Hi, I’m Toby. I’m a researcher, writer, and technologist. I write the blog Subpixel Space and co-founded nonprofit research org Other Internet.

I’ve authored a bunch of essays, mostly focused on the connections between cultural movements, technology, and spirituality.

Currently I’m researching psychology, wellness communities, and how mental health is changing at Care Culture. If this is something you'd like to talk about, don't hesitate to reach out!

I also work with founders as a one-on-one consulting advisor and thought partner.

I started my career as a product designer in health tech. Wherever my career has taken me, it's because I've allowed my research questions and writing to be in the driver's seat.

I live in Brooklyn, New York in a small but calm apartment full of books and cooking implements, my two favorite types of object.

My career has been a meandering one. I got my start with photoshop and illustrator in the heydays of gaming forums and then leveled up to Android ROM flashing and designing apps in college. When I graduated I moved to New York and started my career properly, first as a product designer at a health tech company, then winding my way through various early-stage startups, freelance jobs, and creative communities in NYC. I co-organized entrepreneurial community Japan NYC Startups and helped run a few conferences.

During these years I started blogging at Subpixel Space. Then and now, my subject matter has always been culture, technology, aesthetics and spirituality. As I met more likeminded writer-technologists, I started to dream of a space for serious research and thinking outside the university. Eventually this led to co-founding Other Internet, a consulting-research-writing collective that evolved into a nonprofit research institute. I worked in the crypto space for several years, consulting for crypto organizations and leading Other Internet.

Aside from serving as president, my personal work at Other Internet has focused on the new sorts of institutions enabled by protocols and cryptocurrency networks. We've funded and conducted research on many topics: from internet-native institutions and digital governance, to the lore and memory networks of online communities. We've sponsored art residencies and young thinkers, and prototyped alternative education models. and our work at OI has been supported by Uniswap Foundation and the Ethereum Foundation, among other orgs.

Wherever my career has taken me, it's because I've allowed my own curiosities to be in the driver's seat. I love ideas and philosophy and good discussion.

I've been lucky to develop great working relationships with folks who find me through my writing. I usually work with founders and org leaders in two ways: one-on-one work, and brief narrative engagements.

One-on-one work is about improving a leader's thinking, strategic creativity, and storytelling inside and outside their own org. This work takes the form of ongoing thought partnership via regular one-on-one conversations and ongoing chat communication.

I also offer brief workshop-led engagements, typically focusing on immediate narrative challenges issues with organizations that are launching, growing, or otherwise facing internal and external storytelling challenges.

Among others, I've worked with leaders at Variant Fund, USB Club, One Fact Foundation, Are.na, Gitcoin, Brud, Interchain Foundation, Propel, Metropolis, and Genesis. I'm also an angel investor in some great startups.

I mainly write at Care Culture right now, but also post on my blog Subpixel Space. I've tackled a lot of different topics over the years, but a recurrent theme is how technology, moral principles, and social institutions shift and influence one another.

Here are some "greatest hits"—my more well-known cultural analysis:

• After Authenticity
• Life After Lifestyle
• The Diminishing Marginal Value of Aesthetics
• Squad Wealth
• Crypto's Three-Body Problem

And here are a few business-oriented pieces of writing:

• Headless Brands
• Market Protocol Fit
• Premonition

To follow my personal blog and updates, subscribe to my personal newsletter.

I've given numerous specialty talks and workshops for events and clients. To engage me about a speaking opportunity, please reach out directly. Here's a sample of talks from the last 5 years:

Networked Institutions, Greenpill Podcast (2023)
The Nature of the Protocol, Protocol Berg (2023)
Lifestyle, Lifeworlds, and the Fashion System, Business of Fashion Voices (2022)
Morality and Market Failure, Schelling Point (2022)
Headless Brands Workshop, Ljubljana Biennale (2021)
The New Era of Trust, Refactor Camp (2019)
The Desire for Full Automation, Trust (2019)
Cult Design Workshop, Pioneer Works (2018)

Along with Tom Critchlow, I'm one of the creators of Quotebacks, an open-source tool for web-native quoting and conversation. We're not so good at maintaining it, but it's one of my favorite projects.

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