Kai Krause, of “Kai’s Power Tools” fame, kind of disappeared over the last decade.
People know him for KPT, but he’s also the guy behind Kai’s Power Soap, Bryce, and a handful of other plugins and tools that helped popularize photo editing and digital imaging at a time when PhotoShop was years away from becoming a household name.
The good news is that he’s alive and well. Not working, per-se. Just reflecting. Thinking. Taking it slow. Savoring the little things in life. Enjoying the journey.
He’s basically doing what everybody should be doing once they’ve amassed enough wealth to get themselves through retirement and their kids through school. It sounds like he’s enjoying himself, and that makes me happy. He’s earned it.
He earned it… except that he sold off and abandoned all of the products that he made good to money-hungry companies that ruined them, thus making them useless. This includes Bryce and Painter. Yes, Painter. I used to use Painter all the time. Now Corel (after several other companies owned it) has destroyed the interface and made it even more complicated than it was before (is that even possible?).
I loved Kai’s Power Tools, but they stopped working after a while and then there were no updates. Basically, money wasted. Then there’s that whole MetaCreations fiasco that ended bad and didn’t go anywhere. And that link to his website doesn’t work anymore.
Good on him for earning money to retire early. Bad on him for selling his stuff to bad decision-makers.