# Nick Arner

> Engineer, researcher, and investor working at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, native Apple-platform software, developer tools, and on-device AI. Based in San Francisco, California. Currently an Engineer in Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures, helping portfolio companies build products and incubate new ones.

## About

Nick Arner's personal website covering HCI, new technologies, software development, and investing. The site includes technical notes and essays, a portfolio of projects and work, a curated reading list, publications, and an angel investment portfolio.

## Sections

- [Notes](https://nickarner.com/notes/): Technical writing and essays on HCI, iOS/Swift development, machine learning, gesture recognition, LLMs, creative coding, and interface design.
- [Projects](https://nickarner.com/projects_and_work/): Portfolio of professional work, personal projects, and open-source contributions spanning iOS apps, AR tools, computer vision, audio synthesis, and robotics.
- [Investing](https://nickarner.com/investing/): Angel investment portfolio including companies in AI, developer tools, computer vision, speech synthesis, and novel interfaces.
- [Books](https://nickarner.com/books/): Curated reading list organized by topic — HCI, architecture, design, AI, creative code, technology history, music, psychology, and more.
- [Publications](https://nickarner.com/publications/): Peer-reviewed work on millimeter wave radar for musical interaction and multi-touch gesture music interaction.

## Selected Notes

- [The Coming of Local LLMs](https://nickarner.com/notes/the-coming-of-local-llms---march-23-2023/)
- [LLM Powered Assistants for Complex Interfaces](https://nickarner.com/notes/llm-powered-assistants-for-complex-interfaces---february-26-2023/)
- [Thoughts on AI Hardware](https://nickarner.com/notes/thoughts-on-ai-hardware-october-4-2023/)
- [Designing for AI Notes](https://nickarner.com/notes/designing-for-ai-notes---december-12-2023/)
- [Some Thoughts on Interfaces](https://nickarner.com/notes/some-thoughts-on-interfaces---october-24th-2021/)
- [A Personal History of Visual Programming Environments](https://nickarner.com/notes/a-personal-history-of-visual-programming-enviornments---november-13-2021/)
- [Not Everything is an OS!](https://nickarner.com/notes/not-everything-is-an-os---june-6-2022/)
- [The Causes of Latency in Computing Systems](https://nickarner.com/notes/the-causes-of-latency-in-computing-systems-and-why-exactly-it-frustrates-us---april-6-2022/)
- [Machine Learning Development on Apple Platforms](https://nickarner.com/notes/machine-learning-development-on-apple-platforms---october-14-2019/)
- [Working with the Opus Audio Codec in Swift](https://nickarner.com/notes/working-with-the-opus-audio-codec-in-swift---august-26-2024/)
- [Building Chroma for Swift](https://nickarner.com/notes/building-chroma-for-swift---september-05-2025/)
- [Project Soli & the Coming Use of Radar in Human-Machine Interfaces](https://nickarner.com/notes/project-soli--the-coming-use-of-radar-in-human-machine-interfaces---april-2020/)
- [Angel Investing Notes](https://nickarner.com/notes/angel-investing-notes---february-7-2023/)
- [Freelancing Tactics](https://nickarner.com/notes/freelancing-tactics---april-4-2024/)
- [Jazz, Gestures, and Open-Source — Why & How I Learned to Code](https://nickarner.com/notes/jazz-gestures-and-open-source---why--how-i-learned-to-code---october-3-2017/)

## Contact

- Email: nicholasarner (at) gmail (dot) com
- [GitHub](https://github.com/narner)
- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nickarner)
- [RSS Feed](https://nickarner.com/index.xml)