Remembering Steven Schrembeck: nothing happens unless you make it happen

Steven Schrembeck was a Principal Engineer at Cox Automotive, a writer, a podcaster, a maker of audio fiction, and one of the most generous people I have ever worked with. He passed away in September 2026.

He helped a lot of us figure things out. He was generous with his time, honest about what he didn't know, and quick to point other people toward the spotlight. These are my memories of him and the things he said to me, kept here in public so they stay with us, and so that anyone who searches for his name finds who he was.

Steven's work

Steven thought differently and more deeply than anyone I know. If you only read one thing here, read him.

• A Different Compass: his blog of writings on first hand reality exploration. Start anywhere. (RSS)
• Reality 101: his podcast, a journal of impossible experiences and his personal investigation into the nature of reality. (Listen in any app)
• Collected: his immersive sci fi and fantasy audio fiction, with music, sound design, and a cast of voice actors, including the series Mortal Steel. (Listen in any app)
• Alien Spirit with Sev: Steven Schrembeck: a long interview where he talks about AI, consciousness, contemplative practice, and his own experiences.

2021

August. I asked Steven a random question about machine learning. Within the hour he'd sent me his own deep learning repos, told me which doors not to knock on, and offered to introduce me to the team that could actually put a model in front of users. We barely knew each other yet. That was just how he was.

His first reply when I asked for help:

okay, i can help

September. Before my first demo to the vision team:

msg me anytime if i can help test or be a practice audience. want to see you succeed!

2022

September. I invited him to my daughter's birthday party because I needed more dad friends. He said he'd ask his four year old if he wanted to come. The answer was yes, and a few hours later he asked if his eight year old could come too.

2023

March. On whether to rebuild another team's design system:

dont be heroes. if their thing is legit, just skin / extend it

April. On getting out of a meeting gracefully:

Telling people you trust them completely is the best way to get out of something but make them feel good

2024

January. I'd been stuck on a GitHub Actions problem for weeks and told him it was making me feel stupid. At 9pm he sent me a wall of messages about imposter syndrome and how he'd freed himself from it. Then he admitted he had no idea how to fix my problem either. He'd just said he'd figure it out.

From that same night:

Don't be impressed by knowledge. Anyone can acquire that. Take your ability to learn new things very seriously though

Paradoxically I feel more capable the less I'm concerned about looking smart.

April. On what the office is for:

it's for relationships and really long meetings

2025

January. When I told him I got a new job:

i'm so proud of you man. nothing happens unless you make it happen. ...sometimes after way too long

2026

June. I showed him my generative UI experiment. He told me exactly which parts were good design and which parts were a waste of time, and then told me to share it. Nobody else pushed me to put it in front of people.

Reviewing that prototype:

charting sucks man. just wrap rechart or w/e. allow swapping the engine

July. Posted in our applied AI community channel:

I still believe the best AI features are not obviously AI features. Simply do a better job of presenting what they already want.

swapping UI for a chat interface isn't where i see much opportunity. far better to swap UI for nothing

July. He was the first person to join my applied AI channel. Then he cunningly dropped a mention of my generative UI demo, and a day later I had an office hours slot to show it to a lot of people. That demo led to pretty much everything I've done since. When I told him what he'd started, he said:

all i did was point them at what you'd already done ;)

On AI productivity gains:

we're just running in circles faster

August. Our last real conversation. He'd been heads down for months and asked what in AI was worth paying attention to, adding "i think you know me well enough to understand what I think qualifies." I did. I was looking forward to showing him what came next.

What he left

Steven never needed the credit. He pointed at other people's work until they believed in it themselves. A lot of what I've built in the last year exists because he did that for me.

His writing and his podcasts are still out there. Go read A Different Compass. Go listen to Reality 101. He'd want you to make up your own mind.

Nothing happens unless you make it happen.

Jeff Cameron