Welcome! It’s wonderful you’re here.
I believe that a life well-lived is one that is well-examined. I believe in the power of turning over every stone in order to better understand. I believe that in doing this, we become more empathic, deeply empathetic, curious, kind, and incredibly generous people.
Woven throughout my work is the dogged belief that everyone — truly everyone — has the power and ability to learn and unlearn, in order to live more fulfilling and impactful lives.
We live in a time of ratchet and unpleasant narcissism. We live in an era where incredibly childish people — so sadly, and far too often, it’s the men — are the ones who are primarily leading the charge.
We absolutely deserve to live in world that is marked by a perpetual and dogged commitment to peace and to human flourishing — because, as it turns out, the world is a chaotic enough place as it is.
We deserve to live in a world where humans take care of one another and where we all — each and everyone of us — choose with each action to defend human dignity.
(Can you tell I once worked at Amnesty International?)
About me (Yuan)
I am an author, activist, explorer, and artist.
My work excavates what it means to be human and what it means to live a fulfilling and meaningful life.
Generally, I feel like I’ve lived about 5 lifetimes. This is not to brag: far from it; I would not wish upon anyone some of the incredibly intense — and at times deeply harrowing — things I have experienced in my relatively short lifetime (I’m 35).
For the last 10 years, I have developed profound expertise at the intersections of technology, human rights, and the law.
I’ve worked on a wide range of pertinent and fascinating topics — like cybersecurity 🔐, children’s digital rights 👦🏻, and the pressing moral issues of (generative) AI 👾 — all with the goal of carving out a way for us to live peaceably and generatively with powerful, often incredibly exciting (and at times terrifying) emerging technologies.
In 2025, I am founding a consulting firm that provides algorithmic impact assessments to some of the most impactful organizations and companies whose AI-powered technologies are transforming our societies.
With this work, we put our sociologist and moral philosopher hats ⛑️ on, and we lift under the hood of incredibly powerful AI solutions — to identify the technology’s greatest powers, more importantly, its greatest moral risks.
My firm’s essential work will keep such technology reigned in — that is, tamed ⛓ — and will help us maintain our material and moral autonomy as we increasingly become entangled with the technological powers that we create — and that be.
Is this Substack for you?
I am not everyone’s cup o’tea 🍵 Neither is this Substack for everyone nor for all audiences.
This Substack is for the people who crave authenticity. This publication is for those who love to peel back layers of meaning. It’s for for the people who crave going deep.
My readers are people who know themselves incredibly well. They value a high degree of honesty and transparency, and frankly they have a deep sense of self love and self respect. (I’m quite literally just describing me ;))
More than this, my readers are doggedly committed to better understanding themselves and others, to help make the world a better — that is, more mapped-out, caring, and fulfilling — place.
It is not so common to bring together the personal and the professional like we are doing together here (and like I’ve done above); but, for many jobs, we no longer live in the era of a false dichotomy where there are chasms between our deep-seated humanity — who we are as people, at our core — and what we do for a living.
This Substack is for fun. It’s not for the grind. It’s for pulling things apart — holding them in our hands 🤲🏼, and examining them 🕵🏻♂️ in order to make sense of how and why things are the way they are, and how things ought to be.
Join me on this journey. I know you’ll love it. And ever since doing a homemade improv workshop with some friends in 2018, I’ve also been trying to be funny. Let me practice my jokes with you. Tell me when I make you chuckle, chortle, or let your deep, full-belly belly-laugh.
The first Monday of each month, you’ll read my words and we’ll go on a journey and exploration together to better understand the world, together.
Learn from me; learn with me; learn together. I promise you won’t regret it.
Write me
I don’t generally take suggestions, because, like any good ideas DJ 🪩, I already have a million things flowing 🌊 and on the go in my head.
But if you have any ideas of things you think we should explore together, please write me:
I just ask that you please don’t try to scam me (I’m too smart for scams anyway, teehee) and it would also be great if you didn’t harass me. Also not such a fan of the idea of being doxed (privacy = primordial).
Pay me
For the foreseeable future, the majority of my words will be free.
However, money is nice, and more than this — especially as I get my consulting firm off the ground — money is essential 😭
Please do pay me, if you like my work. Choose what’s worth it for you.
Your support is incredibly meaningful to me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you — for my two paid subscribers (you know you are 💗).
And a huge thank you for all those who choose to share their wealth and resources with me, so that I can keep doing the essential work that I’m doing, and so we can continue on our incredible learning journey together.
I really mean this 😭
You’re in the right place. And you’re part of an incredible community: we’re learning, growing, unlearning, and staying curious — together. I’m so glad you’re here.
