Lucas Gelfond (he/him) is a writer and software engineer from Los Angeles and is one of the co-directors of the Reboot Student Fellowship. By day, he works on engineering and writer partnerships at Substack, a subscription publishing platform. His writing has appeared in VICE, Logic, Kernel, , and writes (irregular) interview series, . Check out his Twitter and personal website.

What do you work on with Reboot?

I’m in my second year of co-running the Reboot Student Fellowship. I’ve also done a bunch of other Reboot stuff at various points, like partnerships and community work with Ivan (long live the weekly #org-building meeting), along with writing for the newsletter and Kernel and editing two pieces ( ’s piece Take Back the Future! and Chris Painter’s Unstoppable Mechanisms) in Kernel’s first volume.

How did you get involved in Reboot? Where was your life at?

I followed Jessica on Twitter when I saw she’d done research with my intro CS professor Seny Kamara, that he presented in a talk called Crypto for the People. This was mid-COVID, and I was on leave from school and simultaneously re-engaging with tech and moving left politically, which felt particularly in tension. I picked up Wendy Liu’s Abolish Silicon Valley on my Kindle, and messaged Jessica midway through to see if she’d read it—Reboot had hosted Wendy a few months before, I was late! I think I was particularly drawn to Reboot because it articulated a way forward, beyond just being stuck in angst. 

What’s been your favorite thing about being part of this community?

I think people really put theory to practice—there’s certainly lots of folks (myself included!) working in industry, but a ton of people work with tech in less traditional ways, like in organizing or policy contexts (among many others!). There’s a ton of ways of approaching tech I’d never thought of (or heard of) that Reboot exposed me to.

On a lighter note, people in Reboot are cool! It’s great obviously to chat with people about tech stuff, but I consider a ton of Reboot folks good friends, and people I go to to chat about music or books or just regular stuff that’s of interest. It’s an incredibly supportive community and it’s been a phenomenal place to meet people who are interested in thinking through issues around tech and society in novel ways. 

What’s something you want to see Reboot do?

I’m really excited about the prospect of Reboot hosting more events that bring people from different spheres—i.e. academics in dialogue with activists and founders—together to get really interesting POVs on this stuff. 

Share something you’ve written/created/built/made recently!

I wrote this piece for Kernel over the summer! I also post interviews on my Substack that you should subscribe to! 

What are you always recommending to people?

I just finished Lizzy Goodman’s Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011, and it was really incredible—a super thorough oral history of the scene that formed around The Strokes/Interpol/Yeah Yeah Yeahs/LCD Soundsystem type crowd that really gets to the heart of what made it so interesting.

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

I am 21 but: trust yourself, take more risks, and say no more often! 

Give us some microdoses!

• I saw a ton of tributes to Mike Davis on Twitter, but didn’t know much about his work until reading this phenomenal profile about him in Lingua Franca, one of my favorite old little magazines. It’s an entertaining read and great crystallization of his legacy both on the contemporary left and (my hometown of!) Los Angeles.

• The Outside Magazine profile about a guy who has devoted his live to skipping stones.

• , my current favorite Substack, a mix of Caleb Crain’s writing and stunning photos of birds.

• Stereolab’s Dots and Loops heavily withstands the test of time.

To learn more about Reboot, freelance journalism, indie rock, or anything else in this Q&A, you can reach out at lucasgelfond@gmail.com.

Jessica Dai (she/her) is a PhD student in computer science at UC Berkeley. She is also a cofounder of Reboot, newsletter editor (June 2021-Aug 2022), and managing editor for Kernel Issue 2. She loves the Pacific Northwest, live performance, and high quality produce. Check out her website or Twitter.

What do you work on with Reboot?

I cofounded Reboot (before we even knew Reboot was going to be a thing); curated and edited the newsletter for about a year; and was managing editor for Kernel Issue 2. In the past 2.5 (!!?) years, I’ve done things like: reading a book and writing a review every other week (my high energy undergrad era); hosting Zoom events; doing book clubs; making extremely horrible graphics in Canva. 

These days I am mostly hanging out doing logistical/organizational things like figuring out how to pay sales tax to the state of California, evangelizing Kernel/Reboot, and lurking in Discord. 

How did you get involved in Reboot? Where was your life at?

Reboot started during the tail end of my year working on Brown’s Socially Responsible Computing program, and in retrospect, I think my experience with SRC really shaped how I thought about Reboot — as something complementary to a (technical) curriculum-based approach. Reboot also actually predated almost my entire research arc, which is sort of wild to think about! 

What’s been your favorite thing about being part of this community?

Is there a way to answer this without being extremely corny? Everyone I’ve met through Reboot has just been so genuinely excited. Earnestness is good, actually, caring about things is good, actually, and investing time and energy into the things you care about is good, actually. 

It really is inspiring and heartwarming to know people who show up every week to book club having done the reading, who will do the unfun, invisible, but indispensable logistical work to make events happen, who — even if they aren’t actively working on Reboot projects — contribute to the community overall just by hanging out.

What’s something you want to see Reboot do?

I think it would be sick if we built more stuff. (Rich for me to say, as the person who ran from building stuff to academia, and also ran away from building stuff within academia too.) 

Share something you’ve written/created/built/made recently!

This came out in Sine Theta Magazine recently. Think of it as a text-only polaroid.

I also wrote a much longer piece on growing up with Chinese dance! It’ll be out in SINOSTORIES soon. 

What book/film/etc are you always recommending to people?

I loved A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki; Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom is a classic; I never stop thinking about the stories in The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans and Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen. 

Tell us about something you’re trying to learn right now.

Math, emphasis on trying (but don’t mansplain the dot product to me1)

Microdoses (aka links i liked recently. sorry these are all serious, twitter is bad rn)

• zaddies and they kids from Brandon Taylor's substack. “It really does seem harder to write earnestly and directly about characters who have emotions and motivations. Harder to write a novel that is powered by the pitch and frequency of feeling and self-knowledge than it is to write a novel that is powered by, I don’t know, dull descriptions of contemporary alienation rendered in icily lyrical sentences.”

• Behold the Fruit Sandwich by Ligaya Mishan in NYT. “I want to bite into an apple and think of mountain air so clean and sharp that it could cut you. I dream of a strawberry like a small heart, heavy and full, its unabashed red a testament to vigilance and a perfectly timed pluck off the vine. I long for sun-glutted peaches and oranges that have true weight in the hand and blueberries the color of deep ocean where the light is swallowed up.”

• Blunt-Force Ethnic Credibility by Som-Mai Nguyen in Astra. One of the best essays I've read in a long time... dare I say all year?

• A profile of 2022 Fields medalist June Huh by Jordana Cepelewicz in Quanta. So many quotable bits; I just love reading about people who love their work; about why their work is beautiful.

To learn more about Reboot, academia, creative nonfiction, or anything else in this Q&A, you can reach out to Jessica via jessica.dai@alumni.brown.edu or Twitter.2

Jake Gaughan (he/him) is a software developer based in Seattle. At Reboot, Jake is a community member and an events lead. Check out his Twitter and Goodreads.

What do you work on with Reboot?

I work on events at Reboot. This primarily entails organizing the Zoom discussions and book talks that we host with incredible authors, academics, researchers, and journalists. At times it’s been difficult managing an endless mess of links and emails, but it is always an absolute blast getting to chat with great individuals doing great work. I also love reading new books—especially before they come out—and reading drafts of the reviews for those new books! Which is great because I get to do that too!

I cannot stress enough how much these events have informed my own thinking on a wide range of topics. The cold emails, scheduling, coordinating, and occasional headaches always pay off when I get to feel like I’m playing a tiny role in helping someone learn something new.

How did you get involved in Reboot? Where was your life at?

Like many others, I originally got involved with Reboot due to a combination of the pandemic and a disillusionment with Silicon Valley. During the winter of 2020, I was stuck at home, trying to think about why things were bad and what my personal culpability was as someone entering the tech industry. I also knew that a lot of my peers didn’t share these reservations.

Lucas was a mutual on Twitter and we were chatting about these issues, looking for a space online that would take them seriously. Like magic—or, more accurately, the Brown CS department—he found Reboot and I started going to some of the Zoom events. I deeply enjoyed having a welcoming discursive space in those Zooms and in the Discord. As the events still do, those early conversations informed a lot of my own thoughts about what my role in the world currently is and what it should be! 

What’s been your favorite thing about being part of this community?

The people. I have met so many brilliant, generous, thoughtful, and kind people through Reboot. I’ve made lifelong friends and have had the privilege to see the growth of others. Simply put, Reboot has let me have some great meals, experiences, and conversations! What more can you ask for! 

Not to be too sappy, but if you can find it, true community with others is one of the nicer things about being alive. In many different ways, I have found a community through Reboot. I have no idea if Sartre actually said this or if it’s just from Twitter, but the flip side of ‘hell is other people’ is ‘heaven is each other!’

What’s something you want to see Reboot do?

I would love to see Reboot catalyze the political animation of tech workers.

What are you always recommending to people?

Not to be insufferable, but Frances Ha. Or, if I’m feeling less insufferable but more annoying, any Christopher Nolan movie. Or, if I’m feeling European, La Haine. Or, if I’m feeling the same level of insufferable as my first answer but also a bit international, Chungking Express. (also the new Sofie Royer album)

Tell us about something you’re trying to learn right now.

I’m trying to learn how to sew by hand. For whatever reason, I’m enamored with the idea of being someone who can mend their own clothes. I have a cheap little sewing kit and have already gone to town trying to cuff a pair of Dickies. This skill is very much a work in progress (the Dickies look so, so bad) but it’s fun to be learning something new!

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

I would be the embodiment of one of those big library posters with Shaq or Yo Yo Ma on it and advise: Read more books! Something! Anything! Reading is fun! It doesn’t have to be serious! Or it can be! Make time for doing it outside of school! Read for yourself! Read and discuss for fun! Read! Read! Read! Reading is good! And you look cool doing it!

Give us some microdoses!

• I Hope I Never Recover From This: I don’t think any short synopsis I provide will do this Substack post justice. It’s about why the current obsession with space is meaningless. 

• Defector’s (righteous) takedown of Semafor

• Babe wake up, the Zoomers are discovering the 2015 NY Mag profile on the Rap Genius founders.

• They should let her be Prime Minister again if she promises to post like this:

Matthew Sun (he/him) is a tech worker, writer, and member of the Reboot community based in northern Virginia. He has contributed pieces to the Reboot newsletter and Kernel Magazine, and he was the digital director of this year’s issue of Kernel. In his free time, Matthew enjoys reading, practicing Cantonese, and making new friends in the DC area. Check out his Goodreads, first essay for Reboot, and the Kernel website.

What do you work on with Reboot?

Currently, my primary role is the Digital Director of Kernel Magazine. I assembled and led a team of wonderful designers and developers (shoutout to Maggie, Ivan, and Deblina) who designed and built a gorgeous new online home for the magazine over a period of five-ish months. As a software engineer by day, I’ve never really managed a technical project like this from start to finish, and it was an extremely fun challenge to create a healthy team culture, provide honest feedback while trying to uplift the team, and adhere closely to deadlines while avoiding burnout.

I’ve also written for the newsletter, served as a mentor twice for the Reboot Student Fellowship, and contributed pieces to the first and second issues of Kernel Magazine. I love how Reboot is a supportive, value-aligned community that both encourages and challenges me to do my best work, whether creative, technical, or ops-related. 

How did you get involved in Reboot? Where was your life at?

I found Reboot in late 2020, right after I graduated from Stanford and was starting a PhD program in computer science, where I was planning to do research on algorithmic fairness and the social ramifications of algorithmic decision-making systems. I had always excelled academically, but faced with the unprecedented freedom over my day-to-day and the individualistic structure of grad school, I felt confused, unanchored, and insecure about my intellectual abilities.

Where I found myself most motivated to learn and eager to contribute was in Reboot. It felt like a community of friends excited about learning and discussing theories of change — something that I didn’t even have during undergrad. Being in Reboot, a community separate from my workplace, provided a safe environment to think through different theories of change, discuss books I wouldn’t have read on my own, and think about my professional and personal identity.

What’s been your favorite thing about being part of this community?

The first Reboot Writer Studio1 in April 2021 will always have a special place in my heart. It was just after I had gotten my COVID vaccines, and after more than a year of quarantining, I was nervous to be spending a month with ten people (most of whom were complete strangers) in Asheville, North Carolina. In the end, it was a magical experience: I made new friends, cooked and ate many delicious meals, and engaged in eye-opening conversations almost every day. And after so many years of writing and reading having been relegated to instrumental status in my life (usually for graded assignments), I was finally able to re-engage with the part of me that used to spend hours reading and writing as a form of both escapism from and engagement with the world around me.

What’s something you want to see Reboot do?

Not get canceled. More seriously, though, I hope that Reboot becomes broadly seen as a place where any technologist who cares about the world but feels a little lost about their place in it can join to find people willing to learn alongside them. This feeling is a bit like regaining self-efficacy through community, or like the antidote to jadedness. I hope we can find a way to scale that aspect of our community without losing the things that make it feel special. 

Share something you’ve written recently!

Is it legal to share a tweet thread about something I wrote and not the thing itself? I wrote this thread about my personal reflections on a conversation I had with Ifeoma Ozoma for Kernel Magazine; I feel like it captures a lot of how my thinking has evolved since my angsty days of undergrad.

Okay, we’re in Hinge prompt territory now: Tell us about your perfect Sunday.

Reading newsletters from my friends and having some kind of epiphany that prompts me to write one. Walking around in DC (or some other city) and having little serendipitous encounters (especially if I’m put in a situation that forces me to practice my Cantonese!). Having a long, meandering conversation with a friend about something they haven’t been able to figure out on their own.

What advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?

Do more things you are kind of bad at! Stop investing so much of your identity in the things you do well but put you in situations where you can’t really be your full self!

And finally, some microdoses:

• I’m super excited about an upcoming book about AI snake oil by my former advisor Arvind Narayanan and my former colleague (current friend!) Sayash Kapoor, which they’re also pairing with a Substack that has several articles on the topic and a sneak peek into the book. Check it out (and definitely read the comment section for some great back-and-forth discussions)! 

  

  AI Snake Oil

  What AI *can't* do

  By Sayash Kapoor

• Recently an article in GQ about leg lengthening surgery has been making the rounds. It reminded me of this beautiful essay by Prachi Gupta about her deceased brother, who also happened to be a programmer and engineer.

• Why you should have a duck Twitter: https://twitter.com/shouldhaveaduck

• Diaspora Poetry satire account: https://twitter.com/DiasporaPoetry 

To learn more about Kernel Magazine, AI accountability, communities of learning, or anything else in this Q&A, you can reach out to Matthew via Twitter DM.

Ivan Zhao (he/him) is a creative technologist, writer, and dog lover. He co-directs the Reboot Student Fellowship and contributed to many parts of Kernel Magazine. In his spare time, he enjoys falling asleep on a hammock on top of a mountain, climbing large rocks, and consuming many pastries. Check out his website, Goodreads, and Twitter.

What do you work on with Reboot?

My primary role is serving as one of the fellowship co-directors for 2022 and 2023. It’s been a blast (and terrifying) organizing and doubling the number of participants from our first year, but it’s been super worthwhile talking to students who genuinely care about the same problems that I do. I also helped out on Kernel in many small ways,1 have a piece in the newsletter, and am also working on our brand design and merch (!!) so be on the lookout for those.

How did you get involved in Reboot? Where was your life at?

I got involved with Reboot when Jess bullied me into coming to a book talk with Wendy Liu. It was the fall of my junior year, I was pretty disillusioned with school, the tech industry, and where I saw my career going, and thought a book called Abolish Silicon Valley would help (it did and did not). I was also heavily involved in a student-run venture group, was sick of seeing the same type of company being pitched, and thought to myself, “If this is what people believe the future is, I’m in the wrong company.” I then heard about the Reboot Student Fellowship through Twitter, applied, had a fantastic time, and wanted to keep the party going.

My life also was a mix of confused questions. Did I want to go into software engineering? What did it mean to work at a startup? Are startups even a viable solution to systemic problems? Being part of Reboot has helped me solidify a lot of my interests in things that felt meaningful to me (such as HCI, computational creativity, and being a wordcel and a shape rotator) even if my peers at college judged me for it.

What’s been your favorite thing about being part of this community?

My favorite thing is the openness and curiosity that everyone brings to learning. One of the things I was looking forward to in college was finding a community of like-minded peers, and while this happened to an extent, many of my friends felt extremely disillusioned or were doing computer science for the clout. I’ve now made so many online friends (shoutout to the 2021 fellows gang), and I’ve probably met someone I could hang out with in most cities.

One of my favorite moments was when I started the Design Justice book club and we just kept inviting people who we thought were great until we got an extremely cozy group of eight. We all met up that summer, and I don’t think I’ve had an experience of such talented people who are also so fun and chill.

What’s something you want to see Reboot do?

Merch. I’m working on it…

Share something you’ve made recently!

A classic Ivan answer, but I spent a good chunk of time getting really good at making focaccia and challah this summer:

On a more wrinkly brain note, I’m currently thinking how to represent the passage of time and the concept of memory and trauma in multimedia forms. Specifically, are there ways that medium such as comics, video game, and augmented reality provide interesting forays that more traditional mediums to do not? And also, why are these forms seen as less “high brow”? Not entirely an artifact but thinking deeply about this. Sort of related but a cool project on visualization and furniture.

What are you always recommending to people?

I absolutely love the game Celeste. It’s fantastic, it’s whimsical, it’s beautiful, and the team is so, so technically smart. It’s an indie game about a girl climbing a mountain who’s battling her depression in a dark version of herself. Great storytelling, lots of charm, and enough difficulty to make you throw your console at a wall. If you ever want to talk about indie game development, weaving epistolary into untraditional stories (Super Paper Mario anyone?), or making drinks based off of game titles, hit me up!

Okay, we’re in Hinge prompt territory now: Tell us about your perfect Sunday!

We wake up at 8:30am, pour some cold brew in a travel mug, and head to a farmer’s market near the water. There’s a salty breeze in the air and I’m dying to look at the produce. A fresh carton of eggs, strawberries, some kale. I complain that kale always tastes extremely bitter. You tell me that it’s because you don’t massage it enough. And with a playful slap on the shoulder, we head back to our one bedroom with a corgi, of course. He’s upset we’ve been out for so long. I prep brunch, an eggs benedict with spinach, to which you complain that Canadian bacon isn’t even bacon while I roll my eyes and continue cooking. When we’re done eating, I lie on the couch, head in your lap, as we both read for the rest of the day, the glowing sun lighting the room through the bay windows.

Give us some microdoses!

• I recently read this piece called Lockhart’s Lament about the failing of mathematical education in K-12 education. I will not say I’m a fantastic math guy, but it touches a lot of beliefs that I think are wrong with current educational systems.

• If you have a LOT of time and want to delve into game design, game maker’s toolkit did a fantastic series on the Legend of Zelda dungeon design where he rigorously classifies dungeon in a graph format to determine their linearity/interest. It’s super fascinating and makes me think about forms in a new way.

• i need mcgriddle

To learn more about the student fellowship, game design, baking tips, or anything else in this Q&A, you can reach out to Ivan via email (ivanzhao8 at gmail dot com) or Twitter DM.