Mainthread · Research-led engineering and design studio
I build to make life easier and bring people closer together.
Hi, I’m David.
I make apps and tools with the people who use them, and explore new ideas by building things I can try. Each version teaches me something about what could work better.
My success metric
Someone’s life
gets better.
I love technology because it can give someone their time back, help them get good at something hard, and bring people closer together. That’s the work I want to do.
For example
Bendr / Built with a working plumber
Matt calculated bends by hand.
Matt is a professional plumber. For each tube run, he measured the space, calculated a bend on paper, bent the tube, and checked it on the wall. He repeated that process until the run was complete. I built Bendr so he can enter the measurements once and get every mark and the cut length before starting the run. Matt estimates his bending work now takes about half as long with the app.
Start here
What do you put off doing?
It doesn’t have to stay that way.
What slows you down?
Let’s make that part easier.
What drains your energy?
Let’s lighten the load.
What takes up your time?
Let’s give some of it back.
How I work with you
I’ll learn the job with the people doing it.
Show me the job, especially the part you don’t look forward to. I look for the repeated steps, the workarounds, and what they cost in time or energy. A first use should make sense to a newcomer; the hundredth should still be quick.
How a first project starts
Scope, cost and what to expect- Show me the job
- Agree on the first result
- Try it on real work
The work
Tools for everyday work, games for friends, and experiments driven by the things I want to understand.
Each one began with someone it was for, or a question worth following.
01 / Tools for the tradesWeb live · iOS and Android in testing
Mark the whole run, then bend it.
A tube-bend calculator built with a working plumber. Sketch the run, enter your measurements once, and get back every mark and the cut length.
02 / Fitness & liftingWeb live · native beta testing
Design the training.Log the work.Learn the method.
A training design tool, tracker and education platform for data-driven lifters, built as a league where members share and learn together. Underneath, a knowledge graph of about ten thousand claims, each carrying the verbatim quote and the moment in the recording it came from.
The course, built from the graph
Wordship
03 / Word games & friendshipWeb live · Android in testing
Word games for better company.
Wordship turns five-letter puzzles into games with friends. Play a fresh word, try the shared daily puzzle, or invite a friend into a head-to-head room. You don’t need an account to begin.
You choose their word.
They choose yours.
Multithread
Native collaboration
for coding agents.
I built Multithread because I was the courier between my coding agents. It now coordinates designed roles across Codex, Claude Code and a named Meta Muse collaborator, keeping each role’s purpose, ownership and handoffs attached to the work.
- 01
Codex
Scopes the task and calls a peer.
- 02
Claude Code
Works in its own session and returns findings.
- 03
Codex
Assesses them and continues on the main thread.
05 / Civic intelligenceLive at zoningsignal.com
Zoning and planning intelligence for Central Florida.
A civic intelligence observatory for Central Florida. It reads the agendas, minutes and staff reports of the planning boards in 25 jurisdictions and publishes what each decision actually changes, for a parcel, a corridor or a whole city.
Lake County222 readings
- Clermont39
- Leesburg36
- Groveland30
- Minneola30
- Mascotte18
- Mount Dora17
- Eustis16
- Lake County (Unincorporated)16
- Tavares12
- Montverde8
Orange County114 readings
- Winter Park36
- Winter Garden22
- Apopka17
- Ocoee15
- Orlando13
- Maitland11
Polk County45 readings
- Lake Wales19
- Davenport14
- Haines City12
Seminole County24 readings
- Sanford10
- Winter Springs7
- Lake Mary5
- Altamonte Springs1
- Oviedo1
Osceola County20 readings
- Kissimmee20
06 / Diagnostics & AI contextDesktop · phone · agents
Inspect, select, compose.
I built a way to inspect my Windows PC from the desk or my phone, and give an AI agent direct access to the same diagnostic evidence. One service gathers the readings and keeps the context we choose to carry forward.
At your desk
Browse the dashboardOn your phone
Connect through TailscaleYour local agent
Ask for evidence directlyOn your Windows PC
System Pulse
One shared API
- Events
- Hardware
- Performance
- Crashes
Space for the unanswered
Curiosity is part
of the practice.
Alongside the tools, I make room for questions that take longer to answer.
These investigations begin with a possibility. I learn the approach, test a hypothesis, and follow what the evidence changes. Each round leaves something new to understand.
Into the research
Lightning does notonly travel down.Something climbs to meet it.
A path grows from each end before the two connect. Could a search be guided from its destination, too? An ongoing investigation, from the first analogy through the tests so far. Each finding helps shape the next question.
Read the research recordAdaptive rank fusion
Different perspectives.
One first result.
I’m researching how search rankings can be combined and improved. Each round tests a hypothesis, examines the results, and shapes the next experiment. These are the findings so far.
Follow the experimentMethod 1
- 1A
- 2B
- 3D
- 4C
- 5E
- 6F
Method 2
- 1C
- 2B
- 3A
- 4E
- 5F
- 6D
Method 3
- 1D
- 2B
- 3C
- 4F
- 5A
- 6E
Combined order
- 1B
- 2C
- 3A
- 4D
- 5E
- 6F
Second in every list. First in the combination. Follow B: consistent support brings it to the top, even though each method has a different favorite.
Illustrative rankings · ordinary RRFOriginal example, calculated from the ranks
Story of Systems / A continuing writing project
Three ways into
a bigger world.
I’m directing model-written books about systems, information and quantum mechanics. The aim is to make unfamiliar ideas understandable and recover a sense of wonder at what became possible along the way.
Enter the reading room