The Variance

How our inherited tools shape — and limit — what we think is possible. The kitchen knife was not designed around task optimization. It just ended up that way because of the connection to knife design in general. The shape made sense given the constraints of the time — forged metal, a handle you could grip, a blade that could be sharpened on a stone. But the linear knife wasn't originally optimized for cooking. It was optimized for staying alive. When a single blade had to ser

The right structure doesn't suppress high-variance wiring. It gives it somewhere to go. I was recently fortunate enough to have the opportunity to appear on Faster Than Normal with Peter Shankman. Not only is he an amazing host but the interview covered a lot of common ground that can hopefully be beneficial to other Children of Chaos. Not only did our shared neurological wiring have similarities but also the way that we approach focusing it in a productive manner. FULL AUDIO

What a Miscellaneous Billing Classification Reveals About a System That Was Never Built for the People It Claims to Serve By Douglas Katz I did not come to this work as an expert. I came to it as someone whose body stopped cooperating. After years of military service and a lifetime of physical activity, the cumulative damage caught up with me. My shoulder. My grip. Upper extremity impairments that turned something as fundamental as preparing my own food into a daily negotiati

There's something subtle that happens when you pick up a traditional knife that most people never think about. You grip it. That seems obvious, but that grip is doing more work than it should. Even with a proper chef's grip, your hand is still responsible for stabilizing the blade and transferring force. The moment you do that, you've already started to isolate the motion. The hand and forearm take over, and everything upstream — your core, your body — gets disconnected from

Search "best knife for arthritis" and you'll get a list. Usually ten items. Lightweight handles. Softer grip materials. Ergonomic curves. What you won't get is an explanation of why any of them are easier to use. Or whether they actually are. I've been building an adaptive kitchen knife for several years now — as a disabled veteran, as someone who has navigated my own grip limitations in the kitchen, and as a person who went looking for a better tool and couldn't find one. So

What changes when you sit down to cut? You lose your core — and the knife was never designed to work without it. When you're standing, your body stacks naturally. The core stabilizes, the shoulders align, force flows down into the blade. You've never had to think about it. Sitting breaks that chain. Instead of force moving from your center into the cutting surface, you're reaching forward. The elbow drifts out. The shoulder lifts. The wrist starts carrying a load it wasn't bu

https://entrepreneurofimpact.org/2026/douglas-katz I've worn a lot of hats in my life. West Point graduate. Veteran. Entrepreneur. Inventor. But the one that drives me every single day? Problem solver. That's what NULU is. A solution to a problem that millions of people face and almost nobody talks about — the moment when physical limitation robs you of something as fundamental, as joyful, and as deeply human as cooking your own food. The Idea That Became a Mission Three year

We need to start thinking about what can go right with AI and who it can help. Much of the public conversation about artificial intelligence revolves around replacement. The argument tends to fall into one of two camps: either AI will replace human thinking, or it will diminish the value of human work. The framing assumes that the central question is substitution. But from where I sit, that isn't the most interesting aspect of what these tools are doing. The more compelling d

Sometimes in life, roads don’t fork. They intersect. Recently I stepped back onto an Aikido mat after several years away. Within the first few training sessions — most of which ended with me on the floor, where I seemed to be spending more time than I remembered — I realized something that should probably have been obvious much earlier. Getting up after being thrown took longer than it used to. A lot longer. And the getting up was just the beginning. I also found immense j

Knives are some of humanity's oldest tools, symbols of survival, culture, and even spirituality. From the first stone tools to today’s sleek chef's knives, they tell the story of our ingenuity. But here’s the thing—people are deeply attached to what a knife looks like, whether it’s in the kitchen, on the battlefield, or as part of a collection. Sometimes, that attachment is purely aesthetic, tied to the way a knife embodies tradition, craftsmanship, or even a sense of identit

I recently had the opportunity to join Chris Moore of Aging in Place Is a Team Sport for a conversation about aging, independence, adaptive design, caregiving, and the reality that ability is not binary. It’s a curve. We covered a lot of ground, but the heart of the conversation was simple: most people do not think about adaptation until it becomes personal. That might happen through age, injury, caregiving, fatigue, or a sudden change in health. But when it does, the proble

Walk into any kitchen store or scroll through online product reviews and you'll find endless comparisons. Sharpness. Edge retention. Steel hardness. Chef preference. Aesthetics. Price-to-performance ratios. What you won't find — almost anywhere — is a structured evaluation of functional inclusion. How much grip strength does this knife require? How much wrist deviation occurs over thirty minutes of prep? Can it be used effectively from a seated position? How does it perform f

There’s a strange tension around artificial intelligence right now. On one side, it’s hailed as transformative. On the other, it’s criticized for replacing jobs, flattening craft, or amplifying noise. The debate swings between hype and fear, as if AI must either revolutionize everything or quietly undermine it. What gets lost in that argument is a simpler question: what should AI actually be for? In my world — adaptive design, aging in place, functional independence — the ans

Commercial kitchens face mounting challenges, from managing rising labor costs to ensuring employee safety. Traditional knife systems, with multiple tools requiring frequent maintenance, create inefficiencies and risks that can disrupt operations. The NULU knife offers a groundbreaking solution by consolidating six traditional knives into one ergonomic, versatile tool. Coupled with a tailored sharpening subscription service, NULU provides measurable productivity gains, cost s

Introduction The design of cutting tools is central to effective food preparation, directly impacting not only the efficiency of tasks but also the user’s long-term comfort, safety, and overall experience. For many individuals, particularly those with upper extremity limitations or mobility impairments, traditional knives can be a source of strain and fatigue due to the physical effort required to perform common cutting tasks. Because inefficient cutting can actually contribu

Objective and Purpose The goal of this white paper is to communicate the advantages of using the Ability Curve Model as an alternative to the traditional disabled/able-bodied paradigm. This model serves as a tool for businesses to better qualify ability and additional needs, thereby determining the market viability of adaptive products or adaptive changes to existing products. By employing this model, companies can achieve broad inclusion, establish a standard method for over

The traditional chef’s knife, celebrated for its heritage and versatility, may actually be working against the user — particularly when it comes to force efficiency, safety, and long-term strain. Most conventional knives demand a full grip, forcing users to stabilize and drive the blade entirely with their hand and wrist. This not only reduces cutting power but also isolates force in the smallest and most fatigue-prone muscle groups in the upper extremity. In contrast, NULU’s

Introduction: The Seated User is the Forgotten User In kitchen design and tool innovation, one key group is consistently overlooked: seated users. Whether due to disability, age, fatigue, or injury, millions of people prepare food while sitting. Yet the tools they rely on—especially kitchen knives—are largely optimized for standing use. This disconnect between user need and product design creates unnecessary strain, exclusion, and even danger. The humble kitchen knife is a pe

When I first got into the adaptive space, I figured the hardest part would be design. Adaptive products, after all, carry real responsibility. They have to work for people who don’t have the luxury of trial-and-error, who aren’t looking for novelty or marginal improvement, but for something that meaningfully changes how they move through the world. I was wrong. Design was hard, but it was solvable. What surprised me — and what continues to surprise a lot of founders and organ

We’re a small startup, and we take every bit of feedback seriously — sometimes personally. When you spend years developing something you believe can genuinely help people, criticism hits differently than you’d expect. A recent Amazon review stopped me in my tracks. The reviewer called the NULU “an overpriced pizza cutter,” “irresponsible,” and even predicted it would end up “in evidence bags more than kitchens.” I’ll be honest — that one stung. Not because it was harsh, but b