Codes we live by: Alex Klein at TEDxTeen

Alex is a dilettante. He likes writing, designing and Neolithic cave painting. He couldn't cut it as an economist or Newsweek journalist—so now he makes computers. Alex is the co-founder of Kano, where he helped create the first computer kit that anyone can make—simple as Legos, teaches code, gives you superpowers. Kano raised $1.5 million in 30 days on Kickstarter, making it the most successful learning product ever to be funded by the crowd. Backers from over 40 countries brought Kano to life, and the open- source computer kit has since been built and reimagined by young people around the world, from Seattle to Sierra Leone. Alex is Kano's Chief Product Officer and storyteller.

Alex's writing on society, technology, cults and communists has appeared in Newsweek, New York Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The Times of London, BuzzFeed, and inside the backpacks of girls he liked back in middle- school. He loves words that play and images that stay, in the mind and over time. He also did graphic design for the Lincoln Center, and been kicked off several improv stages in and around it.

Other than backing up Q-Tip and the GZA at this wonderful conference, Alex is most proud of his fifty viewings of the original Matrix at age 12. Take the red pill. Wu Tang is forever.