My Last Day at Disney

Today was my last day at Disney.

I'm having an out-of-body experience just writing that down, let alone saying it out loud. This career has been an amazing ride.

My hope for young people getting into the tech industry is that you can have similar opportunities, because I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I didn’t really figure out software development until 2008 (at 30 years old!) even though I’d been dabbling in programming since 1999. But, once you discover what you love and find your people everything just seems to take off. I first had that “strapped to a rocket” experience in web development and then video gaming. Then I joined Disney in 2018, and got to be an integral part of the (relatively) small team that designed, built, and launched Disney+.

But, for everything there is a season. The old needs to be swept away so the new can come in and grow.

My next chapter will take me back into the startup world, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m definitely an old geezer this time around, but Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company when he was 40 years old, way back in 1903. Hey, 47 is the new 40!

Like all of us in the tech industry, I've come realize that from this historical point forward we will be in a post AI world. Staying at a company the size of Disney would prevent me from fully exploring it, from indulging in that excited curiosity which leads to really great work. Everything I thought I knew about computer software needs to be boiled down to first principles. I need to rebuild my understanding of the technology world without the cultural and historical baggage that goes along with being part of a big team.

The last time we had major shifts in technology I was too young and naive to realize what was happening. The Web in 1993, Web 2.0 in 2005, the iPhone in 2007, and video streaming in 2008 (ok, I managed to catch that one). But, this time I want to be more than an accidental participant. How we use and interact with computers will probably never be the same. I want to be a part of inventing that future.

But, there are also big issues with AI that I’m concerned about. There is going to be a period of economic destruction as the roles and jobs people rely on will need to adjust to the new reality. There are real threats to our societies; politically, economically, and fundamentally because of these changes. And most importantly to me, AI systems are on track to consume all the energy and natural resources our planet is capable of providing. To put it bleakly, we’re becoming one of those science fiction alien species who roam around the universe looking for their next planet to consume.

There must be a way we can deploy AI technology without consuming so much power. How do we keep AI aligned with our interests? How do we keep the rapid changes we’re experiencing inline with the principles which allow for healthy societies? What will our new human/computer interaction model be?

I don’t know how to solve these problems today, but I intend to find out.

I’m starting with what I’m really good at: building a web application development environment. That should provide a toehold from which I can experiment and learn how to climb this mountain. Let’s see how this goes.

You can learn more about it at www.kixx.dev