Hi, I’m Allen!
I’m a software engineering executive and technology enthusiast based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Having worked for companies big and small, I’m most energized by the dynamic potential of startups, early in their journeys. I’m at my best helping scale teams while up-leveling the people that I work with.
With my wife and two kids, we enjoy the quiet serenity of reading, nearby national parks, and simple crafts. I get overly excited by new gadgetry, and nurture a bad habit of picking up new hobbies. Since 2011, this site has collected my regular, late-night musings.
Review: The Last Lecture
On my bookshelf, there’s one shelf that I keep a couple of my favorite books, and on…
Learn to be Bored
It almost always comes up an hour into a road trip. Or a lazy Sunday afternoon. Or as they…
Lucid Motors, the Tesla of a Decade Past
Before AI dominated the headlines and capital investments, electric vehicles and autonomous…
The Slope of EV Enlightenment
The federal credit for EVs expired at the end of September. Paradoxically, this deadline…
Review: Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)
How many books unironically validate their own criticisms? Mistakes Were Made (But Not by…
The Layering of UX Friction
It’s a phone upgrade year in my household; I’m grabbing the new iPhone 17 Pro,…
Trust, then Clarify
A theme that I return to on this blog, and throughout my time in people management, is…
Aspirational AI Utility
I’ve been reading Brave New Worlds. It’s a book by Salman Khan, founder and CEO…
Review: Apple in China
The student has become the master. That was what I was thinking as I was about two-thirds of…
CTO Confessions Podcast
So a few months back, the folks at IT Labs reached out to see whether I was game to go on…