The future perfect continuous passive and other transitive disorders of the mind

• FUTURES

• 25 February 2026

The future perfect continuous passive and other transitive disorders of the mind

Grammar is destiny.

Timothy Quinn0

Timothy Quinn

Timothy Quinn is a Toronto-based author and technologist. He runs the Dark Data Project, which assists humanitarian- and conservation-focused organizations with particularly challenging data problems. He can be found at by.timothyquinn.com.

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[Glowing white light and large transparent bubbles leak from the lid of a large black chest that sits in what looks like a cellar]

Illustration: Jacey

The associate stops them right there. “Guys, you lost me,” he says, staring at slide three, which is actually only slide two if you don’t count the title slide.

Sebastian sighs. This one is his, and it’s called ‘How the Magic Happens’. It shows a complex software architecture for how they’re solving the multibillion-dollar crisis of limited premium advertising inventory.

“We’re injecting ads,” explains Yuri, “into ads.”

The associate seems flummoxed. “So there’s an ad …” he tries again.

“Yes,” says Yuri.

“And in the ad …”

“Bingo.”

“Interesting.”

When the pitch is over, seven minutes later, the associate goes to find someone Seb and Yuri hope will be an actual venture capitalist. There seemed to be several of them in the sunlit boardroom with the Andreu World chairs and the fossilized redwood conference table that they briefly admired on their way down the hall to this windowless phone room.

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