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Beat Hagenlocher

Software Architect @active group

Project Lead @AI Safety Tübingen

About Me

I want to do good better, and be less wrong.

Looking to apply my skills in software engineering, teaching, design and ops to work on the world's most pressing problems.

Interested in AI Safety, Education, Macroeconomics, Mathematics, Local-first Software, Systems Thinking, Category Theory, Learning and Programming Languages.

Currently growing my digital garden, playing around with my Doom Emacs config, building humane.tools, and thinking about where to go next.

When I'm not at the computer/learning/reading, you can find me on walks with friends, doing sports, or organizing my favourite youth camps during the summer.

Skills & Abilities

    Software Engineering
    Frontend: TypeScript · SolidJS · TailwindCSS · UnoCSS · Phoenix LiveView · ClojureScript
    Backend: Clojure · Elixir · Haskell · SQL · PostgreSQL
    Also: Racket · C · Rust · Nix · NixOS · Docker · Git
    Software Architecture
    Functional Programming
    Local-first Software
    Design Thinking & User Experience
    Customer Development Interviews and Design Thinking at rootlinks, zelium, and humane.tools.
    Customer Development
    Web Design
    Design Thinking
    Systems Practice
    The Mom Test
    The Heart of Innovation
    Growth
    Analytics (event tracking, funnels, user paths) to understand my readers' needs on my digital garden and to drive a website redesign at active group GmbH.
    PostHog
    Plausible
    Writing & Teaching
    In my digital garden, for work, and in Schülerakademie courses.
    Style: Towards Clarity and Grace
    Practical Typography

Experience

    Feb 2026–Now

    AI Safety Fellowship | AI Safety Tübingen

    A 3-month fellowship for 20 fellows with stipends and housing.
    Project Lead
    Making decisions under uncertainty: finding mentors, organizing housing, estimating a budget, gathering support from stakeholders like the ELLIS Institute/the Max Planck Institute, writing the grant application for Coefficient Giving.
    Operations
    Jan 2026–Now

    humane.tools

    Tools, made for Humans—a todo app and a Spaced Repetition System.
    Founder
    Built the todo app from scratch, iterating through learnings from Customer Development Interviews.
    Software Architecture
    TypeScript
    Nix
    SolidJS
    TailwindCSS
    Local-first Software
    Design
    May 2024–Now

    active group GmbH

    Software Architect
    Writing software for German industrial clients: a Clojure monitoring platform for a factory, and a user-facing map application with a SolidJS/TypeScript frontend and a Clojure backend.
    Software Architecture
    TypeScript
    Clojure
    ClojureScript
    Docker
    Nix
    SolidJS
    UnoCSS
    TailwindCSS
    Emacs
    nvim
    Summer 2025 | 17 Days

    Deutsche Schülerakademie

    A 17-day summer program for high-achieving students ages 16 to 19.
    Course Instructor
    Designed and taught a 50-hour university-level course about empirical methods and science.
    Science
    Teaching
    Sep 2023–May 2024

    zelium.io

    A platform for simpler collaboration.
    Startup Dude
    • Applied Systems Practice to the problem of digital collaboration
    • Built prototypes
    • Conducted Customer Development Interviews
    • Set up a tech stack ensuring velocity
    • Built an MVP
    Systems Practice
    Design Thinking
    Elixir
    Phoenix LiveView
    Tailwind CSS
    CodeMirror
    Nix
    Feb 2021–Mar 2023
    Developed courses and the accompanying course website; introduced a knowledge base system.
    Racket
    Pollen
    Sociocracy
    Teaching
    Summer 2022 | 17 Days

    Deutsche Schülerakademie

    A 17-day summer program for high-achieving students ages 16 to 19.
    Course Instructor
    Designed and taught a 50-hour university-level course called How People Learn.
    Learning
    Teaching
    June 2021–Mar 2022

    rootlinks

    A program teaching students the skills to become sustainability changemakers by solving real-world challenges.
    Working Member
    Co-created the Learning Journey of two semesters, coached a challenge team, and recruited the 3rd batch.
    Sociocracy
    Design Thinking
    Systems Thinking
    Teaching
    Coaching
    Recruiting
    Mar–May 2020
    Implemented a web server for a machine learning project in Haskell. Developed parts of a project frontend in ClojureScript.
    Haskell
    Clojure
    Machine Learning
    Emacs
    magit
    Dec 2019–Mar 2020
    Developed AI Agents for Blobby Volley VR. Represented TNG at the TNG booth at OOP 2020.
    C#
    Python
    Unity
    Reinforcement Learning
    Tensorflow

Projects

    Mastering 42
    A Mastery Guide for the Common Core projects at 42 School, filling gaps in the curriculum.
    Writing
    Racket
    Pollen
    Tailwind CSS
    The final project of the Common Core at 42: A web app for playing Pong (with chatting, accounts)—still has some rough edges.
    Elixir
    Phoenix LiveView
    PostgreSQL
    Tailwind CSS

Education

    Mar 2022–Sep 2023
    Completed 24 projects that included writing, amongst other things:
    • Libc functions
    • A shell
    • A ray tracer
    • An IRC server
    • A full-blown web app
    C
    C++
    Docker
    Elixir
    Racket
    Sep 2020–Feb 2022

    BSc Physics | ETH Zürich

    Up to the 3rd semester.

    Participation in the rootlinks program.

    C++
    Python
    2010–2018

    Final grade: 1.0

    Received a prize for the best Abitur in Chemistry.