Writer, Product Designer, and Software Engineer
Hi! My name is Mark Koester. I'm a data-centric technologist based in Venice, California.
October 1883. Cape Sabine. The Greely Expedition has just reached land after fifty days adrift on the ice. Twenty-five men, still believing rescue is possible, build a makeshift shelter when a two-man scout crew returns with a letter: their relief...
How do you sustain creative output without burning out? How do you create high quality work and art at a sustainable pace?
What kind of writer am I? Am I a product builder who writes or a writer who builds products?
I’ll admit that I sometimes feel guilty when I struggle to be productive. A few days ago, after a rough night of sleep and a productive-but-not-particularly-demanding morning, I struggled to get back to work after lunch. I knew what I...
I often treat my blog writing and even simple book review posts like they need to be 2000+ word opuses involving research, sophisticated arguments and deep philosophical engagement. The end result is that I have read hundreds of books and...
Even though I had finished dozens of songs and released 6 albums, I dreaded working on my latest music album. I didn’t even want to open Ableton, my music production software. I couldn’t get myself to do even the simplest...
“Think of life as a series of dots” - Alfred Adler I read “The Courage to Be Disliked” in mid-2024, and it has quickly become one of the books I most often recommend, alongside Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning....
What metric are you currently hiding from?
Whether it’s learning a new skill, building something meaningful, or making music – the path to reaching your goals and dreams is forwards and towards.
Time management is a zero-sum game. Every hour invested in one area is an hour divested from something else.
The books I read each year often unfold like maps and trails—shaped by the places I visit, the questions I’m wrestling with, and the stories that find me along the way.
Why doesn’t your brain get overwhelmed when you’re at a noisy party? How is it that so many competing signals resolve into one coherent world rather than a cacophony of competing interactions and interpretations?
Creativity is often seen as an unstructured, free-flowing process. But what if we could track it like a data scientist—measuring time, effort, and connections between ideas?
“A designer shapes the situation, the situation talks back, and the designer reflects on the back-talk.”
What do you make time for?
Book reading feels like an act of cognitive rebellion in an American society driven by social media and pointess fear-based news. By reading books you are actively engaging the magical act of imagining, world creating and perspective-taking.
Nick Chater’s Mind Is Flat challenges several core common-sense notions and beliefs about the nature of our minds and even who we are as cognitive beings. Specifically, the book argues against the idea of a deep subconscious (like an inner...
Ever wonder what happens when a software engineer and a jazz trumpeter team up in a Venice Beach music studio?
Was AI Included?
Who truly “creates” when we use AI in our art and work?
