Writings

Have you watched The Office? Your answer doesn’t affect what I’m hoping you’d takeaway from this piece, but it’s this show that got me thinking about the intricate connection between language and “social utopia”.

I’ve held this hypothesis for a few years now, and somehow never managed to sit down and write it out properly. I believe geniuses are made. The overwhelming majority of what makes a person who they are is shaped by their environment.

So I told people Typerite was launching in a week, a few weeks ago. What happened was, I’d built the app, ready to submit it to Apple for review, and presumed the hard part was behind me.

I’ve been thinking about how PMs use experiments. And, I don’t mean the textbook version. I mean how the decision really gets made when the results come back and you’re sitting there with a number that either confirms or contradicts what you already believed.

There’s a version of you that shows up when you know you’re being evaluated, and a version that shows up when you’re actually doing the work. They’re not the same person.

I recently watched Dhruv Rathee’s video on civic sense and empathy. He makes a strong case for how systems, infrastructure, and empathy all play into why some countries feel more “civilised” than others. I agree with most of it. But I keep coming back to something that gets glossed over.

Countries where the basics — clean streets, public transport that shows up, government services that don’t need three visits and a bribe — just work tend to also be countries where strangers are kinder to each other.

Typerite doesn’t give you prompts. It doesn’t analyze your writing. It doesn’t suggest what to write next. It’s a blank page with a word counter. Set word goal each day. That’s it.

“AI won’t take your jobs, but humans using AI will.” “AI is not about replacing humans; it’s about letting humans focus on higher-order work that matters.” These are all euphemisms for AI will take your job.