Uncertain Updates: October 2026

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these updates, and I’ve also been blogging less. That for a few reasons.

First, the book is out, so there’s not as much need for meta-posts to give progress updates.

Second, in the months leading up to releasing the book, I was trying to blog extra to build an audience and drive interest in the book. This led to writing more blog posts than I naturally would have. I think it produced some good ones, but also some I’m not as proud of. I’m glad to be back on a more natural writing schedule.

Third, I had another concussion over July 4th weekend, and then developed post-concussive syndrome. This forced me to dramatically limit screen time. Only in the last couple weeks have I been able to ramp up to close to normal screen use.

Forth, I took on a new, larger role at work. I’m back in a leadership position with people and organizational responsibilities, and it’s consuming a lot of my time. I’m happy with this, but it means less I have less time for “hobbies” like writing.

Fifth, AI. Specifically, I’ve spent years dedicating a lot of time to writing because it was ultimately in service of making marginal progress towards finding solutions to AI safety. It’s unclear how much, if any, impact any of that work had, but the situation has changed, and I’ve revised down the marginal value of my output—mostly because so many other people are working on these problems full-time!

This doesn’t mean I’m doing nothing about AI safety! I’m spending a lot more time on Twitter, for example, helping to push pro-safety messages. Just last week I released another blog post on endogenous alignment. And I’m continuing to deepen my Zen practice, which I hope may yield insights into how I might better serve life, including by getting ideas about how we might build aligned AIs.

I’ve got a couple more posts I hope to write soon, time permitting, but October is shaping up to be a busy month with several concerts and events to attend, so please bear with my slower pace of writing until the time is right to make more time for it.