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Meet
CJ Arlow

Fiction for the age of algorithms.

I've spent 25 years designing systems meant to empower people. Now I write about what happens when we forget that was the point.

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The Story.

For most of my career, the intersection of human development and technology felt like pure possibility. Lately, there's been a growing concern.

As a learning technologist, I've designed systems meant to empower people. Learning experiences built around connection and discovery, ecosystems where curiosity drives engagement, where exploration matters as much as efficiency.

The work remains rewarding. What troubles me is the world surrounding it.
Somewhere along the way, the balance shifted. Measured outcomes became the only outcomes. Discovery got reframed as wandering. Curiosity as inefficiency. Progress, we're told, requires optimization.

But what do we lose along the way?

THE ALGO emerged from that question. Not as a rejection of technology, but as an exploration of what happens when prediction becomes prescription, when we measure everything and wonder about nothing, when efficiency becomes the only value we defend.

History taught me that societal shifts happen gradually, then suddenly. Technology compressed the timeline. Now the question isn't whether algorithmic systems will reshape human agency, but whether we'll insist on preserving space for the unmeasurable parts of being human.

THE ALGO is speculative fiction. But the tension it explores is present tense.

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Picture taken at Meow Wolf Denver

Background

I hold a MicroMaster's in Instructional Design and Educational Technology from the University of Maryland and a degree in History. I'm certified in analytics and behavior design.

Technology fluency grounded in historical perspective. That combination shapes how I approach the futures we're building. I've spent over two decades helping Fortune 500 organizations develop their people. I know how to build systems that work.

THE ALGO explores what we lose when "working" becomes the only thing we measure.

Beyond the Work

I live in Colorado with my wife and children. They remind me daily that the best parts of being human resist quantification. Not because measurement is wrong, but because some things matter precisely because they can't be optimized.

THE ALGO is my first novel. It won't be my last.

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Picture taken on Monarch Pass

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Join the Journey

This is just the beginning. Book One launches later in 2026, with two more to follow.

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Subscribe for thoughts, book updates, and extras you won't find anywhere else. Or if you're ready to dive in early, request an advance copy and help the book find its readers.

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