Ray Apena — R3

§ WRITING

WRITING

Essays on how people, power, technology, and systems interact. From sleep to cities, talent to technology, and ambition to institutions.

ESSAYSNOTESARGUMENTSPATTERNSLOOPSESSAYSNOTESARGUMENTSPATTERNSLOOPS

CATEGORY

YEAR

COMING SOON
HUMANITIES · July 2026

Reaching the Thunderhead

Will we ever cede power to AI?

GENERAL · February 2025

Great Britain? Mediocre Ambition.

Or why the UK dropships while the US ships rockets.

COMING SOON
TECHNOLOGY · January 2026

The Body Is Becoming a Dataset

Longevity begins when health stops being episodic and starts being observed.

COMING SOON
TECHNOLOGY · November 2025

Data Dog

Dashboards, funnels, models, and the compulsion to make companies legible.

COMING SOON
GENERAL · August 2025

The Operator's Notebook

"The first rule of operating is there are no rules of operating".

COMING SOON
HUMANITIES · May 2025

NOTES ON TASTE

Taste is a compression of judgement.

COMING SOON
GENERAL · May 2026

Exceptional, Not Automated

The point of automation is not fewer humans, it's fewer human errors.

COMING SOON
GENERAL · October 2024

The Company as a Classroom

The fastest way to learn is to become useful before you feel ready.

COMING SOON
TECHNOLOGY · July 2024

Platform Dependence Is Platform Risk

If the API can kill you, it was always your cofounder.

COMING SOON
GENERAL · March 2024

I Dropped Out of the Model

Leaving Cambridge.

COMING SOON
TECHNOLOGY · November 2023

Algorithmic Sovereignty

We've all heard if you don't pay then you are the product, but who are we being sold to?

COMING SOON
TECHNOLOGY · August 2023

Reading Minds, Building Models

Cognitive science, AI, and the strange loops of self-modelling.

COMING SOON
TECHNOLOGY · February 2023

The Latent Space Between Want and Click

Recommendation systems confuse behaviour with desire because behaviour is the only thing they can measure.

COMING SOON
HUMANITIES · December 2022

Reading Images, Reading Minds

Art history, cognition, and the suspicion that seeing is a learned behaviour.

COMING SOON
GENERAL · December 2022

The Golden Conveyor Belt

Scholarships, spring weeks, and the machine that turns ambition into obedience.

COMING SOON
HUMANITIES · November 2022

Between the Cloud and the Thunderhead

Neal Shusterman, benevolent AI, and the terrifying comfort of being governed well.

COMING SOON
GENERAL · April 2022

The Problem with Smart People and Easy Jobs

Consulting doesn't make you better at business, the same way watching the NBA won't help me shoot 3s if I never touch the court. 

COMING SOON
GENERAL · March 2022

Distribution Is a Personality Trait

Some people network. Some people become a node.

COMING SOON
GENERAL · December 2021

Too Many Names for the Same Person

Ray, Raymond, Raimundo, Reynard, Rey.

COMING SOON
HUMANITIES · September 2021

The Law Student's First Map of Power

Law school teaches you the shape of authority before it teaches you justice.

§ CONTACT

BUILDING ·
SELLING ·
SCALING?
LET'S TALK.

Especially if it involves hardware, HCI and brick & mortar ventures.

ray@sleepingnook.com LinkedIn

© 2026 RAYMOND AKOLA-EREWUNMI APENA

PHILOSOPHER | DATA DAWG