About
My name is Thorne Wolfenbarger. I build software that integrates AI into existing business workflows. Previously, in Google Shopping, I trained LLMs to increase impressions for tens-of-millions of products by more than 20%.
I spent 3 months this past year travelling the world asking people two questions: "What does it mean, to you, to be an American?", "What does it mean, to you, to be you?" After asking 200+ people these questions, I think I have a better idea than before. Now, I am back in the San Francisco Bay Area, splitting my time between my focus pillars: Computing, Literature, and Governance.
These pillars are distinct but interconnected. Computing covers my continual software work and LLM R&D. Literature is my continual development as a writer and a poet. Governance concerns how we manage an AI-enabled society. Imagine a world where anything that can happen, will happen; instantly.
Work
- lifestyle.photo AI product photography
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Computing LLM applications and research
- Literature Poetry and essays
- Governance Technology and society
Writing
Categories
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Concepts That Make Administrative Work Simpler
In your job, you are either delivering your core work product or you are doing administrative meta-work that makes the final delivery easier. If you a…
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Multipolar Powers
I live in a world that is wholly in my mind and anyone can visit if they bring a song to accompany them. These songs represent the visitor and these s…
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198 Days Post-Google
I took a voluntary layoff from Google ~200 days ago. I have split my time between software, literature, and governance. Previous articles: One Week of…
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Note on Ender's Game-Era Capitalism and Portfolio Management
Suppose we have reached endgame capitalism. Suppose we have colonized the worlds as in Ender's Game. How should we manage our stock portfolio? Invest…
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How Government, Society, and Freedom Relate
The opposite of freedom is oppression. Man is born into a state of freedom. Through a man’s interactions with the world, he finds himself oppressed or…
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First View on sprites.dev from fly.io
Yesterday I read Code and Let Live, an article covering fly.io's new(ish) Sprites offering. Sprites (sprites.dev) offers persistent VMs that feel like…
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Alembic Migrations with SQLModel Common Issue Resolutions
"I have a database whose schema doesn't match my SQLModel models. I need to migrate this. I want to use alembic's – autogenerate flag. I am running in…
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136 Days of Unemployment
I keep a Google Doc titled "Notes". I look at it every day. I feel guilty whenever I look at it. I feel guilty because "Notes" has my TODO list. Note…
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So, You Want To Build a Road
If you are reading this, you are considering building a brand new road! First, congratulations! Building a new road is a serious undertaking and you p…
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What I See Coming in LLM Reinforcement Learning
RL for LLMs is going to be a relevant and durable process for AI development so long as we don't have AGI. Reinforcement Learning (RL) for LLMs seems…