Context Rot

Context Rot is a newsletter about AI, technology, and how to navigate our increasingly online lives. You’ll find news, takes, and the occasional essay in your inbox somewhere between 2-5 days a week.

The Rot offers an unblinking look at the tech industry from me: a software engineer turned startup founder who’s spent the last ten years working on everything from social networks to developer tools to restaurant point of sale systems. I’m unabashedly pro-technology, but don’t believe this means all technology is good for us. I think this perspective is missing from a lot of today’s tech media, and I think you’ll find it useful. Maybe even entertaining.

The name Context Rot comes from a term for a newly observed phenomenon whereby LLMs become less accurate and reliable as the amount of data they have to read through before generating a response increases. Much like the machines, I believe most of us are struggling to function effectively as the amount of context we’re forced to process in our digital lives grows uncontrollably. My goal is to help you make sense of that context. I don’t want us to rot.

Thanks for reading.