At work
I lead executive and internal communications for Consumer Apps Marketing at Google in San Francisco.
This week I presented Byline at Google Labs' BAGEL 2026 builder conference - the only marketing project among 16 poster sessions alongside software engineers and research scientists. The core finding from our blind evaluations: a simple prompt grounded in a leader's verbatim spoken stories beat a complex 50-call AI pipeline 6 rounds to 0, at 1/30th the cost.
Right now I'm packaging Byline into a self-serve plugin so other leaders and comms partners can interview their own voice, match real stories to timely news, and draft without AI slop.
Building at home
My kids and I are building V2 of Link, their 3D-printed desk robot tutor.
V1 ran on a Raspberry Pi 5 plugged into the wall. V2 ("Sprout") shrinks the whole robot onto a wireless $30 ESP32-S3 touch AMOLED pod inside a two-piece 3D-printed shell with a 380mAh LiPo battery, tap-to-wake, and low-latency Gemini TTS using a custom voice the kids designed themselves.
Reading
Fiction: Finishing J.R. Mathews' Portal to Nova Roma series. I have a soft spot for progression stories where a capable lead brings technology or systems thinking ahead of its time (Dungeon Crawler Carl, Bobiverse, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City).
Nonfiction: Battle of the Big Bang by Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Halper on cosmic origins, and still thinking about Joseph Henrich's The Secret of Our Success on how cumulative culture actually works.
Life outside screens
Living in the East Bay with my wife Cat, our two kids Moira and Freddie, and our dogs Doc and Nate Dogg. Playing adult rec-league tennis on Monday nights and hauling gear for weekend youth soccer. One screen exception: I just started Castlevania: Belmont's Curse.