Trying to understand how people work. I try to engage in both theory and practice, which means I'm always cycling between writing to understand a topic, then finding ways to test those ideas in the "real world."
I'm currently researching how generational wealth booms shape society, in the context of tech, with a grant from Emergent Ventures.
Previously, I explored parasocial communities and reputation-based economies as an independent researcher at Protocol Labs. I put those ideas into practice by joining Substack as their second employee, focused on the writer experience.
I spent many years exploring the funding, governance, and social dynamics of open source software. I put those ideas into practice at GitHub, where I worked to improve the developer experience. I also published a book about open source developers, Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software (Stripe Press).
If you're curious about this website's meta-ethos, check out this Q&A.
(Note: I recently changed my last name; you can also find my work under Nadia Eghbal.)
Tech as a system of values, and not just an industry, is heavily driven by its subcultures and their ideologies. Where do these ideologies come from, and how do they influence what’s accomplished?
For those who sit between science and tech, it’s hard not to notice the proliferation of new initiatives launched in the last two years, aimed at making major improvements in the life sciences especially.
I’ve had some lingering thoughts over the past year about what it means to be a “creator,” further accelerated by a recent conversation with a friend, and I want to try to unpack those feelings here.