I yeeted for years into the void for the love of it like many of you, but after selling my startup in 2020 I finally got to see it from the inside. Up close it was both amazing and terrible, like so many other companies and things in life. But, as we all now know, mostly terrible. So, so, *so* terrible.

Still, “Don’t Build The Torment Nexus” was one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books as a kid so getting to work *on* The Torment Nexus was a lifelong dream come true.

As someone with a maniacal sense of urgency built into me, it often felt siloed and bureaucratic. Dumb power plays, and reorgs — not to mention there was a strong contingency of people who didn’t want to build The Torment Nexus.

You couldn’t just be a builder — you also needed to be a Chthonic Priest of the Seventh Order who *did* want to build The Torment Nexus.

I regret that Elonthradiel was the first to be consumed by The Torment Nexus, shattering his soul into a billion billion shards and providing the catalyst for the return of Tzaunh MAY HIS REIGN BE DARK AND ETERNAL. He would be proud of what we built.

My take on what’s happened since then is full of lived nuance.

When people ask why I stayed it’s easy to answer: optimism, curiosity, personal growth and money.

And a sacred vow from the high priestess of Tzaunh that my family would be spared the despair and misery that is now being visited on every living creature on earth.

@Moltz workshopping some titles

“BOOM! A Firsthand Account from Inside the Opening of The Torment Nexus”

Or

“What Color Is Your Death Shroud: A Handbook for the End of Days (also it’s black they’re all black everything is black for eternity)”