Jason Yuan: For the Plot

October 29, 2026 · 46 min

Show notes

How can being a playwright prepare one for designing social intelligence?

Jason Yuan is the CEO and founder of Hivemind. A former Apple designer, he pioneered MercuryOS, an early vision of intent-based computing, then cofounded Dot, a personal AI companion with long-term narrative memory. He now sets off to build a second AI startup inspired by the Madonna song “Future Lovers.”

In this conversation with Soleio, Jason explains why Hivemind runs on principles instead of rules, why every relationship is a story with shared authorship, and why his product motto is “for the plot.”

Jason makes the case that the best products, like the best stories, are based on truth. A truth that is fundamentally plural.

00:00 Own Your Story, Do It True

00:49 Costumes, Stages, then World-Building

03:03 Hivemind in the Wild

08:42 From MercuryOS to Dot

13:20 Did You Make a Startup to Fix Yourself?

16:47 Every Relationship is a Story

19:35 The Graveyard Before Hivemind

22:25 Can Jason See Gotham?

28:13 Do It for The Plot!

29:13 Designing the Hivemind launch

32:48 The Information Market