JA Westenberg

SELF

Cover of Permissionless by JA Westenberg

Permissionless

Nobody is coming to authorize your life. A book about acting without waiting for permission, told through the people who stopped asking.

A$9.95 · one payment

Always the latest version from GitHub, personalised with your name. EPUB for Kindle, plus MOBI and PDF.

Always the latest version

Permissionless is a living book. It’s always being updated. When you buy it, you get the most recent version — compiled straight from GitHub, personalised with your name, in EPUB, MOBI and PDF. Any major updates and new editions are emailed to you.

Last updated 27 October 2026

What this book is

From Andrews’ Raiders to Sun Ra, Spinoza, Blake, and Linus — stories of people who stopped waiting for a stamp of approval and acted anyway.

It’s a field guide for anyone tired of asking. Not a productivity system. Not a pep talk. A long look at what happens when you move before the world has finished deciding whether you may.

Who it’s for

  • People who feel stuck waiting for permission that never comes
  • Makers, writers, and founders building without a committee
  • Anyone who suspects the “proper path” is the long way around
  • Readers who want a book that still grows after they buy it

What you get

  • The most recent edition, compiled from GitHub when you buy
  • A short personal inscription with your name
  • EPUB (the Kindle option), MOBI, and PDF
  • Major updates and new editions emailed to you
  • Download link open for 30 days — no account, no password

Contents

  1. 01Introduction
  2. 02Genuflecting to death
  3. 03Preuschen rented the room.
  4. 04Erasmus kept his distance.
  5. 05The Index was a reading list.
  6. 06The Company outgrew the Crown.
  7. 07The man from the country
  8. 08Venice didn’t have a university.
  9. 09Sun Ra made his own labels.
  10. 10Wozniak gave the Apple I away.
  11. 113 miles out was enough
  12. 12Spinoza refused the annuity.
  13. 13Caravaggio painted dirty feet.
  14. 14Bartleby preferred not to
  15. 15Butler refused the categories.
  16. 16Blake engraved his own books.
  17. 17Whitman set his own type.
  18. 18Tuff Gong came first
  19. 19Linus gave the kernel away.
  20. 20Epilogue: The carpenter and you

A note from JA Westenberg

I wrote Permissionless because I kept meeting brilliant people who were waiting. Waiting for a title, a grant, a nod from someone further up the ladder. The work they wanted to do was already clear — they just didn’t believe they were allowed to start.

This book stays open on purpose. When I find a better story, or a sharper way to say something, I update it. Buying it isn’t a frozen PDF from last year. It’s the edition as it stands today, with your name in the front, and a promise that the next serious revision finds its way to you.

— Joan

Get your copy

A$9.95, once. Always the latest version from GitHub, personalised with your name, in EPUB, MOBI and PDF.

Permissionless is a living book. It’s always being updated. When you buy it, you get the most recent version — compiled straight from GitHub, personalised with your name, in EPUB, MOBI and PDF. Any major updates and new editions are emailed to you.

Last updated 27 October 2026