Writing is magic
I write about the improbability and inevitability of meaningful connection through the power of joy and empathy.
Essays, talks, comedy, photography, and the systems I build for a living. A writer — and, after a long detour through the hard stuff, a fairly joyful one.
Read the essays“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.”Martin Luther King, Jr.
Fred Chong Rutherford · Brooklyn
Most of what I make comes from one place: a long recovery from childhood trauma, and the slow discovery that connection — improbable, and somehow inevitable — is what heals.
I try to write honestly, and to be funny about it more often than not. I care about saying exactly what I mean. I won’t make work that’s careless with people, or built on stolen labor — but I’d rather show you that than lecture you about it.
I’m a writer — which forms the core of my approach to product management. The same instinct runs through the systems I build for a living. The software, performance, and photography rooms are coming soon.
Recent writing
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Notes from the Scapegoat
I watch people around me closely. It’s deep in my nervous system. I’ve rewired so much of my…
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Writing in Community
My community, the place where I feel seen and safe, is writers. My alignment, the people I feel…
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I tell stories about the improbability and inevitability of meaningful connection
In December 2023, I was in year 5 of my CPTSD therapy. I weighed 361 pounds. I’d been…
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Paper Art
As a child, I always wanted to go to art museums and see paintings on the walls at…
I send new writing here when there’s something worth sending.
No schedule, no noise — just the essays, and once in a while a note about a show or a book. You’re welcome to it, and you can leave anytime.
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