Simon Willison
Founder, Datasette
Simon Willison is the creator of Datasette and a co-creator of the Django web framework. He has been an influential voice in web development through his blog, simonwillison.net, since 2002. Previously, he co-founded Lanyrd, which was acquired by Eventbrite.
Skills
AI Governance & Responsible AI
Governance frameworks, ethical principles, and practical safeguards for building and deploying AI products responsibly. Covers bias detection, prompt injection security, trust architecture, regulatory compliance, and the organizational structures needed for responsible AI. Drawn from practitioners at Humanloop, Equality AI, Deepchecks, and others.
- +11
Agentic Engineering
How teams build software when AI coding agents write the code: directing agents, what code review and validation become when code is nearly free, durable systems with disposable code, orchestrating many agents, keeping them safe inside an organization, and how roles change. Drawn from practitioners at HumanLayer, Sentry, Honeycomb, Google DeepMind, and others.
- +15
Data Team Leadership
Building and scaling data teams that drive business decisions. Covers analytics org structure, north star metrics, experimentation culture, and moving teams from service requests to strategic partnership. Drawn from practitioners at dbt Labs, Amplify Partners, and others.
- +16
Content from the Library
The Last 6 Mos of the Agentic Engineering Revolution
Coding agents got really good in November. Our digital coding interns can rise to real coding challenges provided we give them clear goals, the right tools, and context. But steering them well is its own craft.
High Leverage Ep. #9, The AI Coding Paradigm Shift with Simon Willison
On episode 9 of High Leverage, Joe Ruscio sits down with Simon Willison to unpack the rapid evolution of AI coding tools and what they mean for software development. They explore the shift from vibe coding to agentic engineering, how coding agents are reshaping workflows, and why experience still matters. The conversation dives into trust, security, and what breaks when code becomes cheap.
Data Renegades Ep. #2, Data Journalism Unleashed with Simon Willison
In episode 2 of Data Renegades, CL Kao and Dori Wilson speak with Simon Willison. Together they dive into the origins of Datasette, the evolution of data journalism, and the surprising ways open source tools shape global reporting. Simon also explains how LLM-based agents will redefine data cleaning, enrichment, and analysis. A must-listen for anyone building or scaling data teams.
