Venkatesh Rao

Hi, my name is Venkatesh Rao (Venkat). I am a writer and consultant based in Seattle. My current writing can be found on the the Contraptions newsletter. Since 2023, I have been the program director of the Summer of Protocols program. Between 2007-24, I used to write a popular blog called Ribbonfarm (now archived) Several curated collections of my online writing are available as Kindle ebooks. I have also written a book on timing and decision-making Tempo (2011), and am working on another one, The Clockless Clock, which I am serializing in my newsletter.

I am an active member of the Yak Collective, a community built around a variety of study groups and collaborative tinkering projects. In particular I participate in the robotics, governance, and composable and distributed systems study tracks there.

The bulk of my practice comprises 1:1 work with senior executives as a conversational sparring partner, to stress test and improve the rigor and quality of their ongoing thinking about their evolving challenges. Karl Weick's short paper What Theory is Not, Theorizing Is is a good description of the natural process I try to build upon.

Products of the theorizing process seldom emerge as full-blown theories, which means that most of what passes for theory in organizational studies consists of approximations. Although these approximations vary in their generality, few of them take the form of strong theory, and most of them can be read as texts created "in lieu of" strong theories. These substitutes for theory may result from lazy theorizing in which people try to graft theory onto stark sets of data. But they may also represent interim struggles in which people intentionally inch towards stronger theories. The products of laziness and intense struggles may look the same and consist of references, data, lists, diagrams, and hypotheses. To label these five as "not theory" makes sense if the problem is laziness and incompetence. But ruling out those same five may slow inquiry if the problem is theoretical development still in its early stages.

The working arrangement is usually just ongoing email/slack interactions, with 1:1 video-conference sparring sessions of 1-3 hours every 4-6 weeks (more or less often depending on the pace of developments). Occasionally a client will rope in a colleague or direct report to help drill down into a particular issue. There is usually no output product as such, beyond the summary email notes I send after every call.

My consulting models is best-suited for executives in medium-to-large organizations, and requires interactions over at least a year to yield results. Occasionally, I work with individuals, leaders at smaller companies and startups.

Clients usually find me directly through something I've written, rather than through a referral. If you are interested in worlking with me, I recommend checking out my blog and newsletter first. Top

Workshops and Speaking

I develop and deliver customized talks and interactive workshops on specific topics at the request of clients, either as part of ongoing consulting engagements, or as one-off things. Topics I have covered in recent years include narratives and world-building, OODA-loop thinking, and energy transitions.

• Unlocking Civilizational Hypercomplexity with Ethereum (Devcon Bogota, 2022)
• Archetypes for the Anthropocene (Serpentine Work Marathon, September 2018)
• Off the Clock (Thinking Digital Conference, Newcastle, May 2018)
• Bloodcoin (Refactor Camp, Austin, May 2018)

• Infinite Loops podcast with Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Econtalk podcast with Russ Roberts
• Longform podcast with Aaron Lammer
• Farnam Street Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

You can use the following generic bio for conference programs and such. Here is a hi-res headshot. Here is my CV (updated 2019).

Venkatesh Rao is a writer and consultant. He writes the popular Contraptions newsletter. Between 2007-24, he wrote the popular Ribbonfarm blog (now archived). He is the author of Tempo, a book on timing and decision-making, and is currently working on his second book, on the foundations of temporality. He has been an independent consultant since 2011, supporting senior executives in the technology industry. His work in recent years has focused on AI, semiconductor, sustainability, and protocol technology sectors. He holds a PhD in control theory (2003) from the University of Michigan. He is currently based in the Seattle area, and enjoys dabbling in robotics in his spare time. You can learn more about his work at venkateshrao.com

If you want to talk about a consulting project, or participation at an event, get in touch at