Devon Zuegel

Hello, world! My name is Devon. I’m a writer, of code and words. The thing that matters most to me is unlocking human potential, so I think a lot about incentive design, tools for thought, and cities.

What keeps me busy these days:

I'm researching startup cities, a category of projects I believe are much more attainable than people realize.

I interview computing pioneers for a video series called Tools & Craft.

I write about incentive design, land use policy, tools for thought, placemaking, and more on this blog (you're looking at it).

Previously, in reverse chronological order:

I founded GitHub Sponsors, a tool for funding open source software. This stemmed from research I did about coordination problems, market design, and anthropology in open source.

I hosted a show for a16z about crypto, and I built identity attestation protocols on the blockchain at Bloom.

I was a software engineer on the Identity team at Affirm.

In college, I was Editor in Chief at The Stanford Review.

In my free time I read weird blogs, build side projects, take public transit, and ride my bike. I love reasoning about, improving, and designing systems and infrastructure.

I also have a Spanish-speaking twin named "Devon número dos" who impersonates me around the web. I let her publish Spanish translations of my writing here every once in a while, and she tweets @devon_dos despite my efforts at restraining her.

I update this page in a sporadic and unceremonious fashion, so no promises that it's up-to-date. [Last update that I remembered to record: August 2021]