About

I grew up between two worlds, Chinese and Dutch, and spent my childhood translating between them. I still do that, professionally. Between technology and the people it’s happening to. Between the hype and what’s actually happening.

I studied cultural sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam because I wanted to understand how people make meaning together, then film and media studies at Leiden University because I wanted to make some of it myself. Everything since has been the same work in different forms: journalism that cuts through the noise around AI, education that puts the technology in people’s hands on their terms, and film that asks what it’s doing to us underneath.

The three sharpen each other constantly. Editing AI Report every week keeps me close to what the technology actually is, not what the pitch decks say it is. Teaching shows me exactly where people get stuck, and where people get stuck is where the real stories are. Making Reclaiming Dragons, half of it built inside Unreal Engine, taught me more about these tools than any course could have. I work with emerging technology daily, wrestle with it, and write about what I find.

If there’s one question underneath all of it: as our lives grow more entangled with technology, what happens to the stories we tell ourselves about who we are?

At my core, I’m a maker. Drawing was my first foray into making: pen on paper, no plan, randomly enough that it stays fun. Lately making also means tinkering and building with AI, from websites to interfaces to small apps. This little site is one of them, and it’s the most fun I’ve had with a computer in years.

Outside of work I’m usually deep inside a special interest, and the list only ever expands. These days it’s gardening. Flowers, all kinds: growing things with my hands in the dirt, fully offline, reminds me what it means to be human. Touching grass, literally.