About

Hi my name is Rahul and I revolt against the absurd.

I'm interested in how feedback loops affect knowledge and information systems and how they intersect with kyriarchy. I think of this as practicing a form of cybernetic epistemology.

I'm a 3CK and I have the dubious honour of not being able to return to the country I grew up in because the Brits decided to take the tea bag out.

I design systems for and with humans and build kind communities of people who punch up, whether it's prototyping toys and products or shaping culture and organisations.

My work is guided by two tenets: a what and a how.

Escape the cyberpunk dystopia

We live in one and we must do everything to escape it.

Deus UX Machina

Escaping it requires understanding systems, principles of belonging, user-centered design methods, and wariness of the risks and limitations of technology.

Google

I currently work on Google Search because I became worried that we technologists have been building tools of destabilisation that increase social tension and risk further entrenching hyperreality and descent into epistemological horror.

I care a lot about making sure knowledge tools, including one of the most used in history, provide trusted information, especially with the continued expansion of epistemic bubbles.

I've tried to work on some related things:

• In the Consumer Trust group, I investigated how generative AI may harm people's ability to discern truth and how it might damage trust in institutions.
• On the Discover team, I contributed to design at the intersection of feeds,attention, and digital wellbeing to make something wholesome, helpful, and not addictive.
• I've shaped communities across the company, designing Google's UX Design Apprenticeship, teaching workshops, establishing mentorship programs, editing a newsletter, and improving hiring systems.

Previously

Ask me about the time I built a prototype for the Two Guys from Andromeda, how I taught a surfing + coding class in the Canary Islands, or when I wrote a Final Fantasy fan theory that went so viral it was acknowledged by the series' executive producer, or way back when I ran a webzine called Gamingredients. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.