Commonplace
What I have made and thought through, from 2017 to now: systems, essays, talks and machines.
Keeping score on investment ideasPostgres, TypeScript, a team’s habitsHow a small investment team keeps score on its ideas: every idea owned, every belief dated, every decision reviewed.Read the essay An auction lab for economics studentsNext.js, Postgres, hand-drawn SVGSix experiments from UCSB’s auction theory course, with the Nash equilibrium drawn over students’ real bids. It began as an email about a version that didn’t work, and led to a research fellowship. A companion talk asked why IPL teams overpay.Try the lab The stablecoin redemption problemGretler Fellowship, with Rod GarrattOnce you hold a stablecoin, how do you get your dollars back? Par is printed on the tin, but most holders can’t reach it. In March 2023 USDC fell to $0.878 with its reserves intact.View the slides How AI agents pay for thingsHTTP 402, software agents, moneyPayment rails assume a human is present. That assumption is now false.Read the explainer Where your rupee goesDeposits, the RBI, bonds, UPI, in 32 slidesHow Indian banking works, from your salary account to the Reserve Bank of India, with real data and figures you can drag, tap and play.Open the lecture Why trust is the new bottleneckAttention, trustWhen competent content costs nothing to make, the bottleneck moves from attention to trust, and trust does not transfer.Read the essay How AI research agents decide when to stopSearch, reasoning, stopping rulesAI agents don’t just search faster. They stop for different reasons than we do.Read the essay Fifty electronics projects from my teensArduino, ESP8266, sensors, solderA door that opens to an RFID card, lights that answer to Siri and Alexa, a car that steers around obstacles, a doorbell you never touch.See the projects
A face recognition alarm from sixth gradePython, OpenCV, a webcam, emailFace recognition that watched a room and emailed an alert when someone it didn’t know walked in. Built at a corporate hackathon where a friend’s father worked.