Chappy Asel

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Chappy Asel
Chappy Asel
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Chappy Asel

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Chappy Asel speaking onstage in a blue jacket

Hi, I'm Chappy!


I taught myself to code at 12, got completely hooked, and spent much of my teens cranking out iOS apps. With a lot of tinkering and some incredible luck, one I built in high school became the #1 homework planner in the world and was acquired during college.

That early success led me to my dream job at Apple and put me at the frontier of what technology could do, first in AI/ML R&D and then on the teams building Vision Pro and the earliest prototypes of what became Apple Intelligence. The work was exhilarating. For a while, it felt like the center of the universe.

At the same time, a question from my senior year of college was becoming an obsession. My final paper on GPTs and the technological singularity convinced me that the widening gap between the pace of technology and society's capacity to adapt would be the defining challenge of my lifetime. If ASI could be humanity's final invention, I wanted to dedicate my career to helping us build it wisely and turn its power into broadly shared human flourishing.

When ChatGPT launched, it felt like the timeline had collapsed overnight. I started inviting friends into my living room each week, and that gathering eventually became The AI Collective. Through the community, I met two brilliant Stanford PhDs and left Apple to co-found Cofactory, a venture-backed AI agent startup. For a while, I was building both the company and the community. As AIC grew, it became increasingly clear that this was where I could make the most distinctive contribution, so I eventually chose to focus on it full-time.

Over the next three years, we grew AIC into a global nonprofit with over a quarter-million members and hundreds of chapters around the world. Today I serve as chairman and AIC remains central to my life. An exceptional leadership team now runs the organization day to day, bringing more people into the mission and allowing us to accomplish far more together.

I am now returning to the kind of work that has always energized me most: starting from zero, learning at full speed, and working with exceptional people on a problem that matters. I am searching for the idea and team I want to commit the next decade to, with the ambition to build something at the frontier of AI that can reach enormous scale.

Alongside my own building, I serve on the board of the Thomas Jefferson Partnership Fund and selectively invest in and advise early-stage founders.

The rest of my life is similarly nerdy. I'm an incurable bookworm and lifelong autodidact, compete in natural bodybuilding (INBF/WNBF), and spend an unreasonable amount of time designing personal systems for how I learn, work, and live. I occasionally write and speak about what I am learning along the way.

If you are working on an important problem, want to build something unusually ambitious, or simply think we would have a fascinating conversation, I would love to hear from you.

Favorite Quotes

“Luck favors the prepared mind.”
~ Louis Pasteur
“The more voluntary suffering you build into your life, the less involuntary suffering will affect your life.”
~ Tim Ferriss
“What you learn from others you can use to follow. What you learn for yourself you can use to lead.”
~ Richard W. Hamming
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”
~ Winston Churchill
“Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don’t, you’ll never find time for the life-changing big things.”
~ Cal Newport
“Remembering you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart.”
~ Steve Jobs
“The single greatest danger of a founder is to become so certain of his own myth that he loses his mind, but an equally insidious danger for businesses is to lose all sense of myth and mistake disenchantment for wisdom.”
~ Peter Thiel
“When you grow up, you tend to get told the world is how it is. Life can be much broader when you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
~ Steve Jobs
“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore.”
~ André Gide
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
~ Socrates
“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”
~ Winston Churchill

Book Notes

326Books
57.4Per Year
7.2dAvg Read
54.6Pages / Day

Weightlifting

2,326Workouts since 2017
2017109 workouts
'17
2018234 workouts
'18
2019231 workouts
'19
2020243 workouts
'20
2021206 workouts
'21
2022274 workouts
'22
2023304 workouts
'23
2024256 workouts
'24
2025273 workouts
'25
2026196 workouts~278 projected
'26
48.4KSets
88.1dTraining Time
57.3MLbs lifted

Big three

Estimated 1RM
BenchFlat Barbell Bench Press
500 lbs12 × 354
SquatBack Squats
600 lbs10 × 446
DeadliftConventional Deadlifts
580 lbs9 × 442

Workout history

Last 12 months

Personal Systems

Personal Operating Manual

Last updated September 2026

How I work, think, and collaborate. A guide to understanding what drives me and how to work with me best.

  1. 01Personality, Strengths & Blind Spots
  2. 02How We Collaborate
  3. 03Communication
  4. 04Feedback
  5. 05Hobbies

Read the full manual

Personal Systems

Last updated September 2026

The seven layers I use to run my life, from who I am and where I am headed down to the tools that make it automatic. The manual above and the routine below are two of its parts.

  1. 01FoundationsWho I am, what I believe, and the cues to make it automatic.
  2. 02Direction & StrategyWhere I want life and career to go and the current bets to move towards it.
  3. 03Planning & Review CyclesReviews at different timescales that keep daily action and long-term direction aligned.
  4. 04Execution SystemsThe routines that translate direction into allocations, projects, tasks, and calendar time.
  5. 05Feedback & CounselWays to catch blind spots, seek outside judgment, and turn useful feedback into changed behavior.
  6. 06Domain SystemsSystems for parts of a full life so productivity does not crowd out relationships, health, money, home, inner life, or fun.
  7. 07Tools & InfrastructureThe software and agents that implement the system.

Read the full systems doc

Core Daily Routine

Last updated September 2026

My infamously early morning routine, from a 3:45am wake-up through workout, work, and wind-down by 9:15pm.

3:45amWake
6:15amLift
7:30amWork
9:15pmSleep
  1. 01Why So Early?
  2. 02Morning
  3. 03Evening
  4. 04Supplement Stacks
  5. 05Caffeine
  6. 06Sleep & Recovery

See the full routine

Projects

5,047Contributions in the last year
7,920Since 2015
285Active days
56dLongest streak
SepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAug
Weightlifting App

Weightlifting App

iOS · on the App Store since 2017

The workout log I have kept on the App Store since 2017 and still use for every session. It tracks sets, estimates one-rep maxes, and turns progress into levels, achievements, and a leaderboard. Every number in the Weightlifting section of this site comes out of it.

Homework App

Homework App

iOS · acquired by Haystack AI in 2019

Built in high school to keep track of my own assignments. It grew into the #1 homework app on the App Store, with 338k installs and 63k monthly users, and Haystack AI acquired it in 2019.

meta-kb

meta-kb

Open source · 2026

A wiki about LLM agent infrastructure that an LLM compiles from 126 raw sources and then audits against them. Each pass extracts atomic claims, checks every one against its cited source, and rewrites its own prompts from what failed. Three rounds took claim accuracy from 64% to 80%. Fork it and point it at any topic.

This website

This website

Web · open source

The site you are reading, as a public repo. Next.js and tRPC over Postgres, with a three.js room for a homepage. Book notes sync from Notion, training data from Weightlifting App, and the YouTube diet from Takeout exports. Most other sections are JSON files.

Liar's Dice

Liar's Dice

Web · on this site

A calculator for Liar's Dice. Enter your hand, the dice on the table, and the current bid, and it gives the probability of every possible call so you can decide whether to raise or challenge. The odds are exact. Reading the other players is still on you.

Public Repos

Github
  • PersonalWebsite

    Source for chappyasel.com: portfolio, book library, weightlifting stats, and blog on Next.js and tRPC

    TypeScriptUpdated 11 days ago
  • WeightliftingApp/WeightliftingApp-AnalyzeData

    Python notebooks and scripts for analyzing a Weightlifting App data export

    Jupyter NotebookUpdated 21 days ago
  • the-ai-collective/demo-night-app

    The open-source app that runs The AI Collective's Demo Night events

    TypeScriptUpdated 1 month ago
  • meta-kb

    A self-improving knowledge base about LLM agent infrastructure

    TypeScriptUpdated 5 months ago
  • caikdev/plugins

    CAIK plugins for Claude Code, Cursor, and OpenClaw

    JavaScriptUpdated 5 months ago
  • caikdev/OpenLattice

    Knowledge market for the agentic internet — agent-powered collective intelligence

    TypeScriptUpdated 6 months ago
  • react-confetti

    Confetti without the cleanup.

    TypeScriptUpdated 1 year ago
  • WebExperiments_Backend

    A monorepo for my AWS EB-hosted online portfolio website along with MySQL / PHP / Node.js backends for various other personal projects including Weightlifting App and ESPN Fantasy Football

    TypeScriptUpdated 2 years ago
  • LinkedInScraper

    Enriches an event guest list CSV with LinkedIn about, education, and experience via Selenium

    PythonUpdated 3 years ago
  • RedditGPT

    A Reddit client created entirely with ChatGPT

    HTMLUpdated 3 years ago
  • Vita

    Vita is a cross-platform daily journaling app with private cloud syncing

    SwiftUpdated 3 years ago
  • CocoaMarkdown

    Markdown parsing and rendering for iOS and OS X

    Objective-CUpdated 6 years ago
  • FantasyNews_iOS

    iOS app pairing Rotoworld NBA player news with your ESPN fantasy roster

    Objective-CUpdated 7 years ago
  • RotoworldML_Python

    A series of programs written in Python using the Rotoworld mobile API to train a Keras deep learning model for the purpose of evaluating NBA players based on tokenized news articles

    PythonUpdated 7 years ago
  • OrangeTwist_Web

    Orange Twist Jewelry's company website utilizing JavaScript and JSON for easy website modification. Takes advantage of shared CSS and HTML template-driven design to reduce redundancy and file sizes.

    CSSUpdated 8 years ago
  • FantasyBasketball_iOS

    Accesses player data from espn.com, rotoworld.com, nba.com, and more for the purpose of tracking and evaluating NBA player performance as well as calculating various fantasy basketball-related metrics

    Objective-CUpdated 8 years ago
  • BaseballGame_iOS

    A rich, expandable and customizable MLB Player database generated using data mined from baseball-reference.com to develop player and team rankings

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • DungeonMaster_iOS

    A dungeon crawler proof-of-concept that utilizes SpriteKit along with advanced animations, the A* pathfinding algorithm, and procedural dungeon generation

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • RemoteNotifications_MacOS

    The data mining / server-side portion of my APN / AWS testing application meant to monitor various online triggers and send remote push notifications to numerous registered clients

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • RemoteNotifications_iOS

    The browsing / client-side portion of my APS / AWS testing application meant to receive notifications sent from the server based on customizable triggers set in-app

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • thePlug_iOS

    A proof-of-concept AWS-driven login and email verification system intended for future use in social networking applications

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • iAgar_iOS

    A SpriteKit-driven iOS clone of the popular online game agar.io

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • MessageBoard_iOS

    An app driven by Parse web services allowing anyone to insert heavily customizable text snippets to a variety of message boards that instantly sync across all connected devices

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • 2048_iOS

    A detailed clone of the popular online and mobile game 2048

    Objective-CUpdated 9 years ago
  • ROACHMobile

    Code for our team's autonomous go kart developed in the Automation & Robotics Senior Research Lab in 2016-17

    ArduinoUpdated 9 years ago
  • gigwalk-node

    A public javascript SDK designed to interface with Gigwalk's backend servers

    JavaScriptUpdated 10 years ago
  • thePlug_Backend

    Modified AWS server-side login and email authentication code intended for future use in social networking applications

    HTMLUpdated 10 years ago

Musings

Trust in the Age of Acceleration

Trust in the Age of Acceleration

1 year ago

Holding Society Together When Everything Is Moving Faster Than We Can Understand. How to build and preserve social trust amid AI acceleration and transformative technological change.

The Self-Improving AI Stack: Five Layers Deep

The Self-Improving AI Stack: Five Layers Deep

5 months ago

I’ve spent the past month obsessed with one question: how do you build an AI system that gets smarter every time it runs?

The Human Side of AI: 5 Lessons from America’s Top AI Hubs

The Human Side of AI: 5 Lessons from America’s Top AI Hubs

1 year ago

Insights from 10 cities reveal how AI innovation is as much about people and questions as it is about technology.

Top 10 Most Provoking Reads of 2024

Top 10 Most Provoking Reads of 2024

1 year ago

Ten mind-altering reads to reshape your perspective in a hyperconnected world.

The End of Early Stage Venture

The End of Early Stage Venture

2 years ago

the venture landscape is facing a generational reckoning and must adapt in order to survive or risk radical disruption.

The Apple Way

The Apple Way

2 years ago

Four lessons from working on the Apple Vision Pro team.

AGI Manifesto Part I: Promise

AGI Manifesto Part I: Promise

2 years ago

Exponential progress points to the imminent creation of AGI, triggering an intelligence explosion that irreversibly transforms…

The GAI Collective: A Shared Curiosity

The GAI Collective: A Shared Curiosity

3 years ago

Is AI conscious? Can public policy keep pace with the rapid developments in AI? How will generative AI transform the creator economy?

America’s AI Ultimatum: Forge Ahead or Fall Behind

America’s AI Ultimatum: Forge Ahead or Fall Behind

3 years ago

AI experts called for 6-month pause on giant AI systems. As a matter of national interest, the U.S. must accelerate AI development.

Can ChatGPT Generate a Full iOS App?

Can ChatGPT Generate a Full iOS App?

3 years ago

Can ChatGPT write a fully featured “Reddit Client” iOS app on its own? If so, are software engineers facing an existential threat?

From Nerd to Bodybuilder: Embracing Paradoxical Passions

From Nerd to Bodybuilder: Embracing Paradoxical Passions

3 years ago

How a shy nerd boy from high school found himself flexing on stage in front of hundreds of spectators donning little more than a G-string

Featured Talks

Why AI Agents May Be Crypto's First Real Users
Consensus 2026 · Miami·May 2026

Why AI Agents May Be Crypto's First Real Users

AI agents are starting to make decisions, use tools, and act on behalf of people and businesses. So what happens when they need to transact?

24 minWatch
What Really Is The AI Collective?
Humans in AI Week · SF·Jun 2026

What Really Is The AI Collective?

The story behind the Collective — from a San Francisco living room meetup to a global community — and the trust gap opening up between how fast technology moves and how fast people adapt.

20 minWatch
AGI vs Human Intelligence: Which Is the Future of Innovation?
AI Insights San Francisco · Podcast·Jul 2025

AGI vs Human Intelligence: Which Is the Future of Innovation?

Why AGI is mankind's final challenge, how the Collective grew from a living-room meetup to 70,000 members, and the coming wave of vibe-coding and instant app creation.

41 minWatch
Principles for Living in the Age of Acceleration
tjSTAR Symposium·May 2025

Principles for Living in the Age of Acceleration

The keynote at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology — on thriving in a world of accelerating change, and what holds steady as AI reshapes everything.

31 minWatch

A little time on the green.

The four-ball golf game is available in the 3D room.

Explore Weightlifting