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BY Harry McCracken

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Anthropic↗

Kevin Scott is a maker. Given that he’s been Microsoft’s CTO for almost a decade, that doesn’t come as a shock. But his passion for making stuff extends to two hobbies—pottery and woodworking—that he pursues in a studio he built in Los Gatos, California. Large and lavishly outfitted, it’s packed with the tools of all his trades: a gas-powered kiln and a full woodshop, but also an office bedecked in computing equipment. On any given day, he may spend 9 or 10 hours there on video calls related to his day job.

Scott’s studio/office sits in a sleepy neighborhood more evocative of Mayberry than Silicon Valley in all its hard-charging glory. (There’s even a barber shop across the street.) When I dropped by recently, he showed me some of his handiwork, along with tech projects such as the infrared radiometer he devised to read carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions from his kiln’s chimney.…