# Shawn Wang ![Shawn Wang](/resources/cognition/portraits/shawn-wang.webp) ai.engineer Cognition San Francisco, California, United States ## At Cognition - Role: Advisor (Advisor) - Joined: Nov 2025 - How they joined: Directly - Before Cognition: Curator, AI Engineer Summit - Overlapped before Cognition with other Cognition people at: Amazon (https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/worked-together) ## Identity - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnswyxwang - X: @swyx - GitHub: https://github.com/swyxio - Website: https://swyx.io - Domain: cognition.ai ## Notes - Shawn 'swyx' Wang announced he is joining Cognition, makers of the Devin AI software engineer and now owners of the Windsurf agentic IDE. Verbatim: "I'll be joining Cognition, makers of the Devin AI software engineer and now owners of the Windsurf agentic IDE." (https://swyx.io/cognition) - Most of Smol AI will be joining Cognition as part of the deal, while swyx will continue to work on AI Engineer and Latent Space independently of Cognition. Verbatim: "Most of Smol AI will be joining Cognition as part of the deal, while I will continue to work on AI Engineer and Latent Space independently of Cognition" (https://swyx.io/cognition) - swyx states he will ferociously defend the neutrality and independence of AIE and LS despite the new Cognition deal being bigger than others. Verbatim: "while I will ferociously defend the neutrality and independence of AIE and LS, obviously this new Cognition deal is quite a bit bigger than others" (https://swyx.io/cognition) - swyx says he gave Cognition a lot of grief in private. Verbatim: "But I gave them a lot of grief in private, which is, btw, how you're actually supposed to conduct yourself in polite company." (https://swyx.io/cognition) - Cognition announced going from 0 to a $10B Series C in 2 years, with swyx effectively packing up and joining them. Verbatim: "Fast forward and Cognition is announcing that they have gone from 0 to their $10B Series C in 2 years today, with me effectively packing up and joining them" (https://swyx.io/cognition) - swyx's stated reasons for joining Cognition: Short Code/Long AGI timelines, the rise of Agent Labs, owning the sync/async spectrum, usage-based enterprise pricing with cheap individual seats, and cracked engineers plus ramped GTM. (https://swyx.io/cognition) - Announced he will be joining Cognition in some yet to be defined capacity, while AI Engineer and Latent Space remain independent. Verbatim: "What we also announced was that I ( [swyx) will also be joining](https://x.com/swyx/status/1965183110016098617) Cognition in some yet to be defined capacity, while [AI Engineer](https://apply.ai.engineer/) and Latent Space remain independent." (https://latent.space/p/ainews-legacy-25-09-08-cog-smol/, https://x.com/swyx/status/1965183110016098617, https://apply.ai.engineer/) - Commentary that @swyx is joining Cognition, laying out why he's "buying" the agent-lab thesis and how positioning across sync/async workflows matters for dominance in the "Decade of Agents". Verbatim: "Commentary: @swyx is joining Cognition, laying out why he’s “buying” the agent-lab thesis and how positioning across sync/async workflows matters for dominance in the “Decade of Agents” ( [thread](https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1965183110016098617))." (https://latent.space/p/ainews-legacy-25-09-08-cog-smol/, https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1965183110016098617) - Announced he would join Cognition, maker of Devin and owner of Windsurf; most of Smol AI would join as part of the deal, while he would continue AI Engineer and Latent Space independently of Cognition. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - As of January 2025, he was also working on the Smol AI Company (unannounced) and Smol Haus in the Arena. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He is the founder of Smol AI, the LLM data pipeline company that produces AI News, the widely read AI industry newsletter 99% created by customizable research agents. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - swyx first tried Devin in April 2024 and got a lot of criticism for leaning positive. Verbatim: "When I first tried Devin in April 2024 I got a lot of shit for leaning positive, when all people wanted to talk about was the Upwork video." (https://swyx.io/cognition) - Published first guest post with what became Codeium/Windsurf/Cognition. Verbatim: "in December I published my first guest post with what became Codeium/Windsurf/Cognition" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - He works on Latent Space, AI Engineer, and Cognition. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Credited Lia with stepping up to General Manager of AI Engineer; retained the Smol AI domain, his existing code intellectual property, and AINews. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Acknowledged the agent-lab thesis lacked a strong answer to 'what if OpenAI does this?' and described Cognition's combination of synchronous and asynchronous products as potential that still required follow-through. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - He worked in Developer Experience at Netlify, AWS, Temporal, and Airbyte. Verbatim: "He worked in Developer Experience at Netlify, AWS, Temporal, and Airbyte - three of those are unicorn-valued companies - before founding Smol AI and co-founding Latent Space." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - He founded Smol AI. Verbatim: "before founding Smol AI and co-founding Latent Space." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - He co-founded Latent Space. Verbatim: "before founding Smol AI and co-founding Latent Space." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Organizes the AI Engineer World's Fair; the third edition ran Jun 29-Jul 2 with 7000 registrants at Moscone West. Verbatim: "We have just come off the week of the third AI Engineer World's Fair (Jun 29-Jul 2), at 7000 registrants, the biggest AIE yet and our first in Moscone West." (https://swyx.io/america250) - As part of restructuring, Lia is stepping up to be General Manager of AI Engineer. Verbatim: "As part of restructuring, I'm delighted that Lia is stepping up to be General Manager of AI Engineer" (https://swyx.io/cognition) - In a Latent Space conversation with Chroma's Jeff Huber, acknowledged Huber's influence on his programming decisions. Verbatim: "Yeah, I killed the rag track partially because of your influence." (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - As of January 2025, he was Editor of the Latent.Space newsletter and podcast, and co-organizer of the AI Engineer Summit. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - As a developer experience leader and angel investor, swyx led developer tooling at AWS, Two Sigma, and three devtool unicorns (Netlify, Temporal, Airbyte) (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He has started and run communities for hundreds of thousands of developers, like the Latent Space Paper Club. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Co-founded the AI Engineer conference series with Ben Dunphy; first AI Engineer Summit launched October 2023. Verbatim: "He co-founded the conference series with Ben Dunphy" (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Wrote the essay 'The Rise of the AI Engineer' proposing AI engineering as a software-engineering specialization. Verbatim: "I am calling attention to this trend rather than starting it." (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - In June 2023, Swyx published 'The Rise of the AI Engineer' on the Latent Space newsletter; Andrej Karpathy publicly agreed. Verbatim: "In June 2023, Swyx published "The Rise of the AI Engineer" on their Latent Space newsletter. Within days, Andrej Karpathy - the man who wrote the neural network textbook Silicon Valley passes around like scripture - publicly agreed." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Held the first Demo Day that led to the insight that became the Rise of the AI Engineer. Verbatim: "in Feb 2023 we held the first Demo Day that led to the insight that became the Rise of the AI Engineer" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Latent Space started in 2022 as a newsletter Swyx ran from lspace.swyx.io. Verbatim: "Latent Space started in 2022 as a newsletter Swyx ran from lspace.swyx.io" (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Svelte community reached 10k members in 2021. (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Joined Temporal.io as Head of Developer Experience. Verbatim: "I'm excited to finally share why I've joined Temporal.io as Head of Developer Experience." (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - Gave a 9-minute lightning talk on why Temporal at CascadiaJS. (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - Gave a 30-minute talk on why Temporal at React NYC. (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - Ran a 2-hour Complete Intro to Temporal workshop. (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - Published an audio narrated version of the 'Why Temporal' piece on his Transistor podcast. (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - Holds the view that Temporal's core design rests on three opinions: Orchestration, Event Sourcing, and Workflows-as-Code. (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - He is known for Learn in Public and The Rise of the AI Engineer. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Before software, he was a currency options trader, then a technology, media, and telecom hedge fund analyst. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - His developer-experience work took him through Netlify, Amazon Web Services, Temporal, and Airbyte. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He helped run the React subreddit. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He helped grow Svelte Society. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He works with sponsors through AI Engineer and Latent Space. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He helped run the React subreddit for over 200,000 developers. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He grew Svelte Society from 0 to over 15,000 developers. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He was known for being a #LearnInPublic evangelist and for speaking and writing on React, JavaScript, and the future of the Web. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - His opinions on building for the web include Why I Enjoy Svelte, Svelte for Sites, React for Apps, Why Tailwind CSS, and setting up Svelte with Tailwind. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Selected talks & conversations include The Hooks talk and Concurrent React. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Starting points on his site include The Rise of the AI Engineer. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Credited Latent Space cohost Alessio Fanelli, Sarah Guo, and Pranav Reddy with reviewing the AI Engineer essay and providing feedback and support. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Credited Ben Dunphy with co-founding the conference series and network. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Raised in Singapore; worked as a currency-options trader and then a technology, media, and telecom hedge-fund analyst, including Python and Haskell applications for quantitative trading, derivatives pricing, and portfolio management. Verbatim: "Didn't like the trading part, loved the coding part." (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Earlier roles: Software Engineer at Two Sigma, Senior DX Engineer at Netlify, Senior Developer Advocate at AWS, Head of Developer Experience at Temporal; developer-experience work also took him to Airbyte. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Helped run the React subreddit and co-founded Svelte Society. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Swyx spent his twenties as a currency options trader and TMT hedge fund analyst earning roughly $350,000 a year. Verbatim: "Swyx spent his twenties as a currency options trader and TMT hedge fund analyst earning roughly $350,000 a year." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - He built Svelte Society from zero to 15,000+ developers. Verbatim: "He built Svelte Society from zero to 15,000+ developers." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - He moderated r/reactjs for 200,000 developers. Verbatim: "He moderated r/reactjs for 200,000 developers." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - He created the React TypeScript Cheatsheet. Verbatim: "He created the React TypeScript Cheatsheet still used by engineers worldwide." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - He coined the phrase 'AI Engineer'. Verbatim: "Coined Phrase. "AI Engineer" - now one of the fastest-growing job titles in tech globally" (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Quote attributed to Swyx on the Rise of the AI Engineer. Verbatim: ""A wide range of AI tasks that used to take five years and a research team can now be accomplished with API docs and a spare afternoon."" (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Completed CFA and Master's as a sellside options trader. Verbatim: "I had just completed my CFA and Master's as a lowly sellside options trader" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Pulled into hedge fund life by G; first move to San Francisco. Verbatim: "G had called me up to pull me into the big league hedge fund life. This was my first move to San Francisco" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Worked as an "analyst" rather than investment principal at the hedge fund. Verbatim: "I worked hard but rarely had original ideas, serving as "analyst" rather than investment principal" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - First real big break with React Rally. Verbatim: "my first real big break with React Rally" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Joined Netlify, his first semi-successful startup experience. Verbatim: "quickly led to Netlify, the first semi-successful startup experience I'd actually had" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Joined AWS just as Covid started. Verbatim: "I joined AWS just as Covid started to shut down the world" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Wrote about Reconstructing the Monolith, which led to two serious job offers for Temporal. Verbatim: "My Netlify disillusionment and continuing dissatisfaction with the state of serverless even at AWS led me to write about Reconstructing the Monolith, which I never even had the confidence to make into a blogpost but triggered enough discussion that it eventually led to two(!) serious job offers for Temporal" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Moved to Seattle to work at Temporal as Covid ended. Verbatim: "which finally got me to move to Seattle as Covid ended" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Temporal had management issues. Verbatim: "Temporal also had management issues, but the thesis was correct enough" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - lspace developed into Latent Space. Verbatim: "thanks to my prior 7? years of blogging it had some immediate readership and developed into Latent Space" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Completed a CFA and Master's and worked as a sellside options trader. Verbatim: "11 years ago I had just completed my CFA and Master's as a lowly sellside options trader" (https://swyx.io/america250) - Was pulled into a hedge fund by 'G' and moved to San Francisco to work in finance. Verbatim: "[G](https://swyx.io/con-man-life) had called me up to pull me into the big league hedge fund life. This was my first move to San Francisco" (https://swyx.io/america250, https://swyx.io/con-man-life) - Worked as an 'analyst' rather than investment principal at the hedge fund. Verbatim: "I worked hard but rarely had original ideas, serving as "analyst" rather than investment principal" (https://swyx.io/america250) - Gave his first real big break talk at React Rally. Verbatim: "my first real big break with React Rally" (https://swyx.io/america250) - Worked at Netlify, his first semi-successful startup experience. Verbatim: "quickly led to [Netlify](https://swyx.io/farewell-netlify), the first semi-successful startup experience I'd actually had" (https://swyx.io/america250, https://swyx.io/farewell-netlify) - Wrote about Reconstructing the Monolith. Verbatim: "led me to [write about Reconstructing the Monolith](https://swyx.io/why-temporal#the-business-case-for-temporal)" (https://swyx.io/america250, https://swyx.io/why-temporal#the-business-case-for-temporal) - Published post 'What America has meant to me' (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Wrote full blog at swyx.io/america250. Verbatim: "full blog at https://swyx.io/america250" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412, https://swyx.io/america250) - Published post 'AIE Singapore: The Agentic Nation' (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Published post 'What you can do in a decade' (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Published post 'How to Thought Lead (2026)' (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Published post 'Constance Crozier: Forecasting s-curves is hard' (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Published post 'Take a hard game, and make it shorter' (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - swyx has been public that he has advised companies before, most recently Fireworks. Verbatim: "I've been fairly public that I've advised companies before, most recently Fireworks" (https://swyx.io/cognition) - swyx's central thesis: Code AGI will be achieved in 20% of the time of full AGI and capture 80% of the value of AGI. Verbatim: "Code AGI will be achieved in 20% of the time of full AGI, and capture 80% of the value of AGI." (https://swyx.io/cognition) - swyx got very excited about Code Interpreter in the loop 2 years ago. (https://swyx.io/cognition) - When joining, swyx asked Scott about the TAM and Scott laughed. Verbatim: "When I joined, struggling for reasons NOT to joined, I asked Scott about the TAM. He laughed." (https://swyx.io/cognition) - swyx describes himself as pro Agent Engineering. Verbatim: "I am obviously pro Agent Engineering" (https://swyx.io/cognition) - AINews will keep going as a personal project. Verbatim: "AINews will keep going as a personal project, with some conversations ongoing around its stable future." (https://latent.space/p/ainews-legacy-25-09-08-cog-smol/) - swyx argues that in the Decade of Agents from 2025 onward, working at agent labs will have the relative alpha. Verbatim: "In the Decade of Agents from 2025-?, the nonconsensus view is perhaps that working at "agent labs" will have the relative alpha instead." (https://swyx.io/cognition) - He less frequently updates his personal blog and magazine DX.tips. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Speaker bio (January 2025): swyx (Shawn Wang) is Editor of Latent.Space. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - By February 2024, the podcast had reached one million Substack readers, with Alessio joining as co-host for the audio version. Verbatim: "By February 2024, the podcast had reached one million Substack readers, with Alessio joining as co-host for the audio version." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Launched smol-developer, a bundle of prompts and a resilient workflow built on Modal. Verbatim: "engineering with prompts, rather than prompt engineering" (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Recorded the first LS podcast. Verbatim: "in Jan 2023 we recorded the first LS podcast (with Andrej picking this up in May)" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Writes an AI newsletter at lspace.swyx.io. (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Writes a DevRel/DevTools newsletter at dx.tips. (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Newsletter has over 10,000 subscribers. (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Gave a talk 'Paradigm Lost' at CascadiaJS 2022. (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - States he continues to talk about Learn in Public on podcasts even in 2022. (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - Wrote "The Roaring 2020s". Verbatim: "In "The Roaring 2020s", written in Nov 2020, I wrote:" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Wrote 'The Roaring 2020s'. Verbatim: "In " [The Roaring 2020s](https://swyx.io/roaring-2020s)", written in Nov 2020, I wrote:" (https://swyx.io/america250, https://swyx.io/roaring-2020s) - Holds the view that orchestration over choreography deduplicates infrastructure, not just code, and that workflow orchestrators are 'reliability on rails' (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - Holds the view that event sourcing (logs-as-truth) is superior to logs-as-afterthought for mission-critical work. (https://swyx.io/why-temporal) - Wrote about starting a dev community meetup, dated 1st October 2019. (https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022) - Wrote the 'Learn In Public' essay advocating creating tutorials, cheatsheets, talks, and other resources while learning. Verbatim: "Whatever your thing is, make the thing you wish you had found when you were learning." (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Became an RA for the 2010 Huntsman class. Verbatim: "becoming an RA for the 2010 huntsman class" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Moved to America for the first time; attended Huntsman (University of Pennsylvania). Verbatim: "19 years ago, I moved to America for the first time, having being given access to Facebook back when it was still just Ivy-League only" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Moved to America for the first time to attend the University of Pennsylvania (Huntsman program), starting around 2007. Verbatim: "19 years ago, I moved to America for the first time, having being given access to Facebook back when it was still just Ivy-League only" (https://swyx.io/america250) - Shawn Wang, known as swyx, is a developer, writer, and community builder based in San Francisco. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He is the author of The Coding Career Handbook. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He wrote Learn in Public. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He collected his nontechnical advice for developers growing from junior to senior in The Coding Career Handbook, now free and open source. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - His technical writing includes the Self-Provisioning Runtime. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - His technical writing includes the Third Age of JavaScript. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - His technical writing includes the End of Localhost. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He invests in AI and developer-tool companies, mostly helping with developer relations and community strategy, hiring early devrels, and AI product feedback and launch guidance. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He is not taking new advising inquiries. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He is a developer (GitHub: swyxio), founder, and angel investor, primarily active in the AI and devtools community. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He is a GitHub Star. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He is a Stripe Community Expert. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - He is known for technical and book reviews, from TypeScript in 50 Lessons, Programming TypeScript, and Landing Page Hot Tips to The GraphQL Guide. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Selected talks & conversations include Engineering AI Agents. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Selected talks & conversations include The Operating System of You. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Selected talks & conversations include Paradigm Lost. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Starting points on his site include Learn in Public. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Starting points on his site include How to Create Luck. (https://www.swyx.io/about) - Authored the essay 'Learn in Public', a widely translated post about creating learning exhaust (blogs, tutorials, cheatsheets, talks, newsletters, videos) (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - Wrote an expanded version of the 'Learn in Public' essay and its related canon in The Coding Career Handbook. (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - The 'Learn in Public' essay was originally drafted in a gist and republished in Letters to a New Developer. (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - Keeps an almost-daily dev blog written for himself. (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - Maintains a live-updating list of Learn in Public podcast appearances on his ideas page. (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - Wrote related posts: 'The Ultimate Hack for Learning In Public' (Pick Up What They Put Down), 'Learning Gears', 'How To Learn In Private', 'Big L Notation', and 'The Power of Lampshading' (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - Accepts community translations of his posts via GitHub issues on his swyxdotio repo. (https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public) - After retrying the same agent one week after launch on the same endpoints, it could no longer perform tasks he had tested, undermining his confidence and leading him to other experiments including AINews. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Scott visited his house, spent substantial time with him, and handwrote an offer while Wang was still considering a job he had not been seeking. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - Wrote The Coding Career Handbook for developers progressing from junior to senior. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - The alias 'swyx' comes from the initials of his English and Chinese names. (https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/) - He wrote 'Learn in Public', an essay read by millions. Verbatim: "He wrote "Learn in Public" - an essay read by millions that reframed how developers think about professional growth." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - He wrote a 450-page book. Verbatim: "He wrote a 450-page book." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - The name 'swyx' is the initials of his English and Chinese names overlaid. Verbatim: "The name "swyx" - pronounced "swicks" - is the initials of his English and Chinese names overlaid." (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Quote attributed to Swyx. Verbatim: ""You can learn so much on the internet for the low, low price of your ego."" (https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli) - Started a real money investment fund for Huntsman (the biggest on campus). Verbatim: "I started a real money investment fund for Huntsman (the biggest on campus)" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Self-taught 3 years of Calculus in one summer to speed run a Math minor. Verbatim: "Self-teaching 3 years of Calculus in one summer so as to speed run a Math minor just because I thought it might be fun." (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Fell in love with statistical modeling with J. Michael Steele. Verbatim: "Falling in love with statistical modeling with J. Michael Steele." (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Ran a small seminar with G Richard Shell. Verbatim: "Running a small seminar with G Richard Shell and having his personality test diagnose my interest in the literature of success and influence" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Got an Asian Fail in Marketing 101. Verbatim: "Getting an Asian Fail in Marketing 101 because it was far too overly tuned to American culture" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Got kicked off campus for dating Z. Verbatim: "getting kicked off campus for dating Z" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Knew early stars Jon "Every Vowel" Youshaei and Sarah Guo. Verbatim: "getting to know early stars like Jon "Every Vowel" Youshaei, and Sarah Guo" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Graduated early and went back to serve in the Singapore central bank. Verbatim: "I graduated early and went back to serve in the Singapore central bank - probably still today a top 3 mistake I have ever made in my life" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Boss quit on the team after a middling couple years. Verbatim: "finally having our boss quit on us after a middling couple years" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Moved to New York to work on FinTech at Sentieo/Alap. Verbatim: "Sentieo/Alap welcomed me with open arms and I moved to New York to work on FinTech" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Hired at Two Sigma for his first job as a software engineer. Verbatim: "finally getting hired at Two Sigma for my first job as a software engineer" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Two Sigma described as a high paid but bad job with an ineffective boss. Verbatim: "Two Sigma was a high paid but bad job with an ineffective boss" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Moved out to Miami to work remotely. Verbatim: "Seattle was horrible for a single male (I ended up moving out to Miami to work remotely)" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Had George Tech OMSCS Online Masters ML courses as his AI background. Verbatim: "other than my George Tech OMSCS Online Masters ML courses" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Established the "lspace" blog (borrowing from Discworld). Verbatim: "I established the "lspace" blog (borrowing from Discworld)" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Was on holiday in Singapore when ChatGPT was released. Verbatim: "I was on holiday in Singapore when ChatGPT was released" (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Ran the third @aidotengineer World's Fair at 7000 registrants, first in Moscone West. Verbatim: "We have just come off the week of the third @aidotengineer World's Fair, at 7000 registrants, the biggest AIE yet and our first in Moscone West." (https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412) - Started a real money investment fund for Huntsman, described as the biggest on campus. Verbatim: "I started a real money investment fund for Huntsman (the biggest on campus)" (https://swyx.io/america250) - Studied statistical modeling with J. Michael Steele at Wharton. Verbatim: "Falling in love with statistical modeling with [J. Michael Steele](https://statistics.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/steele/)." (https://swyx.io/america250, https://statistics.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/steele/) - Got an 'Asian Fail' in Marketing 101 in business school. Verbatim: "Getting an Asian Fail in Marketing 101 because it was far too overly tuned to American culture" (https://swyx.io/america250) - Worked at Sentieo/Alap on FinTech in New York. Verbatim: "Sentieo/Alap welcomed me with open arms and I moved to New York to work on FinTech" (https://swyx.io/america250) ## Experience - Advisor at Cognition - San Francisco, California, United States (Nov 2025 - Present): https://swyx.io/cognition - Curator at AI Engineer Summit - San Francisco, California, United States (Jan 2023 - Present): The premier conference for AI Engineers. - Editor at Latent Space Podcast - San Francisco, California, United States (Jul 2022 - Present): The premier podcast and newsletter for AI Engineers. https://www.latent.space/p/ai-engineer - Startup DX Advisor/Angel at DX Tips (Jan 2021 - Present): Various companies, including MatX, ArtificialAnalysis, Modal, Fireworks, Airbyte, Dynamic.xyz, Railway, Supabase, Replay.io, Stackblitz, Flutterflow, etc. see more https://swyx.io/portfolio - Head of Developer Experience at Temporal Technologies (Jan 2020 - Jan 2022): https://swyx.io/why-temporal - Co-Founder at svelte society (Jan 2019 - Jan 2022): cofounded Svelte Society, grew it, stepped down https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022 really glad that it's still thriving without me - Sr Dev Advocate at Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Jan 2019 - Jan 2020): https://www.swyx.io/writing/hello-aws - Sr Dev Advocate at Netlify (Jan 2017 - Jan 2019): https://www.swyx.io/writing/farewell-netlify - TMT Equities Analyst at Balyasny Asset Management L.P. (Jan 2015 - Jan 2017): data pipelines and quantitative portfolio management on a 3 person team running $1.1bn. mostly python and AWS, zero testing or devops lol - Derivatives Trader at Standard Chartered Bank (Jan 2011 - Jan 2015): spent a year in fixed income then moved to London to help run JPY options trading with a 40m/yr budget. wrote the definitive pricing tools for both the Rates and FXO teams worldwide. in Haskell! ## Education - University of Chicago - MSc, Financial Mathematics: quantitative trading/portfolio management, option pricing - University of Pennsylvania - BA/BSc, Risk, Math: started HSIF - the largest real money student investment club at Penn/Wharton - freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/shawn-wang-podcast-interview/ ## Sources - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnswyxwang - https://swyx.io/cognition - https://www.swyx.io/about - https://github.com/swyxio - https://x.com/swyx - https://x.com/swyx/status/1965183110016098617 - https://cognition.com/blog/funding-growth-and-the-next-frontier-of-ai-coding-agents - https://arxiv.org/html/2608.05886v1 - https://www.swyx.io/svelte-2022 - https://swyx.io/why-temporal - https://x.com/pkuhar - https://latent.space/p/ainews-legacy-25-09-08-cog-smol/ - https://x.com/swyx/status/2073657149067321412 - https://swyx.io/america250 - https://yespress.io/swyx-shawn-wang-alessio-fanelli - https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public - https://latent.space/wiki/swyx-bc069fd7/ - https://swyx.io/ideas - https://apply.ai.engineer/ - https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1965183110016098617 - https://swyx.io/con-man-life - https://swyx.io/farewell-netlify - https://swyx.io/why-temporal#the-business-case-for-temporal - https://swyx.io/roaring-2020s - https://statistics.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/steele/ Researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-04. Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people/shawn-wang · Everyone at Cognition: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/cognition/people