The Curious Engineer

All blogs / AI / ML

Dan Shapiro's Blog

danshapiro.com/blog

CEO of Glowforge, creator of Robot Turtles, proud dad

AI / MLEssays / personalGeneral

’05’10’15’20’25
Posts
240 from 15 Mar 2004 to 28 Jul 2026
Posting
monthly (10 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://www.danshapiro.com/blog/feed/

2026 8

  1. 0%, 50%, or 200%
  2. Completion, Chat, Agent, Claw
  3. The Genie and the Monkey’s Paw
  4. Putting AI on the Therapy Couch
  5. The Overnight Webcam App
  6. Dark Factories: Rise of the Trycycle
  7. You Don’t Write the Code. You Don’t Read the Code Either.
  8. The Five Levels: from Spicy Autocomplete to the Dark Factory

2025 8

  1. This is a Time of Technical Deflation
  2. I made the XKCD impossible app without any words
  3. Sora Dresses Me Funny: GenAI As Fashion Consultant
  4. I accidentally ported Steve Yegge’s Beads to Windows
  5. Slot Machine Development
  6. The 10 Forever Rules of AI
  7. Who have I ever visited in…
  8. My new side project at Wharton

2019 1

  1. Fellow White Dudes: Let’s Roll a d20

2017 1

  1. Second chance to save a life

2015 3

  1. Angel Investor: I have become that which I loathed
  2. The CTO Bro
  3. Glowforge – my new company (join me?)

2014 4

  1. How to succeed at Kickstarter
  2. Microsoft Ventures calls Startup Weekend Women “pointless”
  3. Gweek 155: The cheap RC plane I talked about
  4. Market first

2013 11

  1. Anatomy of a $631,230 Kickstarter Video
  2. Robot Turtles midmortem at $250k
  3. Robot Turtles: the board game that teaches preschoolers to program
  4. What I Learned from the Breaking Bad Percolator
  5. Leaving Google (for now)
  6. How to do Hardware
  7. Camping like a startup
  8. Shark Tank: The 3 worst startup mistakes made on TV’s best reality show
  9. Five Killer Kickstarters
  10. My startup needs someone with a sexy voice
  11. A Review of 3 Hacker News Jobs Listings

2012 20

  1. Paul Graham may be right, but Chris Zacharias is righter
  2. Trust me: don’t tell me what you’re doing.
  3. This is why I’m not backing you on Kickstarter
  4. Livesheeting Techstars Demo Day
  5. What you probably don’t know about NDAs
  6. Startupville: The hot new social game you play with your future
  7. A cap is not a valuation
  8. How to be half as effective
  9. Pyramid Pitching
  10. Tacocopter Basics
  11. Livesheeting YCombinator Demo Day
  12. Why Investors Won’t Talk to Competitors
  13. How to Help Startups
  14. Of course this company is for sale
  15. What if you could only speak once a year?
  16. Vesting is a hack
  17. The most awesome startup I have ever seen
  18. Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap
  19. 500 Startups demo day
  20. Companies that would do best without venture capital

2011 11

  1. Saving a life is easy, but I didn’t
  2. You’ve got a little schmutz on your logo
  3. Don’t ask for introductions to investors
  4. How to handle a VC who flies First
  5. What to do when an investor asks you for your business plan
  6. How to use your Android phone to get on the internet in the UK
  7. A Twitter, a Hoverboard, or something in between
  8. Why I sold my startup, Sparkbuy, to Google
  9. Open letter to Mike Arrington: Please stop investing in startups
  10. The only wrong answer is 50/50: Calculating the cofounder equity split
  11. My new company, Sparkbuy, is public

2010 11

  1. How much are startup options worth?
  2. What it really means to be a startup CTO
  3. Your secret Twitter account, isn’t
  4. How to read a patent in 60 seconds
  5. VC insanity, explained
  6. How to use Twitter
  7. Your company culture is a meaningless platitude
  8. On leadership: the boor and the chairman
  9. Hackers targeting Jews
  10. On recruiting: why you should alienate at least half your candidates
  11. Hello world (redux)

2006 6

  1. GlueUpDate
  2. Rock in your wood
  3. Speakers at CES
  4. Walk-in closet 102
  5. Walk-in closet 101
  6. Where’s Dan been?

2005 56

  1. Stripping
  2. Dan’s Mysterious Absence
  3. Bosch Builds Better BLUECORE Batteries
  4. I just knew it had to be this easy…
  5. Woodworking for Drooling Lobotomy Patients
  6. Dowelmax rocks my world
  7. Seat 29 E
  8. Wipe your baby’s butt with your table saw
  9. Getting wood online
  10. Filling a burl hole
  11. Some dovetail tweaks
  12. What’s up with the Incra jig
  13. Gambling with your woodworking skills
  14. PowerTwist Plus V-Belts
  15. My tablesaw used to quiver with joy
  16. Tetris shelves
  17. T-Shirts! Get your T-Shirts!
  18. Brushing: A Counterpoint
  19. Brush 101
  20. Portable humidor in walnut and cocobolo (Plans!)
  21. And the Winner Is…
  22. It’s still standing
  23. The New Best of Fine Woodworking
  24. Woodworking show: first post!
  25. It’s clamptastic
  26. There’s Black and There’s Black
  27. Bring the wood dealer to you
  28. Last call for free Finger Gloves!
  29. It’s all in the details
  30. A new way to sell out
  31. Dowelmax vs. The Biscuit
  32. Workbench bargain, second chance
  33. The handy dandy Shrinkulator
  34. Nothing Severed Yet does not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual preference, or fashion sense.
  35. Stainer’s Delight: another FREE TOOL review
  36. Poker chip box plans, free from Rockler
  37. An end to the bit switch shuffle (bonus: FREE TOOLS)
  38. Rockhard update
  39. Itty bitty shopvac review
  40. Nothing Severed in your inbox
  41. And now, the greatest chisel review.
  42. Great Deal on a Workbench
  43. Sawstop, redux
  44. Free tool winner!
  45. Final thoughts before I dye
  46. Read me, Seymore: “Understanding Wood Finishing”
  47. Dan got Rockhard for you
  48. It’s the little things…
  49. On Lithium in Milwaukee (redux)
  50. A Great Little Finger Saver
  51. Bookmatch on your tablesaw
  52. Milwaukee tools: good news and bad news
  53. A great rotten finish
  54. Welcome Woodshop News readers
  55. A little light reading
  56. Costco chisel deal

2004 100

  1. 3-for-1 tool review special from guest author Kevin
  2. Guest writers coming
  3. A measuring tool you didn’t know you needed
  4. This tool review could save your life (bonus: FREE TOOLS!)
  5. Free tools!
  6. SawStop?
  7. Dadgum gov’mint
  8. There are two kinds of woodworkers
  9. Stock up at Rockler
  10. Tweakin the bies
  11. Don’t inhale the coco
  12. Hello, 45: perfect picture frame jig
  13. A finish that’s good enough to eat
  14. My Saw
  15. Shellac finish, the Dan way
  16. About that url…
  17. Post-election public service announcement
  18. Table saw roundup
  19. Humiliating yourself with mineral oil
  20. Halloween special: what do you do with your old chisels?
  21. ‘On building humidors (part III)
  22. On building humidors (part II)
  23. Another reader question: dominoes on the table
  24. Drop everything and buy these chisels, now.
  25. “Micro Mesh”: A little something different
  26. More sawdust does not mean less wood
  27. And now, a power tool you don’t need
  28. Dan Recommends
  29. Finish with microfiber
  30. What is crappy, really?
  31. New info on an old topic–the boys at Ridgid
  32. Router bit update
  33. Tape up your corners
  34. Your spalting is infectious
  35. Sloppy slots
  36. On building humidors (part I)
  37. Your square, isn’t
  38. Save $25 on tools at Amazon
  39. Clean out your dadoes
  40. Friendly reminder: pipe clamps are made of pipe
  41. On wiping versus chipping
  42. Porter-Cable/Delta to be bought by Black & Decker
  43. The ultimate tool that doesn’t quite fit in your pocket
  44. Butcher blocks redux
  45. Anyone know about Korean woodworking?
  46. A router bit review that isn’t an insult to your intelligence
  47. Chisel shopping
  48. Giant bicycle-based rotisserie
  49. Good price on a random orbital sander
  50. Some hiccoughs with the new feed…
  51. Burn this blog
  52. Biscuits and Dowels and Splines, Oh My
  53. Still nothing severed yet: nasty incident with a wrench
  54. Forrester Woodworker II: initial thoughts
  55. Pitchin’ a Grizzly tent, part II
  56. Pitchin’ a Grizzly tent, part I
  57. Forrester Woodworker II: coming soon to a tablesaw near me
  58. More koa than you can shake a stick at
  59. Get the lead out
  60. Wood of the Month
  61. Cheap plywood at Home Depot
  62. You got your slate in my coffee table, Part IV
  63. You got your slate in my coffee table, Part III
  64. You got your slate in my coffee table, Part II
  65. You got your slate in my coffee table, Part I
  66. Hurling chunks
  67. Death Stick EX-9: The Exhumer
  68. I got a non-crappy bandsaw
  69. Ecabinets, part 3
  70. A good use for a bad bandsaw
  71. Splines
  72. eCabinet Systems, part II
  73. Cordless tools–no assault or battery
  74. Step Tansu chests
  75. Free woodworking plans
  76. eCabinet Systems, Part 1
  77. Change your sandpaper. Again.
  78. The simple joys of a planer
  79. Nesting tables
  80. Get a leather apron
  81. Cheap Wood
  82. eCabinet Systems
  83. The title of this blog has not yet changed
  84. Cheap drawer rails
  85. Porter Cable sandpaper isn’t all that great
  86. Japanese table designs
  87. Where not to buy your sandpaper
  88. Retail wood sucks
  89. Butcher blocks can kill
  90. Ridgid has left the building
  91. A 2-hour heirloom
  92. Grass whippers and beam bouncers
  93. Buying tuls on Ebay
  94. Don’t buy a whetstone
  95. Cheap maple
  96. Darth Vader’s dust mask
  97. The Liquid Walnut Pastry Bag
  98. Your new tablesaw blade
  99. My First Sander (by Fisher Price)
  100. Severed?