About

I'm Machiel Reyneke. I live in the Cape Winelands, South Africa with my wife Michela and our two daughters.

What I do

I lead product at 10X Investments, where we're trying to make investing less confusing and less expensive for South Africans. I spend most of my time figuring out what to build, why, and whether we're actually solving real problems.

Before product management, I was a fire engineer — yes, that's a real job. I investigated fires, modeled smoke spread in buildings, and learned to think in systems. Then I spent nearly a decade in tech startups, shipping apps and leading teams.

What I'm interested in

I like to tinker. Most of my projects start as "I wonder if I could..." and end up as tools I actually use. I'm drawn to Nassim Taleb's work on risk and uncertainty, Adlerian psychology, and Stoicism.

I'm fascinated by AI and what it means for how we work. I built Slate, a todo app, almost entirely through AI-assisted development. It took three weeks at the end of 2025. That would have been months before.

I like to run, but mostly to challenge myself. Same thing for BJJ and other sports I periodically play.

What this site is

A record of things I've done and thought about, and photos that came out nicely. I write for myself first — to clarify my thinking and have something to look back on. Sometimes I write about ideas that made me laugh. If you find something useful here, that's a bonus.

Most of what's here is written with Claude as my thinking partner. It helps me get from ideas to a written piece before I lose interest. And as a side benefit, it's a lot more fun.

I'm not trying to build an audience or sell anything. I'm just putting my work somewhere it can be found.

Nothing here represents my employer or anyone else. If I write about finances, it's personal opinion, not advice — I'm not a financial advisor.

Get in touch

Best way is LinkedIn, where I take your messages more seriously than my posts.