🔖 What I’ve been reading
Jorge Manrubia wrote about using AI for writing code. I know I know, we’re all a little conflicted. It’s great that we’re able to build more stuff that looks great in a browser, but shudder to think what that actual looks like.
This is where I love Jorge’s take:
My current usage of AI could be described as using it all the time, but with tight direction and supervision.
This perfectly describes how I use AI for coding.
Manipulating code using natural language is way more efficient (and dare I say, “fun”) than writing it by hand. Before my brain was thinking about step 3 while my fingers were still pecking away at step 1. Now I can work closer to the speed of thought.
These days I still write code by hand, but a lot less. My workflow lately is:
Use AI to write code.
Review the code and make edits by hand as necessary.
Commit the code.
Even if I don’t end up making any changes, step 2 helps me understand what’s going on and what I’m committing to.
Just because AI wrote the code doesn’t mean it has to be slop.
“AI slop” is just another term for technical debt. You can incur it to move faster, or simply because you don’t know any better, but it is well known in software engineering that you will pay increasing interest if you don’t repay it.
🧶 Stray Links
Congress has rejected President Trump’s deep cuts to science and environmental funding, preserving key programs at NASA, the National Park Service, and the NIH. America is pretty messed up right now, but it’s nice to see not all news is bad news.
Claude Code is having its moment. I’ve also enjoyed using it, but am disappointed to see how much energy is uses.
Traditionally my design process was fairly linear, following a double-diamond type process. But I’m no longer sure this is the way and I am not alone.
On that note, I stopped treating Figma as the source of truth for design and am now using it as a fast playground for direction and building shared understanding. More and more of my product decisions now happen in code (with help from AI).
As a DRI at Dialpad, I see the difference between designers who just ship pixels and ones who hold a project together. Spinning up a project Slack channel, running standup when the PM is out, spotting two teams solving the same problem differently. Hardik Pandya describes this as invisible work (a great companion piece to Tanya Reilly’s timeless Being Glue).
Don’t wait for your manager to hand you a shiny project, designers who stand out take the mundane work in front of them and stretch it into something visible, reusable, and delightful.
The opportunities worth pursuing usually share a few traits: they’re visible, they help others, and they compound over time.
Oh no someone compared vibe-coded software to fast fashion and they have a point!
A good 22-minute video about the debacle that was Windows Vista and how Windows 7 corrected Vista’s flaws.
Wikipedia published a 25 year anniversary website and it’s just delightful.
❝ One Good Quote
“AI is whatever machines can’t do yet.”
⏳ A classic I periodically re-read
The Little Book of Strategy is a resource I wish I had 10 years ago. It took me years to learn that being a lead designer is more than just taking on more complex projects, it’s changing the way I think about them in the first place.
Thanks for reading ✌️
- Ted (@tedgoas)
