Software Invention

As an undergraduate, I had a tentative plan to get a PhD in computer science. I ended up not going to grad school because I decided I wasn't interested in doing research. I instead went into entrepreneurship, but I've come to a similar conclusion: entrepreneurship isn't primarily what motivates me, even though I've decided to stick with it for now.

I think of invention as the space between research and entrepreneurship. Researchers create knowledge; entrepreneurs create businesses; inventors create things that are useful. In the realm of software, invention has some overlap with open-source. Unfortunately, neither is an established career path—yet.

If we really want better tools for online speech and other software public goods, we need to enable more people to spend their careers developing them.

• We need a career path for invention
• Funding software innovation
• What if I started a nonprofit?
• Roots and branches: centralization and the role of software startups
• What does success look like for you?
• The trade-offs of being a startup founder
• Reflections on 2020 as an independent researcher
• Three years of crowdfunded research
• Shifting the impossible to the inevitable
• Design and Research