Kenneth Reitz
Creator of Requests, Certifi, Pipenv, Records, Maya & more.
I made Requests, the Python HTTP library downloaded 30 million times a day. I built kjvstudy.org, a free digital study Bible, with AI in two months. I write about what happens when technology meets consciousness, and what we owe each other when we build things people think through.
I live openly with schizoaffective disorder. I'm a husband, a father, and a person of faith. Tech used to be my identity. Now it's craft, not lifestyle.
Recent Writing (see archive)
The Maintainer Is the Interface
In open source, the first real interface isn't the API. It's the person who responds to your pull request.
The Interface Is the Subconscious
Every interface shapes cognition before conscious awareness engages. Visual, linguistic, neural.
Building a Digital Study Bible with AI
1,305 commits in two months. One person, one AI, one free Bible study application.
Open Source Gave Me Everything Until I Had Nothing Left to Give
The same intensity that produced Requests produced the conditions for the worst experiences of my life.
Designing for the Worst Day
If it works for the person whose hands are shaking and whose thoughts won't line up, it works for everyone.
The Lego Bricks Era
The golden era of open source ended because the people who created it grew up. I'm one of them.
Explore by Theme
For Humans Philosophy
Technology should serve human mental models, not force humans to adapt to machine logic.
Algorithmic Critique
How engagement optimization consumes virtue, language, love, democracy, reality, and time.
Mental Health & Technology
Living openly with schizoaffective disorder in the age of algorithms.
Consciousness & AI
What happens when you treat AI as a creative partner rather than a tool.
Open Source & Community
Fifteen years of building, burning out, and finding other ground.
Spiritual Practice & Technology
Programming as contemplation. Code downstream of prayer.
Beyond the Essays
Software & Tools
Requests, Pipenv, Records, Maya, Certifi, and more.
Poetry
Sanskrit Musings, Flowetry, and standalone pieces. Where code meets prayer.
Artificial Intelligence
296 files of exploration into what happens when you take AI seriously as a creative partner.
Music
Electronic compositions as Infinite State.
Photography
A decade of street and travel work, mostly Leica, mostly black and white.
The values got simpler because the life got clearer.