Developing the Judgment Behind Products People Love
Product thinking is the skill of knowing what makes a product useful — and loved — by people. As with all skills, it can be nurtured and developed.
Julie Zhuo
10 min read
Essays and interviews
Ideas shaping technology.
Essays, interviews and analysis on AI, software, science and the systems changing how we live and work.
Technology articles
Updated as stories publishSynthetic Embryos: Scientific Promise and Practical Limits
Caltech Professor Magda Zernicka-Goetz explains recent progress in building 'synthetic' embryos from stem cells and their applications.
Magda Zernicka-Goetz
12 min read
What a GPT-3 for Scientific Research Would Require
A GPT-3-like AI model for science would accelerate innovation and improve reproducibility. Creating it will require us to unlock research.
Josh Nicholson
11 min read
Why Technology Panics Repeat and How to Move Past Them
Tech fears tend to follow a 4-step cycle fueled by politicians, scientists, and media, according to Jason Feifer's new book, Build For Tomorrow.
Jason Feifer
6 min read
Commerce Beyond the Storefront: The Headless Approach
Commercetools CEO Dirk Hoerig explains headless commerce and microservices, and why we'll see innovation in AR, in-car, and B2B commerce.
Dirk Hoerig
13 min read
Small Bets, New Skills: The Appeal of Developer Side Projects
From unleashing creativity to mitigating risk, Ben Stokes of Tiny Projects shares some of the main reasons why developers are building so many side projects.
Ben Stokes
9 min read
Modeling the Brain to Predict What People See and Hear
AI-created models of the brain will enhance art, advertising, and health by predicting how our minds will respond to images and sounds.
Patrick Mineault
18 min read
AI-Generated Copy and the Changing Work of SEO
GPT-3 is a neural network machine learning model used to generate text. Chris Tweten explores how AI copywriters compare to humans and their potential to change SEO.
Chris Tweten
9 min read
Sam Lambert on Cloud-Prem Databases and Engineering Leadership
Sam Lambert is CEO of PlanetScale, a MySQL-compatiable serverless database provider. Prior to joining PlanetScale (then as chief product officer), he was VP of engineering at GitHub. In this interview, Lambert…
Sam Lambert
15 min read
How Deep Learning Became Accessible to Domain Specialists
Jeremy Howard of fast.ai discusses the impacts of deep learning and AI now being accessible to people without PhDs in those spaces.
Jeremy Howard
17 min read
AI in Early 2022: Bigger Models and Practical Applications
A recap of artificial intelligence and machine learning coverage so far in 2022, as well as the biggest advances in AI/ML research.
Presence Editorial
3 min read
Recommendation Systems Need Experiments, Not Just Open Code
What would meaningful transparency mean for social media platforms? The author of Instagram's original ranking algorithm lays out a vision.
Thomas Dimson
14 min read
Daphne Koller on the Ingredients for Another AlphaFold Breakthrough
AI expert Daphne Koller of insitro identifies what we'll need for future AlphaFold-level successes and explains why some fail the academia-to-biotech transition.
Daphne Koller
14 min read
Protecting the Dependencies Behind Modern Software
Chainguard's Kim Lewandowski explains why secure software supply chains are all the rage right now, and why open source is a double-edged security sword.
Kim Lewandowski
14 min read
Seven Ways to Make AI Models Hold Up in Production
As enterprises grow their AI footprints, they must pay attention to data quality and real-world conditions to ensure what works in the lab works in production.
Beena Ammanath
9 min read
The Engineering Work That Keeps Small Failures Small
Negative engineering is the time-consuming and sometimes frustrating work that engineers do to ensure small bugs don't take down systems.
Jeremiah Lowin
11 min read
Why Smaller, Curated Search Engines Deserve a Place
The way to improve search is not to mimic Google, but instead to build boutique search engines that index, curate, and organize things in new ways.
Sari Azout
11 min read
Putting GPT-3 Into Human Workflows: Part Two
To truly augment human intelligence, we need to design new workflows for machine learning models such as GPT-3 and AI code-generation models.
Niko Grupen
9 min read
How AlphaFold and GPT-3 Can Extend Human Capabilities: Part One
Thanks to a set of new AI models, we can reimagine common workflows, processes, and user experiences to augment human intelligence.
Niko Grupen
12 min read
The Future of the a16z Podcast
The long-running a16z Podcast is looking for a new host to lead the flagship show of the a16z podcast network into its next phase of growth.
2 min read
The Case for Reusable Software Libraries in SQL
Fivetran CEO George Fraser discusses the lack of software libraries for SQL, and how their emergence could change the nature of data analysis.
George Fraser
12 min read
Developer Tools for the Teams Outside Big Tech
Software development is not all clean code and automated processes -- and it never will be. Buyers and vendors both need to realize this.
Jean Yang
13 min read
Building a Technology Career Without Becoming a Programmer
Technical literacy is key to career success, even for non-engineers. Learn how to master the tools of your trade and build a solid tech foundation.
Justin Gage
16 min read
How Design Automation Changes the Designer’s Role
Popular design software like Figma and Canva force experienced designers to adopt new roles: project manager, systems architect, and user advocate.
Carly Ayres
10 min read
From Hobbyist to Mogul: What Creators Need at Every Stage
Are creator platforms enabling the 99 percent to chase their childhood dreams? Or are they helping the 0.1 percent expand their wealth?
Dan Runcie
9 min read
Designing a Web Browser for Children Under Ten
Our narrow view of “kidtech”—games and shows, ad infinitum—is a missed opportunity. There's room for an audio-visual browser designed for kids.
Keith Schacht
9 min read
Why China’s Tech Companies Keep Reinventing Their Core Products
Taking a page from China's relentless willingness to experiment with core apps.
Rui Ma
8 min read
Making Software People Can Recognize Themselves In
Modern software’s uniformity has fueled a craving for more interesting, opinionated tools — turning inanimate pixels into something with soul.
Molly Mielke
10 min read
Why Latin America’s Creators Struggle to Turn Reach Into Revenue
Though LatAm leads the world in internet and digital media consumption, its creators still struggle to cash in on their influence.
Julio Vasconcellos
8 min read
Scott Gottlieb on Laboratory Risks and the U.S. Response
Scott Gottlieb argues for stronger oversight of high-risk laboratories and closer cooperation between public health and intelligence agencies to prepare for future pandemics.
Scott Gottlieb
7 min read
The Economic Value of an Extra Year in Good Health
New economic research supports a shift from the pursuit of longevity to a focus on healthspan: more healthy time over the duration of one’s life.
Andrew Scott
7 min read
Why Esports Needs Its Own Business Model
Esports are pioneering the future of sports engagement. But to succeed, they need to stop chasing the NBA and NFL.
Marty Strenczewilk
13 min read
Building Developer Tools for Messy, Evolving Systems
How are developers supposed to manage and coordinate fast-moving, heterogeneous systems including maintenance & operations — and free themselves to build?
Jean Yang
19 min read
What Virtual Therapy Changes About Connection and Care
As therapists and patients debate a return to the physical office, both must consider the newly discovered advantages of "distanced intimacy."
Hannah Zeavin
10 min read
Understanding the Forces Behind California’s Wildfires
“There is broad consensus in the scientific community that wildfire behavior is changing across the American West in general, and in California in particular. … All indicators shown—wildfire occurrence, total area…
José Luis Ricón
28 min read
What the Ever Given Exposed About Global Shipping
The Ever Given container ship blocked the Suez Canal in March 2021 and cost the world time and money. This is not a one-off disaster. It’s an omen of a global problem.
Ryan Petersen
10 min read
What Extinct Life Can Teach Us About Solving New Problems
It's easy to think extinction equals failure, but in fact, past life may encode the solutions to our most pressing future problems.
Betül Kaçar
6 min read
Why Learning Together Gives Online Courses an Edge
Consumers pay for what’s scarce. And within the crowded, cheap, content-rich world of online education, what's scarce is community.
Wes Kao
15 min read
How Fans Help Build Enduring Entertainment Franchises
The franchises of the future need to be designed to ensure quality and canon even when we hand over ownership to the fans.
Jade Raymond
11 min read
How Software Could Reshape Legal Systems
With software we can improve transparency, automate tedious processes, and in some cases, even avoid the need for costly lawyers altogether.
Joshua Browder
9 min read
A Plan to Close the Global COVID-19 Vaccine Gap
While COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. are continuing apace, calls are growing for a more ambitious strategy to rapidly vaccinate the entire world, and especially in developing nations. Legal proceedings around this…
Caleb Watney
21 min read
Measuring Productivity by Outcomes Instead of Activity
What does it mean to be productive? At the beginning of the pandemic, when many workers went remote, some managers were tempted to start counting things — whether hours, objects, or other things. But they’re about…
Nicole Forsgren
12 min read
Using Large-Scale Literature Analysis to Tackle the Replication Crisis
One possible solution to the replication crisis is to apply big data, "omics"-like approaches to the scientific literature: aka Publomics.
Malcolm MacLeod
12 min read
How Players Are Becoming Creators and Earning Through Games
Players are finding new ways to monetize, whether by building original game worlds, selling in-game goods, or engaging with fans using new streamer tools.
Joost van Dreunen
9 min read
Why Progress in the Physical World Still Matters to Tech
From responding to a pandemic — with novel mRNA vaccines — to building the future — with SpaceX’s rockets and Apple’s new chips — we are seeing that the material world still has the power to thrill. But even though…
Dan Wang
7 min read
Solving Problems by Taking Things Away
To harness the untapped power of subtraction in the future, we need to understand why we haven’t embraced it in the past.
Leidy Klotz
6 min read
How Technology Changes the Rules of Global Competition
Technology is the set of rules that now governs global shifts. The task for builders and technologists is to discover all possibilities contained therein.
Bruno Macaes
10 min read
When Speculative Bubbles Help Coordinate Innovation
The right kind of bubble brings together the right group of people at the right time — it's a coordinating mechanism that can do a surprising amount of good.
Byrne Hobart
10 min read
Fast Grants and the Case for More Flexible Science Funding
We launched an abnormally fast source of emergency science funding during COVID-19. The results revealed flaws in current science funding models.
Patrick Collison & Tyler Cowen & Patrick Hsu
18 min read
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