Building hardware that heals, not hooks

A conversation with Anjan Katta, founder of Daylight Computer

Last week, we launched our 2024 limited print zine called Whoa, Vol. 1!

Our first batch completely sold out (!!), so we've launched a second edition with a mystery-colored cover.

And good news for our international friends – we've set aside a limited batch of copies here. 

Today we bring you excerpts from my conversation with Anjan Katta, founder of Daylight Computer.

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Building new hardware is… well, hard.

Maybe that’s why all the new stuff feels like the old stuff.

Bigger, faster, but basically the same.

All of which makes The Daylight Computer so impressive. Half-tablet, half-computer, the Daylight can be used indoors and out. You can write on it like a piece of paper (like, actually—I’ve tried it). 

In short, it is a computer that brings to mind David Graeber’s quote of “The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.”

Most tech founders want to talk specs and features. Anjan Katta wanted to talk about forgiveness and faith. Most devices want to hook you with dopamine hits and notification pings. The Daylight wants to create space for integration and reflection.

Our conversation ran the gamut from childhood trauma and the desperate need for validation with the messy, human future of technology. Some highlights below.

On tech addiction

We're all addicts.

What the hell do we do as a society?

And it's not like you can go cold turkey. These things are how you communicate and do your work. That's what makes it so tricky—an alcoholic gets rid of alcohol from the house. Doesn't get anywhere close to it. Doesn’t take that first sip. And with tech, it's like, ‘Hey, we're going to wean you off alcohol. But, you know, use alcohol in your ravioli tonight and then, you know, use some alcohol tomorrow in wiping that countertop.’

It gets so much harder if you're literally smelling it all the time. It's right there.

On growing Daylight

It's a fascinating dual world. One half is the way you grow the tribe, recruit people, get investors on board, customers, folks, etc. by speaking to the world you want to build and sharing what you’re trying to do. We're not a technology company. We're not a blank company. I think it's just a core set of principles and beliefs that the objects around us and the relationships we have to them should be refactored. 

Then there’s the actual day-to-day of being absolutely in the weeds of the supply chain, making sure the connectors are properly lining up, the reality of fundraising, of running each part of the business, the deep software and firmware and the application layer and the cloud and coordinating the team and then product design and there's so many little tasks and details and people things. 

The challenge is living in these two worlds without being schizophrenic.

On why the future of tech is magicians

If you are very, very bullish about technology, everything in the future will be about choices and values. Soon the bottleneck won’t be tech, it will be feeling and philosophy.

The future archetype of a technologist will be a magician.

And that's a crazy change for the world, right? Thomas Edison was 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. It’s gonna be maybe like 70% inspiration, 30% perspiration. That’s a totally different cadre of people.

On doing the inner work

I've separated hope from the need for things to change. When hope meant an expectation of wanting things to change, then it really hurt. But more and more the hope is like a faith.

On forgiving his parents

I finally created a space for the sadness and heartbreak underneath, and I fully allowed myself to let in how sad it is that people who love you may not sometimes have the skill for you to feel that fully, even if from their point of view, they're trying, they're intending well.

Because what more do we have besides our intentions?

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“This convo alone is worth the $50 price tag.”
—the biased but not one to hyperbolize Sari Azout

To read, listen to, and watch the full thing (along with eight other conversations with creatives and builders that’ll make you go whoa) get your copy today.