Shawn is a research and development practice. We study technologies that are shifting from experiments to infrastructure. The shift from experimental to exponential is accelerating. We study the gap and share what we find, to help others stay on the frontier.

What services does Shawn offer?

Shawn offers research and education through targeted investigations, written briefs, and working sessions; and agents and automation services including design, build, deployment, and operation of agent and automation systems. Paid work is accepted by referral for a small number of clients each year. Research is published publicly on Substack, GitHub, and LinkedIn.

How can I work with Shawn?

Write to hello@shawndata.com describing the workflow or question you want changed. Shawn works with a small number of clients per year on applied research and development in AI, agents, and automation. Public research is available at no cost on Substack.

Early and weird is our whole thing.

The time between fringe and mainstream is accelerating for everything, everywhere, all at once. We study those moves and share what we learn, to help others stay on the frontier.

On our radar

What's actually happening with the U.S. Dollar and CBDC — A client asked about the countdown to the US CBDC. We did a deep dive and published our findings. Spoiler: reports of the New World Order have been greatly exaggerated.
GEO Optimizer — If your site isn't visible to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude yet, start here. Open source toolkit that audits and optimizes websites for AI search. Plugs directly into Claude Code as an MCP server and fails CI/CD builds on low scores.
Claudesidian — We were building our own Claude Code second brain when this article led us to Noah Brier's work. He'd already done it. We nuked our repo and forked his excellent one.

About

Shawn is an R&D practice. We study and build on technologies that are rapidly moving from experiments to infrastructure.

This transformation is accelerating for every type of technology. We investigate the changes, run tests, and write about what we learn.

Our work is led by a senior practitioner with 20 years of experience in emerging technologies, product development, and global operations. We work with fewer than five clients per year on applied research and development projects.

Public content

Substack. Research notes and analysis for individuals and organizations working to stay on the frontier.

GitHub. Code from our research: tools, agent scaffolding, and applied experiments.

LinkedIn. Hot takes and short shots on what all this weird means now and for the future.

Paid services

Research and Education. Targeted investigations into specific technologies, vendors, and patterns. Written briefs, live working sessions, and direct guidance grounded on tested findings rather than market commentary.

Agents and Automation. Building, deploying, and operating agent and automation systems against the workflows our clients want changed.

If you have a specific problem in research, education, agents, or automation, tell us what you are trying to change.

hello@shawndata.com