How am I spending my time?

As of March 2023, I'm:

• Developing the Hypertune platform, that allows developers to quickly and easily make their applications configurable.
• Building software for BlueDot Impact to improve programmes that support people into high-impact careers.
• Owning technology at Raise, a movement to get people more engaged with charity. The big things this month are running Raise's campaigns platform and handling our registration with the Charity Commission.
• Finishing my YouTube series on programming language theory, specifically implementing Hindley-Milner type inference in TypeScript.

I'm interested in

• Applying effective alturism principles.
• Mitigating risks from artificial intelligence.
• Improving government services, particularly in local government.
• Self-improvement, particularly towards optimising happiness and productivity (in terms of outcomes rather than outputs).

Featured projects

• AWS Email Simulator: enables devs to test emails without AWS credentials, and work productively without internet. Downloaded over 14,000 times.
• YouTube thumbnail hider: browser extension with thousands of weekly active users and plenty of glowing 5-star reviews.
• Apply for a postal vote service: fully-working GOV.UK-style service. I think this is the first ever properly electronic version of this form.
• Serverless offline watcher: developer tool that enables extending the Serverless framework with arbitrary file or directory hooks.
• London cycle parking: find cycle parking quickly in London.
• ISA tracking tool: compatible with 4 brokers for read and write operations. Has reliably tracked my ISA performance every day for the last 3 years.
• PDF scanner: add a scanned look, more convincingly than existing services.
• RSA SecurID library: reverse-engineered security token generator, derived from a C library. Also available as an easy-to-use browser extension.
• TypeScript i18n library: A lightweight, flexible, and fully type-safe translation framework for websites, native apps and servers.
• Google Doc to LaTeX: Converter that makes writing LaTeX a piece of cake.
• Discord reminder bot template: send reminders from GitHub. 2 min setup.
• Day visualiser: ever felt you needed more existential dread in your life? See how fast the day is slipping away from you.
• Media: I publish free-cultural works on places like Wikimedia Commons (where I also helped build the Android app). They've ended up in US state forestry manuals, South African national textbooks, papers on language models, and YouTube videos with millions of views.

Most of these have their source code availabile on my GitHub.

Communicating with me

From you to me:

• Please bias towards overcommunicating with me. Will interrupt you if you're telling me stuff I don't think is relevant.
• State your uncertainties and where you've made assumptions.
• Give me feedback. Prefer unpolished timely feedback to no or late feedback. Bonus points if you can be specific or provide examples.
• Prefers asynchronous communication. Dislikes surprise phone calls.
• Asynchronous: Slack if you know I check that workspace. WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram for personal stuff, email for everything else.
  • If you need me to do or answer something, make it obvious.
    • Add '[Action required]' to the subject.
    • Prefix tasks with 'Action required:'.
    • State any relevant timelines upfront.
  • If I need to read it, use the email 'to' line or tag my Slack handle.
  • When writing something with multiple parts, give them unique numbers. This helps us refer back to them.
  • Don't inline reply to emails. It's hard to see what's been added, muddies email history, and causes difficult-to-resolve forks.
  • Don't just say hello.
  • Where relevant, communicate widely (e.g. Slack channels/email distros, not DMs) so others can learn from our conversation later.
• Synchronous: In person, or Google Meet. Hates Webex and Lync.

From me to you:

• Will try to follow your communication preferences.
• I try to triage comms within 24 hours, and respond within 1 week. Slower when I'm extra busy. I don't usually send acknowledgement messages.
• Assume misunderstanding, not malice. In particular:
  • If you think I'm going in the wrong direction, tell me early.
  • I err on the side of overcommunicating to ensure we're aligned. This can lead to overexplaining: if this is the case let me know!
  • If I am slow to respond, I'm likely just a bit overloaded with other stuff.
• ✅ is 'done', 👍 is 'acknowledged' (not meant passive aggressively)

Other trivia

• Lives in London. If you're around and would like to meet up, let me know!
• Enjoys getting around by bike, and will encourage you to give it a go. Happy to help find you a good commuting route and get you confident on the road.