Hey everyone, some personal news I’m really excited about... For the past few months I’ve been working on a book proposal with my friend and colleague Tim Sullivan (@Tim_Org). We’re excited to share that it’s just been acquired by Crown Currency at Penguin Random House! We’re calling it (for now) Inside The Machine: How Computer Science Rewired Everything. Most of us talk about tech in terms of the shiny stuff — apps, gadgets, platforms, and the people who built them. But this misses a bigger, more interesting story. Computer science didn't just hand us new tools. It changed how we think about problems in the first place — what even counts as a problem, what looks like a solution, what we optimize for, and what we ignore. Over time, this way of thinking has seeped outward and saturated everything else. You see it in markets that run like algorithms instead of human institutions, in media that’s tuned for engagement, in companies organized more like software than trad hierarchies. Even in the way people talk: inputs, outputs, signals, noise, etc. Once you start noticing it, it’s hard to stop seeing it everywhere. Tim and I have spent years separately reporting on tech, business, science, and economics, and then also as editors on the a16z crypto editorial team. Throughout, we kept running into the same big question: what happens when the logic of computing becomes the logic of society? This book is our personal attempt to answer that — to trace how these ideas spread (often without us realizing) and how they’ve reshaped the systems we all live with, including the tradeoffs that come with them. We’re still super early in the process, but we’re thrilled it’s happening. If you want to follow along as the book comes together, we’d love that. In the meantime, tell us: what’s your favorite example you’ve seen of computer science thinking sneaking into everyday life? Could be in business, politics, dating, whatever — we'd love to know what you all notice.
