Building what comes next
New kinds of organizations need new kinds of tools. I explore the why and build the how.
Essays
Urging New Institutions
Institutions don't protect democracy—social contracts do. COVID revealed that constitutions were mere suspension of disbelief. This article introduces a new series on rebuilding civil societies with decentralized tools, grounded in aligned values and functioning social contracts.
The Future of Work is Play
We tell our children to find work that matters, to be creative, to follow their passion. Then we spend our days in meetings about meetings. The future of work is play—not because work should be easy, but because it should be voluntary, creative, and aligned with who you actually are.
Reclaiming The Future
Zuboff's surveillance capitalism weaponizes data to control behavior, making connection without alignment dangerous. This article concludes the series by advocating ecosystem architecture as the practice to design multiple inhabitable futures against predetermined dystopias.
Presentations
Forgotten Futures
A critical exploration of AI's evolutionary path, examining how winters shaped the field and proposing intelligence as practice rather than service. Introduces Rizom as living infrastructure for collective intelligence.
Becoming Narrow Minded
Originally presented in 2020, updated for 2025. Combining many single-purpose narrow AIs is a better approach than chasing general AI moonshots. The thesis remains as relevant as ever in the age of LLMs.
Bots With An Attitude
A framework for designing ethical, creative, and intelligent collaborative tools. Explores state machine-based bots that augment community knowledge work.
About
Yeehaa (Jan Hein Hoogstad) is a writer, developer, and ecosystem architect exploring the intersection of technology, culture, and organizational design.