Independent Research & Ventures · Alberta
Justin Bumstead builds and documents practical projects at the edge of AI, infrastructure, and civic life—what changed, what worked, and what deserves the next inch of effort.
01 / RESEARCH NOTES
Why do we do the things that we do?
60 new topics added to the site
The future is coming and its coming fast
This is a place to keep the chaos under control. I hope...
02 / OPERATING PORTFOLIO
Each public record states the project’s focus, current thesis, stage, and latest evidence. Incomplete records remain private.
Critical minerals intelligence
A living intelligence layer for understanding which Canadian critical-mineral projects matter, what blocks them, and what changed.
The energy transition does not have an information shortage. It has a decision-quality shortage.
Taming the frontier of science
Tracing the boundary where established science thins into open frontier, and frontier thins into speculation. The work is to map that boundary precisely — to know which pieces of an imagined technology are already real, which are credibly extrapolated, and which are genuine handwaving.
We're going to see thousands of futuristic tech problems become our new reality. This project aims to track them and see how that frontier moves forward.
The useful unit of AI is not the model. It is the repeatable system around it.
Public-interest software
A small experiment in turning public plans, promises, and spending into a legible stream of delivery evidence.
Policy becomes more useful when citizens can see where it meets execution.
A guide to the question to find the Lost Cities of the Amazon
Part travel site, party historical log. A way to explore the beauty of the Amazon and the legends of the Lost City of Z
We call change the travel industry by telling better stories about the edges of civilization
Tracking the paths of players in the NHL
A comprehensive build that assesses player talent development in the NHL
Understanding how talent develops matters. AI can scan through tens of thousands of records and find the patterns that traditional scouts could miss.
APPROACH
“The future arrives as a series of small, testable decisions.”
I build in public to make those decisions legible: what I believe, what the evidence says, what changed, and what deserves another inch of effort.
Frame a consequential question
Build the smallest useful lens
Test it against reality
Publish what changed
FIELD GUIDE / LIVING COVERAGE
A dated, opinionated record of the AI tools that have been tested, the jobs they handle well, and where they fit into real projects.
Open the AI field guide ↗