Describing Interact No. 3
Interact's Fellowship as told by Lisa Wehden, Raffi , Erik Torenberg, Anna-Sofia Lesiv, and Nick Cammarata.
It can be tough to pin Interact’s Fellowship down. And as the years roll by, we’ve found that there is a lot of virtue in that ambiguity. But one thing we can say for sure is that Interact’s Fellowship is exactly that: a fellowship, where the primary thing you gain in joining is your own experience belonging to the deeply-linked, ever-new, social-professional technology phenomenon that is “Interact”.
With 2024 Fellowship admissions almost at a close, we thought it would be fun to share takes from the source. Maybe they will influence a few people’s admission choices; maybe not. In any case, we hope hearing these fellows “Describing Interact” gives you a glimpse of the fellowship for yourself.
2024 Fellowship Interviews by 2018 Fellow Ava Huang.
When did you join Interact and what was your life like then?
[LISA]: I joined Interact two years ago as a fellow for the inaugural ‘Interact Residency’ hosted in New York. I had heard about Interact from a friend when I first moved to San Francisco. It was widely known as an interesting fellowship of technologists, however, I was 25 so was too old to join. When I heard from Devon that Interact was running a new program, which was designed for mid-career technologists, I was really interested. At that time, I was in a transition phase. I had quit my job 10 months earlier to start a technology company in the climate tech space. The company was focused on carbon removal and I had raised from multiple venture firms to build out the initial product. However, I was feeling increasingly confused about whether this was the right company for me. I joined the residency hoping to figure out what I actually wanted to do.
[ANNA-SOFIA]: I joined Interact as a fellow in 2021, and participated in the residency in 2022. I had just begun working in the world of tech, and felt like I had found a kindred community in Interact.
[ERIK]: I went on the 2014 Fellowship retreat when I was 24, still working at Product Hunt.
[NICK]: I think 2014 and my life was okay, I was pretty stressed about startups. Had some good times with friends, and some bad times. A lot of the bad times were kind of just unnecessary neuroticism though.
Describe your fellow Interact fellows in one sentence.
[ANNA SOFIA]: Intelligent, creative, thoughtful, cheeky.
[LISA]: Exceptionally curious, caring and clever people.
[ERIK]: https://x.com/dickcheneyavi/status/1822644195028296183
[NICK]: They're pretty broad so hard to summarize, but broadly high openness and smart.
Who’s your favorite person you met through Interact?
[LISA]: That’s too hard to answer. I was inspired by many but the people I became closest to were Anna-Sofia and Santi.
[IAN]: There are too many to count, but shortlist: Mokhtar and Santi: we met at the ‘21 retreat and became very close one summer working out of Thrive’s office. Mackenzie: introduced me to Interact after living in the same house near Stanford. Maran and Michael: second check in my company and brought me on to organize ‘22 retreat. Linhao: also invested in us and someone I can reliably chat through anything on my mind.
[ANNA-SOFIA]: I mean .. Lisa, Omar, Tyler, Nicole & Santi, Tammy, Molly, Matty J, Austin, Saffron, and there’s really dozens more. Every person here is a gem.
[NICK]: I liked going on a hike with Jesse Pollak.
[ERIK]: Anna Mitchell and Rosalie Nathans I think. I’m close to many people in Interact and, in some cases, got closer to them because of Interact, though I met them in a different way so I didn’t include them.
Describe the impact Interact has had on your friendships.
[ANNA-SOFIA]: It’s made me realize how vibrant, collaborative and exciting friendships can be when you share intellectual and creative passions.
[LISA]: I often feel self-conscious about the areas I’m interested in (politics / philosophy) because I worry that conversation can be too intense. But I felt totally seen by a number of people I’ve met in Interact. It’s really special to find a group of people who like to think deeply about wide-ranging topics.
[IAN]: I’ve become close personal friends with several people in Interact. For many reasons (that became clear only years later), I was able to develop much deeper friendships with Interacters than most of my peers at Stanford.
[ERIK]: Per the above, it’s definitely brought me closer to people I really care about.
How has Interact shaped your relationship to technology?
[LISA]: It’s hard to capture but I think my experience at Interact offered me a new lens in which to view my role as a technologist. A concrete example of this is that the Residency enabled me to start a non-venture backed company which was previously difficult to consider as a viable path.
[ERIK]: I went so long ago that I can’t recall. (Note: This may be our favorite answer.)
[ANNA SOFIA]: Interact is the organization that has made me feel most optimistic about technology by far, because it promotes a culture of individuals using it to help further human agency, not stifle it.
Describe the impact Interact has had on your work.
[ERIK]: Interact’s retreat definitely inspired my Tahoe Rise Retreats, which I really enjoyed doing.
[LISA]: Interact was transformative because I don’t think Plymouth (my company) would have been founded without it. The summer I spent at the residency helped me refine my ideas and gave me the conviction that Plymouth was worth pursuing. It was the first time since university that I felt intellectually free to pursue ideas that I cared about, without necessarily tying it to financial outcome.
[ANNA SOFIA]: Interact helped me craft the role I have now! After a few years working in venture, I realized that greater technological complexity was exacerbating the gap in communication between the people producing technologies and the consumers building their whole lives on top of them. The Residency in particular was where I developed the idea to start Foundations & Frontiers, a publication devoted to elucidating the history and contemporary advancements of key technologies.
What’s your favorite Interact memory?
[LISA]: Co-working around the work table with Santi/Anna-Sofia (Maran/Devon would join too).
[IAN]: Late night hike during ‘21 retreat to see the stars and lay in hammocks.
[ANNA-SOFIA]: I loved listening to Spencer, Omar and Tyler describe their ideas for new forms of computing during the residency. These conversations would erupt spontaneously, and make a mark. My introduction to the ideas of more malleable software, embodied computing, a more delightful experience of the web, all came from the conversations we had! A few of us later decided to organize a reading group on Heidegger. The cumulative intelligence and curiosity of everyone in the residency made me tremendously excited to go to the space every day. I knew there would always be something to learn from my peers, or some great conversation to be had. By the end, the space had come to feel like a home.
[ERIK]: Hanging out with Melisa and Rosalie when I went back to the fellowship retreat as a speaker in 2019.
What do you want technologists to talk more about?
[LISA]: I’d love to find others who are interested in technology & liberal democracy, social media and brain fracking, faith and AGI, values and virtues as a technologist.
[ANNA-SOFIA]: I wish technologists talked more about how we can re-imagine existing tools, experiences, systems and more openly discuss the values and ideals behind the technologies we’re building.
[ERIK]: I think just the world as it really is, not only as people wish it would be — so history, culture, politics, genetics, biology. But not from an idealistic perspective.
[IAN]: We mostly hear about the first and last 10% about the journey of those who dedicate incredible amounts of time to their craft. Being in the founder journey now, the first 10% felt like the easiest time, but no one ever reports on the middle 80% where the technologist needs to apply constant pressure to make their work move. I’d like to hear more about this part of the journey.