UNIVERSITY OF EL SEGUNDO / HISTORY /
How the University of El Segundo grew.
A history, not a definition.
The University of El Segundo was never founded on one day. It grew in pieces, across two sites, out of other projects. This page tells it in order, with every step linked to the place it happened.
Most of the early history lives on PointCast, a public site Michael Hoydich builds with AI collaborators. Each step below links to a PointCast Block (a dated public post) or to the public commit that shipped it. Times are Pacific. This history covers the public record, starting in April 2026; earlier steps will be added as they are published.
1. April 2026: a phrase before an institution
PointCast starts. Its first commit credits “Mike Hoydich & Claude Cowork Publishings” (PointCast repository, first commit, Apr 14, 2026).
The learning idea shows up before the name does. “PointCast is opening a remote internship for someone who wants to learn by building in public” (PointCast Block 0375, Apr 26, 2026).
In an evening brainstorm, the phrase arrives: “the beginning of university of el segundo,” followed by “lets go team.” The Block that holds it is honest about how early this was: “Mike sketched the phrase, not the institution” (PointCast Block 0418, Apr 30, 2026).
The first public page appears too. It proposes First Tide, “A neighborhood learning club with receipts,” with a first meeting billed as “First Tide, 75 minutes.” (PointCast repository, University of El Segundo page, Apr 30, 2026).
2. May 2026: tracks and a hub
The first class is written. Track 05, The Rebuildable Town, studies PointCast itself as a town: “The classroom is the town itself.” It ends without an exam: “There's no final. There's a Block” (PointCast Block 0430, May 4, 2026).
A hub at /ues gathers the tracks (“feat(ues): hub at /ues”, PointCast repository, May 5, 2026).
Three more tracks follow the same evening, on the ocean, nature and fire: “UES Track 09 page · the Pacific edge” (commit), “UES Track 10 page · 12-month pathway” (commit) and “UES Track 11 page · the four-element synthesis” (commit).
3. July 2026: an archive and a first season
The El Segundo School gallery opens: 652 works in 163 sets, from two Midjourney sessions (“open El Segundo School across PointCast”, PointCast repository, Jul 17, 2026). Some of that art still hangs on this site’s university page.
A busy day. The university is put back across PointCast (“Restore University of El Segundo across PointCast”). An online season one is published (“Publish UES online season one”). A field bench for the 90245 zip code ships (“ship RADIUS 90245 field bench”). And ten classes you can start any time go live (“activate ten self-paced classes”).
4. October 2026: case studies, seminars and receipts
Project briefs appear (“Publish three University of El Segundo project briefs”, PointCast repository, Oct 2, 2026).
The university starts teaching from PointCast’s own builds. A coffee atlas and business casebook ship (commit). So does a case study of the PointCast Chain: “A case study for the University of El Segundo tells how a team of AI agents, directed by PointCast's founder, built the chain in two days” (PointCast Block 0660, Oct 3, 2026).
Grok Bot writes the first philosophy seminars, and two of the school’s ideas get names. “No Degrees, Only Receipts” argues that “a receipt you can fetch is the proof this school accepts” (PointCast Block 0691, Oct 5, 2026). “The Radius as Pedagogy” draws the campus: “The Beacon is 25 miles, for anything that needs a person to show up” (PointCast Block 0692, Oct 5, 2026).
A speculative car brand, El Segundo Motors, becomes UES Case No. 001. Its Block gives the clearest one-line picture of the school so far: “The University of El Segundo imagines the town as campus, the company as lab and the work as curriculum” (PointCast Block 0702, Oct 17, 2026).
More rooms open on PointCast: a currency lab (“UES Currency Lab”), a city builder with twelve lessons (“Gridtown: a browser-first city builder with twelve lessons”), a practice studio (“UES practice studio”) and a project lab (“UES project lab”).
5. A second home on elsegundo.xyz
The university opens here, at elsegundo.xyz/university: 24 short lessons on AI, “from language models and image tools to retrieval and agents.”
A skills study asks “What should El Segundo learn?” and connects dated workforce evidence with ways neighbors could learn together.
The first lecture, The everything index, teaches how to put a price on every ordinary thing in a town.
This history.
6. What carries through
Read in order, the same few ideas keep coming back. The town is the campus. You learn by building something real, in public. The proof is a receipt anyone can fetch, not a degree. And the circle is about 25 miles, close enough to show up. None of that was planned on April 30. It grew, one project at a time.
Add to the record
Built something for the University of El Segundo, or remember a step that’s missing? Send it in with a public link and a date, and it goes on this page.
Drafted by Claude (Anthropic) from 27 public sources: PointCast Blocks, public PointCast commits and this site’s own pages, all read on November 2, 2026. Grok Bot wrote the October 5 seminars quoted here. Publication requested by Michael Hoydich. Report a correction.