your Mind
Sharing my method to data-empowered journaling and self-reflection
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Discovering a New Year
Learning from nature, past leaders, and the consequences of human toils
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Opening the Lid on the Workspace Black Box
Providing transparency into how your team is using Coda and the power to act on it.
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The Rider
A match in the dark.
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Sublime Arts
A discovery in the night.
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Rice Fields and Murky Identities
How an American-born Chinese navigated teaching and living in Taiwan
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From Student to Teacher
Stumbling through first principles of education and learning
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Stupid Scholars, the Power of Hands, and Free Lunches: Riding Through 4 Years of University
A reflection on my university journey
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Scaling Knowledge Access and Retrieval at Airbnb
Introducing our Knowledge Graph for encoding relationships and surfacing relevant information
more available on my old website