# Domi Jin (Dongming Jin)

> Scientist. Builder. Founder.
> A sci-fi mind. An engineer’s hands.

- **Website**: https://domij.info/
- **Current edition**: https://domij.info/next/
- **Archive profile**: https://domij.info/pages/about-me.html
- **Substack (Domi’s Mind Waves)**: https://domijin.substack.com/
- **Medium**: https://medium.com/@domijin
- **GitHub**: https://github.com/domijin
- **LinkedIn**: https://www.linkedin.com/in/domijin
- **Contact**: mailto:contact@domij.info
- **Structured profile and source index**: https://domij.info/agent-context.json
- **Background and reading notes**: https://domij.info/llms-full.txt

## About

I work on machine learning and decision systems. My background is in computational astrophysics; my current interests are learning, human judgement and how people work together.

## Background

### Computational astrophysics
Ph.D. Physics (2013–2018) · LSST Data Science Fellow

I began in computational astrophysics, studying stellar dynamics and binary black holes through numerical simulation and statistical modelling.

- Numerical simulations of globular clusters using N-body and Monte Carlo methods.
- Analysis of binary black hole evolution and gravitational-wave detection prospects for LISA.
- LSST Data Science Fellowship: statistical modelling, image processing and reproducible research workflows.

### Decision systems
Applied ML & Decision Intelligence (2018–2024)

I then worked on machine learning for consumer products, marketplaces and advertising, where a model has to be useful within the constraints of a working system.

- Recommendation systems using behavioural and contextual signals from mobility data.
- Marketplace pricing, generative AI request workflows and information exchange between users.
- Advertising analytics, model evaluation and causal attribution; published architecture notes on real-time bidding and multi-agent control.

### Learning and human–AI collaboration
Independent projects & ventures (2018–present)

Building a company brought me closer to the people using the technology. It made me more attentive to what they need, and to the gap between a promising idea and something useful.

- Kin Domi, Inc.: AI and community projects concerned with older adults’ independence and access to technology.
- Open Learning Lab and baby-AI: open research into learning, and specifications for a household agent that runs on local hardware.
- Essays on learning, team coordination and human–AI collaboration in Domi’s Mind Waves and elsewhere.

## A question I keep returning to

What helps people make better decisions, learn well and work together?

## How I work

- **Working together**: Good work depends on more than individual ability. Shared context, trust, complementary skills and sensible incentives matter, as does room for people to exercise their own judgement.
- **Usefulness**: I judge technology by what it helps people do: understand a problem, make a choice, learn a skill or spend their time better. Technical elegance is valuable when it serves that purpose.
- **Testing the idea**: I try to make assumptions explicit, build something that can be tested and pay attention to the result. Revising an explanation is part of the work.

## Questions I am exploring

These are ongoing questions. The linked work distinguishes observations, proposals and research findings.

- **Collective Intelligence**: How do individual capabilities combine to produce collective outcomes?
- **Human–AI Collaboration**: How can intelligent systems support human judgement and agency?
- **Organisational Intelligence**: How do communication, coordination, trust, and incentives shape collaboration?
- **Complex Adaptive Systems**: How do interactions among individuals give rise to emergent social and organisational behaviour?
- **Decision Intelligence**: How can information, feedback, and experimentation improve decisions?
- **Human Potential**: How can technology make learning, opportunity, and meaningful participation more accessible?
- **AI and Society**: How might increasingly capable intelligence change the ways we work, cooperate, and live?

## Selected projects

Research notes, software and specifications at different stages of development. Design targets are not measured results; consult the linked work for evidence and status.

- **[Open Learning Lab](https://github.com/domijin/open-learning-lab)**: An open research ledger comparing approaches to learning with language models. The focus is on what learners retain and can apply independently, relative to the effort involved.
- **[baby-AI](https://github.com/domijin/baby-AI)**: Five subsystem specifications covering perception, speech recognition, memory, adaptation and evaluation. The design targets local hardware costing under $200, with signed evaluation records.
- **[Life Hack: iMessage AI Router](https://domij.info/beta/)**: An experiment in using iMessage to reach internet-connected agents when normal browsing is limited. It explores how a familiar, asynchronous interface can work with constrained connections.
- **[Kin Domi, Inc.](https://kindomi.net/)**: Work on AI companions, accessible interfaces and community activities in Palo Alto, informed by older adults’ experiences of technology, mobility and learning.
- **[Advertising decision systems](https://github.com/domijin/observations_in_advertising)**: An architecture proposal for an eight-agent control plane alongside a latency-sensitive serving path. Accompanying notes consider advertising economics, experimentation and causal measurement.
- **[LibertyEarth & The Future Project](https://github.com/domijin/LibertyEarth)**: An evolving collection of proposals about social contracts, liquid democracy, local manufacturing and ways of turning ideas into practical experiments.

## Selected writing

### Substack (*Domi's Mind Waves*)
- [Reclaiming Play as a Life Skill](https://domijin.substack.com/p/reclaiming-play-as-a-life-skill) (2025): Gameful mindsets, feedback loops, and voluntary agency in lifelong learning and aging well.
- [Tesla, Seniors Love Your Self-Driving—Now Let’s Make It Safer for Them](https://domijin.substack.com/p/tesla-seniors-love-your-self-drivingnow) (2025): Field research with senior autonomous vehicle users on HCI, voice control, and cognitive load.
- [Overachiever’s Responsibility: Reflection on Leadership, Alignment, and Sustainable Growth](https://domijin.substack.com/p/overachievers-responsibility-reflection) (Feb 2025): Incentives before expectations, the GCD/LCM model of team alignment vs. complementarity, and sustainable execution.
- [A Colorful Year Ahead: Rhythm of Intentional Planning & Execution](https://domijin.substack.com/p/a-colorful-year-ahead) (Jan 2025): Asynchronous collaboration, transparent calendars, and iterative work models.
- [Serendipity: Where It Sparks & Dedication: Where It Is Channeled](https://domijin.substack.com/p/serendipity-where-it-sparks) (Dec 2024): Connecting peaks across astrophysics, ML, and HCI into an interdisciplinary highland.
- [Momentum, Momentum, Momentum!](https://domijin.substack.com/p/momentum-momentum-momentum) & [Starting a New Venture](https://domijin.substack.com/p/starting-a-new-venture) (Dec 2024): Zero-to-one customer discovery, ethics in community research, and building Kin Domi, Inc.
- [Reflections from Coach-Seeking Impulse](https://domijin.substack.com/p/relections-from-coach-seeking-impulse) (Dec 2024): Intellectual honesty, context building, and mutually empowering mentorship.
- [Building the Context for Reading Expectations](https://domijin.substack.com/p/building-the-context-for-reading) & [Hello World!](https://domijin.substack.com/p/hello-world) (Nov 2024): Open-sourcing personal growth practices and synthesizing cross-platform writings.

### Medium (`@domijin`)
- [Trace of AppLovin’s 7x Annual Hypergrowth & Observations in Performance Advertising](https://medium.com/@domijin/trace-of-applovins-7x-annual-hypergrowth-39dcb154f5d0) (Nov 2024): Scaling laws in ad tech, latency tolerance vs. model depth, and the economic limits of surveillance/demand-driven capitalism.
- [Is Dark Mode Doing More Harm Than Good? A Deeper Look at Our Choices](https://medium.com/@domijin/is-dark-mode-doing-more-harm-than-good-a-deeper-look-at-our-choices-a9685daad170) (Nov 2024): First-principles critique of agile short-termism vs. long-term user well-being and structured decision workflows.
- [Rethinking Digital Advertising: From Guesswork to User Engagement](https://domijin.medium.com/rethinking-digital-advertising-from-guesswork-to-user-engagement-6e1916a2aced) & [Moving Beyond Relevance to Demand Profiling and Dynamic Personalization](https://domijin.medium.com/the-future-of-advertising-moving-beyond-relevance-to-demand-profiling-and-dynamic-personalization-5f4ccc03697c) (Oct 2024): Multi-stage intent graphs, profile distillation, and interactive feedback loops.
- [From Traffic Lights to Life’s Direction](https://domijin.medium.com/from-traffic-lights-to-lifes-direction-57176d5d7a06) (Oct 2023): Algorithmic crowdsourcing, Wolfram Summer School (LLM + symbolic computation), and career recalibration.
- [Why Is Some Professional Handwriting Illegible?](https://medium.com/@domijin/why-is-some-professional-handwriting-illegible-d07bd8acb818) (Oct 2023): Information bandwidth (39 bits/sec speech vs. text), HCI bottlenecks, and institutional friction.
- [Observation: The Dilemma and Cultural Difference Behind the eVTOL Field](https://domijin.medium.com/observation-the-dilemma-and-cultural-difference-behind-the-evtol-field-df42e91af109) & [Boeing’s Future at Stake: The Growing Challenge from SpaceX](https://domijin.medium.com/boeings-future-at-stake-the-growing-challenge-from-spacex-177b63b10882) (2023): First-principles analysis of aerospace manufacturing, regulatory dynamics, and service-based business models.

### Canonical Blog & Technical Archive (`domij.info`)
- [All About ChatGPT](https://domij.info/all-about-chatgpt.html) & [Hello World Again](https://domij.info/hello-world-again.html) (Feb 2023): Search unit economics, flat correlation vs. symbolic/causal reasoning, RLHF alignment bottlenecks, and collective knowledge graphs.
- [Free Market in a Possibility Universe](https://domij.info/free-market-in-a-possibility-universe.html) & [Manifesto](https://domij.info/manifesto.html) (2019): Liquid democracy, communication bandwidth, and organizational scaling.
- [WorkFlow and Methodology](https://domij.info/workflow-and-methodology.html) & [Research: Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Holes in Globular Clusters](https://domij.info/pages/research.html) (2018): Open reproducible science, HPC at TACC, and statistical modeling.

## Correspondence

If you are working on a related question, I would be glad to compare notes. Questions, useful references and considered disagreements are welcome.

contact@domij.info