• Design tools ranked by what matters to you
• Claude Design makes a bet Figma can't
• Digitizing old typewriter quirks
• And 6 more

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Claude Design

Claude Design lets you build prototypes, decks, and mockups in conversation. It exports to Canva, PDF, PPTX, and HTML, with built-in brand asset management and real-time collaboration.

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GT Mechanik

A beautiful typeface family from Grilli Type that captures the quirks of mechanical typesetting, available in proportional and monospaced variable fonts, with trial downloads and custom licensing.

Designtools.fyi

A searchable directory of design tools rated on ease of use, collaboration, and advanced features. Filter by archetype or tag to find what actually fits your workflow, not what marketing says you need.

Designing for Agents

Teddy Riker argues that UI is not dead, but the primary "user" of software is quickly becoming AI agents, so teams must design products, APIs, and MCP tools with agents as first‑class users, not just humans.

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The Agent Stack Bet

Addy Osmani breaks down four essentials for production AI agents: separate identities instead of shared credentials, unified context management, persistent long-running execution, and orchestration platforms over custom code.

Thoughts and Feelings Around Claude Design

Sam Henri Gold argues Claude Design sidesteps Figma's abstraction by embracing its HTML/JS foundation, creating tighter feedback loops between designer intent and code output through Claude's native ecosystem. Love how direct he is at the end of this article, too.

Cursor and Spacex: in Search of a Complete Loop

Kwokchain breaks down Cursor and SpaceX's deal: a $60B acquisition option paired with $10B payment to co-develop coding agents. The structure reveals why AI labs need closed loops between training and product, and how this agreement fills both companies' missing pieces.

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What Claude Design Actually Changes for Designers

Design Bootcamp breaks down Claude Design's real impact: where it speeds up iteration and ideation, where it stumbles on complex UI work, and what that means for your actual process.

The AI-native Interview

Sierra ditched coding interviews for a 2-hour product sprint. Candidates plan and build using AI tools, then demo their work. Welcome to the brave new world...

• How to animate interactions like Disney
• Every AI brand is selling you the same five personalities
• Why your docs might be invisible to AI agents
• And 7 more

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Handmade Designs: the New Trust Signal

Users burnt out on AI are turning to handmade aesthetics, uneven lines, organic shapes, textures, as proof a brand is real. NN/g breaks down what handmade actually looks like, why it works, and how to do it without faking it.

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Squash and Stretch

Josh W. Comeau breaks down Disney's squash-and-stretch principle for web animations. See how to build bouncy SVG interactions with CSS and Motion, using actual code examples.

Aesthetics of AI

A Color Bright studied 23 AI brands and found 14 visual trends: organic gradients, digital impressionism, and five brand archetypes ranging from Likeable Leaders to Utopian Dreamers. Apris Apris is a serif typeface with concave serifs and flared stems, drawn from 19th-century Latines. Six weights plus italics, built for both print and screen.

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Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO)

Addy Osmani on structuring docs so AI coding agents can actually find and use them, via llms.txt,

skill.md

, and token-aware organization.

Introducing Firefly AI Assistant

Adobe's new Firefly AI Assistant handles multi-step creative work across Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, and Lightroom. Describe what you want built, and it executes the task while keeping you in control of the output.

Delphitools

Browser-based design utilities, background removal, color palettes, barcodes, that work without logins or tracking. Everything runs locally, no date gets collected.

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Reluctantly Influential: Inside Lenny Rachitsky's Demandingly Chill Life

First Round Review profiles Lenny Rachitsky, who built a massive audience without the typical influencer playbook, staying deliberately hands-off about growth, product, and audience capture.

Org Design in the Age of AI

AI eliminates the middle layers that route information between roles. FD argues this flattens sequential workflows into parallel squads, breaks departments into capabilities, and makes learning speed your only competitive moat.

We Become What We Behold

Your attention span isn't what it was. This article examines how algorithmic feeds physically alter how your brain processes information, and what designers are actually optimizing for.

• Why designers should code with AI
• How she stopped mattering faster than expected
• Why generic output is now the default danger
• And 7 more

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Confessions of a Millennial in Tech

Elena Verna writes about what it actually feels like when a decade of expertise stops being the differentiator it was. She's direct about the anxiety, the identity wrapped up in craft, and the way AI is collapsing the hierarchy between junior and senior work. Less a think-piece than a confession , she's not sure where value lands next, but she's mapping the discomfort honestly rather than papering over it with optimism.

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Good Taste the Only Real Moat Left

Now that AI can produce competent work on demand, taste is the only real differentiator left. Not taste as aesthetic preference, but as judgment under pressure, knowing why one output is generic and another isn't.

Unifora

is a font that spans five widths and nine weights per width, with italics and a customizable slant option. Early adopters get half off through Font Futures, plus free updates forever.

Should Designers "Code"?

This article argues that designers should code, and that AI coding agents are making this practical again by shrinking the gap between design and production development workflows.

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The Machines Are Fine

Ergosphere pushes back on the perfectionism behind most AI criticism. LLMs are already good enough for coding, writing, and analysis , the problem is expecting them to be flawless rather than useful.

Impeccable

is a library of AI prompts and rules for frontend design work in Cursor, Claude Code, and Gemini CLI. It covers 20 areas, typography, color, layout, motion, with patterns and anti-patterns for each.

We Built Every Employee at Ramp Their Own AI Coworker

Ramp built Glass to turn every employee into an AI power user by handling all the configuration (SSO, tool integrations, memory, workflows) so people can focus on using AI rather than wiring it up.

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Momotaro

turns your to-do list into a Japanese folk tale. Tasks become quests, habits become character arcs. It's a productivity app, but one that actually tries to make the work feel like something worth doing.

Craft is Untouchable

Christopher Butler thinks AI's real threat isn't to craft itself, it's to iteration.

Actually, People Love to Work Hard

Anil Dash identifies three things that actually make people love working hard: a clear goal, shared values, and the freedom to work their own way toward it.

• What leaked code reveals about Claude's guardrails
• Gradients that ship as production code
• The all new Cursor 3
• And 8 more

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The Ground is Shaking: Why Designers Must Flip the Script on AI

Senior designers must stop deferring to AI as the expert, reclaim the role of the More Knowledgeable Other, and actively define the constraints and problem theory that AI works within.

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Pretext

Cheng Lou's Pretext is a browser library that calculates line-wrapped text height without touching the DOM. Simon Willison walks through how it works: prepare() segments and measures text on an off-screen canvas, then layout() emulates word-wrapping to return fast height estimates.

Retune

lets you select and tweak any element right in the browser. Your AI agent writes the code. No more prompting for pixels.

Huegrid

Gradient tool with 22+ modes, noise, dither, aurora, mesh, liquid chrome. Export as high-res images or framework-ready code for React, Vue, and Svelte. Community gallery lets you share and remix others' work.

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The Claude Code Source Leak: What the Exposed Code Reveals

Anthropic's Claude Code leaked, and Alex Kim dug through the code: anti-distillation guards, undocumented agent features, and buried security checks.

Emdash

is a full-stack TypeScript CMS that takes the ideas that made WordPress dominant and rebuilds them on serverless, type-safe foundations.

Meet the New Cursor

Cursor 3 turns the IDE into a coordination layer, multi-repo layouts, parallel local and cloud agents, and built-in demo verification, without gutting the editor experience.

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Don't Let AI Write for You

Every time you hand writing to an LLM, you skip the thinking. The output isn't the point , working through it is.

I Quit: the Clankers Won

David Bushell says it's more important than ever for humans to keep blogging and sharing original thoughts on an open, independent web

Bad Analogies

Packy McCormick on why WeWork and Uber were never the next Amazon , and why that same bad analogy is now being recycled for AI labs burning through capital.

I'm trying to observe more, write better, and develop a voice worth sharing. So naturally I asked AI for a reading syllabus on these topics (I know, I know...) and it gave me a pretty solid list of material, starting with Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.

The book is a little older now, and a lot of the advice is table stakes for seasoned creators. But there's still plenty worth remembering.

Here are my notes and takeaways:

1. Stealing like an artist means collecting, remixing, and transforming influences from many sources into your own voice.
2. You should keep a personal swipe file. It's a reservoir of curated influences you can study, remix, and draw from when you need inspiration.
3. There's good theft and bad theft. Good theft is studying multiple artists, understanding their methods, and using what you learn to make something new and your own. Bad theft is just passing off their work as yours.
4. Build a "creative family tree." Figure out the creative lineage of the people you admire. Seeing where their work comes from helps you understand things more deeply.
5. Limitations and constraints are valuable to creative work.
6. Have side projects. They're playful, low-pressure outlets where connections and breakthroughs tend to happen.
7. Show your work. Record your process and share it. That's how you attract like-minded people and opportunities.
8. Keep your day job until you can fully support yourself with your art. A day job is a source of freedom that protects your creative efforts.
9. Don't let geography hold you back from finding an audience for your work.
10. A boring, ordinary routine is what makes sustained creative practice possible.

Next on the list is Show Your Work by the same author. Another post coming soon.

• Vertical software is eating horizontal software.
• Your next job title is Intent Architect.
• Now the constraint is knowing when to stop.
• And 7 more

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When Shipping Becomes Too Easy

Mozilla.ai on how AI-assisted coding shifts the hard part from writing code to knowing what's worth building in the first place.

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Cascade Icons for CSS

Cascade lets you build layered UIs from modular components, with live previews and direct export to code or Figma. Aimed at teams prototyping complex interfaces.

Modal vs. Separate Page: UX Decision Tree

Vitaly Friedman's 4-step decision tree cuts through the modal-vs-page debate: when interruption serves the user, when it doesn't, and where navigation belongs.

How I Built an AI Receptionist for a Luxury Mechanic Shop - Part 1

Kedasha Kerr built Axle, a voice AI receptionist for her brother's mechanic shop, using MongoDB Atlas and Voyage AI for RAG, Vapi for telephony, Claude for responses, and FastAPI webhooks. Super cool stuff!

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There Are Only Two Paths Left for Software

a16z says that software is splitting in two: horizontal tools that race to the bottom on price, and vertical platforms that own enough of a workflow to make switching painful.

How Anthropic's Claude Thinks

ByteByteGo breaks down Anthropic's interpretability research on Claude. The findings might surprise you (they surprised me).

Tinker

Shopify just released Tinker, a free mobile app with 100+ AI tools for images, videos, logos, and product photography.

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The Evolution of Craft

Carl Szabo argues manual UX and coding work is over. His Middle Loop framework puts designers in charge of supervising AI agents, and the Intent Architect role turns taste into machine-readable specs.

The Curse of the Cursor

The cursor is older than the mouse. Unsung makes the case that it's overdue for rethinking.

• The micro-details that make UI feel better
• Strategy is the skill AI can't absorb
• Your logo looked fine until it didn't
• And 7 more

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Why Designing in Code Makes You a Better Designer

Adam Silver makes the case that designing in code forces better decisions , fewer assumptions, tighter constraints, and even better, less back-and-forth with developers.

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Details That Make Interfaces Feel Better

Jakub Krehel walks through small UI details , text-wrap: balance, matched border radii, interruptible transitions, staggered animations, subtle exits, optical alignment , that quietly separate interfaces that feel right from ones that don't.

Durable Patterns in AI Product Design

LukeW draws on building AI-native products to argue for suggested questions, shortcut-selectable recommendations, and images or diagrams to break up the walls of text LLMs tend to produce. Symbl Drop an SVG or PNG into Symbl and it previews your symbol mark across real-world contexts before you ship. Good for catching the marks that look fine in Figma but fall apart everywhere else.

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The Last Quiet Thing

Terry Godier writes about a $12 Casio. It tells time, then leaves you alone. The $400 Apple Watch needs constant updates, fixes, and attention. At some point, products stopped being finished things and became dependents.

Cook CLI

A CLI for coordinating AI coding agents , Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode , through a composable token syntax. Define sequential passes, review loops, parallel branches, or task-list progressions. Install via npm or drop it in as a Claude Code skill.

Particles

A really cool browser-based particle animation tool. Tweak color, speed, density, and mouse interaction, then drop the output into any web project.

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Reflct

strips note-taking down to tagging, search, and sharing , nothing more. For anyone who finds tools like Notion overkill for a quick thought.

Human Strategy in an AI-accelerated Workflow

As AI takes over production work, UX designers are being pushed up the stack, toward strategy, ethics, and judgment calls machines can't make. Smashing Magazine lays out what that shift looks like in practice.

Have a F*cking Website

merritt k makes the case for owning your own corner of the web because platforms can rewrite the rules or kill your account with no warning and no appeal.

In today's newsletter, I've got a lot of great content for you, including:

• Why 10x is the new floor
• Will your job still exist in 10 years?
• How exaggerated proportions make type feel alive
• And 8 more

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Will My Job Still Exist?

Sean Goedecke looks at whether software engineering survives the next decade. His actual argument: the industry will probably miscalibrate AI capabilities, and the direction of that error matters a lot depending on where you sit in your career.

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Labil Grotesk

is a neo-grotesque with exaggerated proportions and a loose, weird energy. 16 styles, 8 weights, matching italics, 41 languages, 11 OpenType features.

Typeahead

Design Engineering 101: Florian Schulz breaks down how typeahead search suggestions actually work in practice.

Software is Becoming More Honest

Helen Min makes the case that dark patterns and fake scarcity are losing ground, and that designers are finally building interfaces people can actually trust.

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Libation

Free, open-source tool that strips DRM from Audible audiobooks and exports them in multiple formats.

AI Should Help Us Produce Better Code

Simon Willison breaks down how agentic loops , agents refining code through iterative retrospectives , might actually close the gap between AI output and good engineering.

human.json

Proof-of-human. human.json is a draft protocol (v0.1.1) for asserting human authorship online. Site owners publish a small JSON file, linked via a tag, and can vouch for other humans. Vouches are directional, dated, and propagate transitively across a crawlable web of trust.

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Cognitive Debt

Andrew Cairns coins 'cognitive debt' - the mental cost of offloading thinking to AI. An MIT study found reduced memory, neural activity, and independent reasoning in regular users.

The Joy of Building Slow

!Boring Software built a weather app like a game, 3D models, animations, sound, haptics, and found that slow, deliberate work is its own reward.

10x is the New Floor

Nikunj Kothari's case: 10x output is no longer exceptional, it's the new baseline. When AI makes that achievable for most engineers, the bar for hiring, productivity, and standing out shifts entirely.

• Why the design process is dead
• How expertise stopped being a career moat
• Why LLMs need their own design language
• And 7 more…

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The Design Process is Dead

Anthropic's Jenny Wen on why the traditional design process is dead. A great 1+ hour interview on Lenny's Podcast. Evolution is inevitable.

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Expose Your Design System to LLMs

Hardik Pandya explains how to make design systems LLM-readable using spec files, a token layer for constrained choices, and audits to catch errors. The article is dense, but really, really valuable.

On Adding Homepage Delight

Karl Koch writes about adding delight to homepages through animation, arguing that design engineers matter most as the link between design and code, not just for final polish.

State of the Designer 2026

Roger Wong surveyed designers on how AI is changing their work, and what craft skills they're actually holding onto.

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Google Stitch

Google's AI tool turns text prompts, sketches, or screenshots into UI designs and production-ready frontend code for web and mobile. Export to Figma, tweak themes, and build interactive prototypes.

Services: The New Software

Sequoia Capital says AI is turning software into services. For every $1 spent on software, up to $6 goes to services. Human workers are still needed to deploy AI in production, pointing to a $500B market for AI-assisted productivity tools.

Xcode 26.3 Unlocks the Power of Agentic Coding

Xcode 26.3 lets Claude and Codex work directly inside your IDE, handling tasks autonomously, code generation, project updates, previews, through Apple's integration of the Model Context Protocol.

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The Great Transition

Daniel Miessler offers a mental model connecting automation, the rise of Human 3.0, reality fragmentation, and goal management into a single framework for making sense of where things are headed.

Solarday

A calm iOS app for daily intentions, timed tasks, and progress reflection. Tracks weather and lunar cycles. No ads, no subscriptions, end-to-end encrypted, and fully offline.

The Song of LinkedIn

Robin Rendle skewers LinkedIn's humble-brags and algorithm-bait: posts that confirm biases, stir outrage, and mistake feeling insightful for being right.

I've collected quite a few along my agentic code journey and was asked to share them. So I put them all together in a GitHub repo for anyone to use. Most of them are design-oriented, but some are more "quality of life" skills that just make the agentic coding experience way better. Feel free to take a look and grab them if you find them useful.

In today's newsletter, I've got 10 articles for you, including:

• A rarely-seen 1996 Steve Jobs interview shows Pixar's gritty triumph.
• How blogs are back with pure RSS feeds. No algorithms needed.
• How AI exposes design's craft crisis and technical literacy gap.
• And more...

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How I'm dealing with the pressure to adopt AI as a designer

How I'm dealing with the pressure to adopt AI as a designer Martin Wright has a simple filter for AI in design work: wait six months before buying into any hype, then try it on stuff that doesn't matter much. If it actually helps the people using what you're building, keep it. If not, drop it. The bigger point is that nobody else gets to decide your tools for you. Judge by what comes out the other end, not what's trending.

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Pixar: The Early Days

The Steve Jobs Archive released a never-before-seen 1996 interview with Jobs about Pixar's early days, timed to Toy Story's 30th anniversary. It covers team growth, A Bug's Life, and renegotiating the Disney deal.

3D Icons

100+ open-source 3D icons made in Blender, free under CC0 for personal and commercial use. Multiple styles, angles, and source files for Figma, Sketch, and XD.

Sweetfont

Find your new favorite Google Font by sliding axes like playfulness, elegance, and warmth on interactive pads life "Flavor", "Vibe", and "Fanciness."

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Designing for Transparent Screens

David Allin Reese from Google Design covers the challenges of designing for transparent AI glasses displays, introducing Jetpack Compose Glimmer. Topics include redefining black as containers, managing halation with shadows, optimizing typography for legibility, and using desaturated palettes for real-world harmony.

Why AI is exposing design's craft crisis

From weak AI outputs like Figma Sites to dev communication failures, understanding code, APIs, and technical debt is no longer optional.

Two Beliefs About Coding Agents

David Brunig has been talking to developers about coding agents and keeps hearing two things: good programmers feed agents context without realizing they're doing it, and agents work fine for quick personal prototypes but fall apart once you need to ship, test, and maintain a real product.

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Blogs Are Back

Find and follow independent blogs via RSS. No algorithms, just a chronological feed with search and filters. No account needed, data stays in your browser, with optional cloud sync.

The Only Moat Left Is Money

Elliot Bonneville argues that traditional competitive advantages in software are gone, leaving money as the primary moat for startups.

Worst or Best?

The AI community tends to say "this is the worst this will ever be" in response to criticism, but in a very learned sense, in many aspects it is also the best it will ever be.

AI is blurring the line between design and engineering. The people who will thrive are generalists: designers who can work with agents, move between UI and code, and use pattern language without getting trapped by it.

The role now is to set direction across the whole system: from visuals to implementation to narrative. AI will be the force multiplier, but judgment, taste, and clarity will continue to be the designer's job.

In today's newsletter, I've got 10 articles for you, including:

• Why your prized product is just inventory with an existence problem.
• How design systems fix today but breed tomorrow's shitty software.
• What happens when you launch your product three times.
• And more...

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The new design process

Tom Johnson uses AI tools (mainly Claude and Conductor) to rapidly create a "bad but working" app, then treats that as disposable scaffolding to discover requirements, refine UX, and finally re‑design properly in Figma before rebuilding and handing off to engineers.

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Remix Icon

A curated collection of 3,000+ open-source neutral-style icons in outlined and filled variants, designed on a 24x24 grid for designers and developers.

Design systems are today's cure and tomorrow's cause of shitty software

Pjonori argues design systems solve current interface challenges but risk causing future software quality decline through over-dependency, skill erosion, sprawling components, and underfunded teams.

Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Identity System

A design case study showing how Order created a visual identity system for the Conservancy, capturing Wright's geometric legacy while representing the organization's mission to preserve his remaining buildings through advocacy and education.

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What 'The Best' Looks Like

Alex Kurilin explores what peak performance looks like in software development, company building, and game dev workflows. The article starts off with this quote: "Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see." LFG.

Stop Thinking of AI as a Coworker. It's an Exoskeleton.

This article explains the exoskeleton model for AI, where it amplifies human capabilities in product development rather than replacing them. It combines automated analysis of codebases, competitors, and feedback with human judgment for better decisions, keeping people in control.

There Is No Product

"The thing you thought was an asset - the thing your valuation is built on, the thing your investors are pricing, the thing your roadmap is organised around - doesn't exist in the way you assumed it did. It's inventory. Inventory doesn't have a pricing problem. It has an existence problem."

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The Software Industrial Revolution

An essay exploring how software development is undergoing a transformation similar to the Industrial Revolution, with dramatically reduced production costs enabling people without coding experience to build complex applications.

Launch it 3 times

Anil Dash shares advice for teams: launch your product three times. The main issue is usually that nobody knows you exist, so keep promoting and reintroducing it to reach new audiences.

WTF Happened in 2012?

A collection of long-term charts showing societal, economic, and behavioral trends aligned around 2011–2014. Data from FRED, BLS, Federal Reserve, and others highlights shifts in areas like teen depression, social time, and media mentions.

98 articles and 40 newsletter editions, all searchable. An AI chatbot trained on everything I've written (more below). The shop rebuilt from the ground up after ditching Shopify entirely. A playground for my Midjourney work. Sound design woven throughout. Each piece pulled the next one into scope.

MattGPT was the most intentional piece of the whole rebuild. I think traditional About pages are dying. A static bio doesn't tell you how someone thinks. An AI trained on everything I've written does. Ask it about a post from two years ago and it pulls the exact line. Ask it what I care about and it synthesizes across hundreds of pieces. It's an About page that's actually useful.

Dropping Shopify was the hardest technical lift, but worth it. No more yearly fees, no more template constraints. The whole site runs on Next.js and Tailwind 4 now (full breakdown on my new Stack page).

Curious if anyone else has gone down this path of pulling everything under one roof. It felt excessive the entire time I was building it. Now that it's live, I can't imagine scattering it back across platforms.

Give it a look: I'd love to know what you think. Oh, and there's an easter egg on the Home page. See if you can find it. :)

In today's newsletter, I've got 10 articles for you, including:

• Chocolate bars with edible sheet music inside. Yes, really.
• Your website looks broken at 850px. Here's why that happens.
• Planning to start isn't starting. Failing badly while trying is.
• And more...

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16 Pieces of Design Wisdom

Hardik Pandya shares practical insights on design craft, from capturing ideas and picking worthy problems to viewing feedback as dialogue and sustaining longevity in the field.

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How to Use Font Ligatures

Pangram Pangram walks through how to enable and control font ligatures across Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Microsoft Office, and CSS, explaining the difference between standard and discretionary ligatures and when to use each.

The Too Early Breakpoint

Ahmad Shadeed explains the 'too early breakpoint' pattern in responsive design, where layouts switch to mobile too soon, creating awkward in-between states. He critiques real-world examples like Time.com and shares better approaches.

UI Skills

A set of skills to polish user interfaces built by agents.

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Writizzy

A minimalist blogging platform for writing and publishing without distractions. Includes built-in newsletters, privacy-friendly analytics, community comments, high-performance themes, easy migrations from WordPress or Ghost, custom domains, and core features free forever.

Fortnum & Mason turns chocolate into music with multi-sensory 'Bars of Music' by Otherway

Creative Boom covers Fortnum & Mason's reimagined chocolate bars, where design studio Otherway pairs each flavor with an original piano score mirroring its rhythm and texture. Packaging by Victoria Semykina reveals musical notation inside, blending taste, sound, and cultured wordplay.

OpenClaw is what Apple Intelligence should have been

Jake Quist argues OpenClaw delivers the local AI agent experience Apple Intelligence lacks, noting Mac Minis selling out for OpenClaw automation while Apple missed owning the agent layer.

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How Richard Feynman taught me to grow fast

Jeremy Hsu shares lessons from Richard Feynman on deep learning through simplification, teaching concepts simply, identifying knowledge gaps, and refining explanations across design and beyond.

Outsourcing thinking

Erik Johannes Husom critiques outsourcing thinking to AI like chatbots, arguing it erodes project ownership, tacit knowledge, and decision-making skills, even for boring tasks. He counters the lump of labor fallacy by noting new cognitive work may not be fulfilling or beneficial.

Doing the thing is doing the thing

Prakhar Gupta lists common procrastination traps like planning, talking, or waiting to feel ready, which are not doing the thing. Failing, doing it badly, or timidly while starting... is doing the thing.

Whatever it's called, it's been fun to setup on an old Mac Mini I had lying around. So much so that I just bought a new Mac Mini to run it on permanently. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh, and I already gave Moltzart (that's my robot friend's name) an email address and X account. Feel free to say hi.

In today's newsletter, I've got 9 articles for you, including:

• "Power prompts" don't have to be complex, just clear
• Silly web experiments teach more than serious tutorials.
• What if AI makes 10x engineers obsolete, then essential?
• And more...

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On Coding Agents and the Future of Design

This article by OG Jeff Veen argues that coding agents like Claude Code hint at a new "responsive design" era where software exposes clear, atomic capabilities for agents to orchestrate, pushing designers toward strategy and organizational clarity.

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How vibe engineering will turn the product design process (and tooling) upside down

Getting a design system from Figma into code is slow. Phil Morton now starts his systems in code instead. AI agents write the production code and he treats Figma as a sketch layer.

Power Prompts in Claude Code

Hardik describes how a single well-crafted "power prompt" in Claude Code can orchestrate a full multi-agent optimization workflow for a website, from audits to documentation and reusable skills.

Pattern Playground

is a browser tool for tuning generative patterns in real time. Bookmark it if you prototype motion or explore pattern systems without code.

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239+ Design Systems & UI Kits Directory

This directory tracks 239 public design systems from governments to startups. It shows how far systematic design has spread beyond tech companies.

The future of 10x engineering

AI will likely increase the productivity gap between average and top engineers, especially at the extreme top end, and will also change what it means to be a "10x engineer."

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Fun with the web

The article argues that playful, "silly" web experiments are one of the best ways for developers to learn new platform features, regain a sense of joy, and build real skills without heavy formal study.

Nobody cares about your idea.

The critical question for product development: why would anyone change their behavior to use your product? They won't, unless they already do that thing and you make them twice as efficient at it.

I also just found a new YouTube channel called Yellow Cherry Jam, a "no AI lofi music" channel. The vibes are great, both audio and visual. Highly recommend this channel if you like your lofi more human.

In today's newsletter, I've got 9 articles for you, including:

• Designers and developers finally share the same workspace.
• AI interviews that actually listen to your answers and adapt.
• Invisible details that separate good design from great.
• And more...

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The hardest working font in Manhattan

Gorton is on every block in Manhattan: elevators, subways, ambulances, building plaques. Taylor, Taylor & Hobson built machines in 1894 to carve it for lens markings when no engraving solution existed. Since then, it's been the city's most common typeface for over a century.

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ASCII characters are not pixels: a deep dive into ASCII rendering

Most ASCII renderers treat characters as uniform pixels and get blurry edges. This piece uses six sampling circles in a staggered grid to measure character shape as a 6D vector. The tradeoff: more math per character, but sharper boundaries without adding more rows or columns.

Detail.design

Small design decisions stack up into polish even when users never notice them. This is a collection of some of the best on the web.

The Agent Skills Directory

Skills.sh is a directory of installable capabilities for AI agents. You add them with a single npm command and they work across different platforms.

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Pencil let's you design on canvas and land in code

Pencil is a Mac app that embeds a design canvas in Cursor or other IDE. Design files live in the repo next to code. This has incredible promise.

Apple Developing AirTag-Sized AI Pin With Dual Cameras

Apple's building an AirTag-sized pin with dual cameras and three mics. The hardware can run standalone but they haven't decided whether to sell it separately or bundle it with their rumored smart glasses.

Gemini AI Visual Design

The design team landed on gradients as Gemini's core visual language. They chose flowing color over static objects to show when the AI is thinking or pulling context together. This is a fantastic read/case study.

icon:briefcase Work + Mindset

Junior Developers in the Age of AI

Companies are ditching junior engineers en masse. They'll tell you it's because AI writes better code. They're right...but also missing the point.

Mockin

is an AI-powered career toolkit for UX/UI and Product Designers. It runs adaptive interviews that follow up on your answers instead of asking fixed questions. Designers practice explaining case studies and decisions, then get feedback on structure and clarity, not just portfolio polish.

"Software is rapidly getting easier to make. And most of what gets made will probably be fine. Functional, but forgettable. Made quickly without much thought. [Interface Craft] is for people who want to make something else. Products that are loved. Interfaces that feel timeless." Yes please!

I don't have any association with Josh or this site, I just thought I'd share with you in case you were interested.

In today's newsletter, I've got 11 articles for you, including:

• Apple's secretly retraining Google Gemini to make it feel like their own.
• Seven questions that could save you from a soul-crushing role.
• Why silent buttons feel slower than ones that sound click-y.
• And more...

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Hello, Computer.

OpenAI acquired Jony Ive's hardware startup to build an anti-iPhone: a deceptively simple companion device. The bet is that LLMs finally make voice computing work. But only if you rethink the interface itself.

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Using AI as a Design Engineer

Jakub was hesitant about AI for UI work until he tried Figma MCP with Opus 4.5. Now he uses it to scaffold complex screens in minutes, testing ideas fast and discarding what doesn't feel right. The model handles tedious setup; he stays in charge of decisions.

Sounds on the web

A button that "clicks" (with sound) feels faster than one that doesn't, even when the visual feedback is identical. The web went silent not because sound is bad, but because early designers misused it. The author argues for selective, thoughtful sound that bridges action and response in ways visuals can't. Goga Goga bridges geometric sans serifs and neo-grotesques, combining neutrality with warmth.

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Apple to fine-tune Gemini independently, no Google branding on Siri

Apple will fine-tune Gemini themselves and hide Google's branding entirely. They're trying to merge simple commands (timers, reminders) with LLM reasoning in one Siri interface. Craig Federighi said they scrapped a hybrid architecture because it wouldn't meet Apple quality standards.

Don't fall into the anti-AI hype

AI is going to change programming forever, regardless of anyone's preferences about economic systems or whether AI companies survive. Antirez is treating the shift as permanent and learning to work with it.

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How to know if that job will crush your soul

Anil Dash uses seven questions to decide if a job will let him do his best work. They cover impact, funding, user assumptions, culture, pay, and career path. He wrote them down to avoid roles that quietly drain him.

The Intelligence Curse

AGI could make regular people economically unnecessary to the powerful. Breaking the curse requires three paths: avert catastrophes, diffuse AI to individuals, and choose augmentation over full automation. TLDR; The outcome depends on design choices made now.

What I'm Seeing For UX As We Move Into 2026

Boagworld sees UX splitting in two: AI handles template work while messy problems need judgment and taste. Soft skills now outweigh tool skills.

Year Compass

YearCompass is a free booklet that helps you reflect on the year and plan the next one. With a set of carefully selected questions and exercises, YearCompass helps you uncover your own patterns and design the ideal year for yourself.

• Why content worth consuming demands your full attention (aka not at 2x speed)
• How illustrators are adapting to AI in the new year
• How a broken robots.txt file can erase all of your Google traffic overnight (seriously, read this one!)
• And more...

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Publishing your work increases your luck

Aaron Francis had been building projects for years but kept them private out of fear. The decision to finally publish that work; sharing code, writing about projects, putting ideas out there, changed everything.

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Convert & Compress

Convert, resize, and adjust quality settings across 20+ image formats with batch processing. The clean, native and private image converter for Mac.

Tool UI

is an open-source component library that gives you pre-built UI components specifically designed for AI tool integrations. If you're working on conversation-native UIs, this could save you a lot of time.

Mockup generator [5000+ mockups]

Mockuuups Studio cuts mockup creation down to five seconds. Screenshot a website, drop your design into a phone or laptop frame, done.

Six surprising illustration trends for 2026

Illustration trends for 2026 showing how the craft is adapting to the AI era.

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Apple's John Ternus Could Be Tim Cook's Successor as CEO

Tim Cook told senior leaders last year he's tired and wants to reduce his workload, accelerating Apple's succession planning. The likely successor is John Ternus, a hardware executive known for his attention to detail and Apple's vast supply network.

Fix Your robots.txt or Your Site Disappears from Google

Adam Coster's site lost nearly all its Google traffic after his robots.txt file became inaccessible. Google now actively de-indexes sites with missing or unreachable robots.txt files—a change documented in July 2025 but not widely known. If you ship a site update that breaks robots.txt access, even temporarily, you risk immediate removal from search results.

12 outlooks for the future: 2026+

A look at where competitive advantage is headed in 2026: craft, hardware integration, organizational speed, and the more human stuff like empathy and storytelling.

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Your Resolution Isn't the Problem. Your Measurement Is.

New Year's resolutions fail because they're wishes, not plans. They fail because "eat better" and "be healthier" and "find balance" are too vague to act on and too fuzzy to measure. Key results fix this.

Life Happens at 1x Speed

The author of this article set a new personal rule: if a podcast isn't worth listening to at 1x speed, don't listen at all. A good read, especially if you're evaluating how you approach content/learning in the new year.

• How Google Sans grew from a single display typeface into a full system by solving real problems like small screen optimization and global script support.
• Why productivity slowdown isn't about running out of ideas but rather market inefficiency forcing teams to work smarter, not just harder.
• What Pinterest's 21 trend predictions across fashion, beauty, home, travel, food, and lifestyle reveal through demographic data about where attention actually flows.
• And more...

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Prototypes are the new PRDs

Figma Make prototypes are replacing traditional PRDs across the entire product workflow. This article covers exploration, validation, decision-making, and refinement with working examples at each stage.

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Google Sans: Evolving Google's typeface

A walkthrough of how Google Sans grew from a single display typeface into a full system through real problems: optimizing for small screens, supporting global scripts, and making code readable.

Make it ugly for clients

When designs look finished, people fixate on colors and fonts instead of asking if the concept actually works. That's why Oddbird recommends showing stakeholders rough work, not polished mockups.

Design is a search for the opinions

Karri Saarinen argues that all tools and systems are inherently opinionated, and good design is about choosing the right opinions rather than chasing generic, "primitive" building blocks.

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The art of vibe design

The new skill isn't coding components or pushing pixels, it's knowing what good design actually looks like, art directing AI output like a creative director, and caring that a shadow is exactly 4px at 60% opacity. The people who obsess over 300ms animations just became more valuable, not less.

Pinterest's trends for 2026

Pinterest dropped 21 trend predictions for 2026, organized by category: fashion, beauty, home, travel, food, and lifestyle. Each prediction comes with search data and demographic breakdowns showing which generations are driving interest.

On the consumption of AI-generated content at scale

AI slop has created two parallel crises: 1) the words we use to signal quality don't mean anything anymore and 2) we've lost the ability to tell what's real. I'm worried this is going to become more and more common.

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How to win titular metagames

A framework for thinking about article titles as ethical contracts, not just engagement levers.

Ideas aren't getting harder to find

A contrarian take that flips the conventional wisdom on productivity slowdown. The argument: we're not running out of ideas or research firepower, we're running out of market efficiency.

Coming up with blog topics

This is always a tough one for me. Cassidy Williams simplifies it: Ask yourself what you learned this week, what opinion you've been holding back, what gets you excited right now, or what strategy works for you that nobody else is using. Then start writing.

I've got 10 articles for you this week. Here are the highlights:

• AI can write your code. It can't figure out what to build, when to push back, or whether to ship.
• Roles are blurring. When AI lets generalists do specialist work, everyone starts asking what a job title even means.
• 50 ways to add friction back into your digital life. Record players, handwritten letters, dumb phones, showing up to things—a toolkit for feeling human again.
• And more...

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What does it mean to be a designer in the age of AI?

A look at how product roles are blurring as most builders now wear multiple hats. The piece questions whether traditional titles still matter when AI tools let generalists do specialist work.

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Laws of UX

An invaluable reference guide that names how people actually see and use interfaces. There's also a poster and card set you can buy to keep these laws handy at all times.

Pantone's Color of the Year 2026

Pantone unpacks their 2026 Color of the Year through expert commentary, design applications, and cross-industry collaborations. Cloud Dancer isn't just a color pick, it's a signal toward simplicity and mental clarity.

Articulating design decisions

This article breaks down four ways designers can build credibility when defending their work. It covers adapting your process strategically, using data to back decisions, getting regular feedback exposure, and tailoring communication to what each stakeholder actually cares about.

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CSS Wrapped 2025

A chronological catalog of 20+ CSS and HTML features shipped by the Google Chrome team, organized by capability type.

Monocle: Noise-cancelling for your screen

A modern take on window dimming for macOS. A sleek, minimalist app that removes distractions by elegantly blurring everything but your active window, giving you the focus you need.

Has the cost of building software just dropped 90%?

A sharp breakdown of how AI coding agents will reshape the entire dev industry, not just make things faster. It walks through the economic forces at play: cost collapse, demand explosion, and the shift from syntax skills to domain knowledge.

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Drinking the largest beer at the airport makes everything better

This piece is a love letter to pointless airport time, turned into a tiny, intentional ritual: find your gate, hunt down the biggest possible beer, and let it absorb the chaos around you. A really good piece of writing and the layout and illustrations are just as good.

AI can write your code. It can't do your job.

A sharp breakdown of why AI won't replace software engineers, even as it automates more programming tasks. The argument centers on the gap between writing code and doing engineering work: judgment, context, problem definition.

The analog life: 50 ways to unplug and feel human again

Tanner Garrity compiled 50 specific tactics for cutting screen time, organized into 6 categories that range from old-school daily rituals to ditching tracking apps entirely. The whole collection is built around a simple idea: add friction to your digital defaults and replace them with analog-adjacent alternatives.

Anyway, I've got 11 articles for you this week, including:

• Notes on Jony Ive’s obsession over invisible details
• A new AIGA NY identity reaffirming and strenghtening its place at the center of creative community
• How AI is slowly killing regional tech hubs and communities
• And more...

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AIGA NY unveils new identity

The largest chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts has launched a new identity and strategy designed to strengthen its role as a civic space for design and reaffirm its place at the centre of New York's creative community.

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10 usability heuristics & AI principles

Ten usability heuristics for interaction design based on research by the legend, Jakob Nielsen.

Notes from an interview with Jony Ive

Jony Ive on the invisible details that signal care—like finishing the inside of a drawer no one sees or obsessing over cable packaging so someone unwrapping it thinks "wow, somebody gave a shit about me."

A cruel reminder for all designers

Most designers land on the same solutions because we're all working from the same playbook and the same approval chains. Real shift can only happen when you go deep instead of wide, learn how money actually moves through a business, and stop chasing the metrics.

Using CSS to fix the irradiation illusion

White text on black looks thicker than black on white at the same weight. That's the irradiation illusion at work. Variable fonts have a GRAD axis that lets you shift perceived weight without changing the actual glyph size, so you can dial in dark mode without breaking your layout. Useful if you're shipping across themes.

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Proper prompts

For $15, ProperPrompts hands you a ready-made image prompt library, including 15 lighting setups, 11 lenses, 17 camera angles, and more. Copy-paste them straight into Midjourney instead of spinning your wheels for hours.

Local tech scenes have changed

A contrarian take on how AI has gutted the competitive advantages that made regional tech hubs viable in the 2010s. It walks through the mechanics: higher opportunity costs for staying local, solo-founder economics replacing team formation, and status games that no longer reward ecosystem building.

Speech to text for Mac

Turn your thoughts into text instantly. Private, offline, and punctuation-perfect. The dictation tool macOS should have had.

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The junior hiring crisis

A breakdown of how AI and shifting incentives are killing the apprenticeship model in tech, and why that's creating a gap most people aren't preparing for.

Durable consumables

A reflection on how modern replacement cycles are eroding our connection to durable, permanent objects. The piece argues we're losing more than craftsmanship; we're losing the relationship between people and the things they own.

Estimating AI productivity gains

Anthropic breaks down research from 100,000 real Claude conversations to estimate AI's impact on US productivity. The team found current models could add 1.8% annual productivity growth, roughly double recent rates. They also mapped which occupations and task types see the biggest gains from AI assistance.

• Shared design-engineering language is erasing collaboration friction.
• Emerging tech evolving from human replacement to human enhancement.
• Deep-focus activities are delivering the brain recovery that typical routines lack.
• And more...

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The Rosetta Stone of design engineering

A framework for how design and engineering teams can build a shared language that eliminates friction between disciplines.

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In the sea of sameness

A sharp argument against the forces flattening modern design into sameness.

Claude Opus 4.5 is here

Anthropic just dropped Claude Opus 4.5, and it's a real step forward for coding and agentic work. The model handles computer use better, stays safer under pressure, and costs way less than you'd expect for this level of capability. If you're building tools that need an AI to actually do things, this one's worth testing.

Exposure

Better design work doesn't come from more critique sessions. It comes from lunch with your PM, sitting in on sales calls, and hearing why engineering won't build what you sketched.

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iPhone Fold will be creaseless and cost $2,400

Apple's shipping a foldable iPhone in September 2026 with a crease-free screen, thanks to liquid metal hinges built with NewRixing and Amphenol. The price tag: $2,399. That makes it the most expensive foldable by a huge margin, which tells you something about what Apple thinks this thing is worth solving for.

How we built the v0 iOS app

A technical breakdown of what it actually takes to build chat UI that feels native on iOS using React Native. Vercel definitely cooked with this one.

Tech predictions for 2026 and beyond

A look at five tech shifts hat move us from replacement to augmentation. Each one tackles a different human problem: loneliness, expertise gaps, security threats, innovation speed, and access to learning.

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Building an AI-native engineering team

A phase-by-phase breakdown from OpenAI about how engineering teams can integrate AI coding agents into their actual workflow without chaos.

The math of why you can't focus at work

A mathematical breakdown of why your workday feels so fractured, using three measurable variables to model deep work capacity. The piece walks through interruption frequency, recovery time, and task duration as parameters you can actually track and optimize.

Work, woodlands, and geocaches

This article breaks down how to build hobbies that actually pull you out of work mode without pulling you away from family. The framework is simple: find activities that demand full attention, fit into home life, and give your brain real recovery time.

• Why most 'AI-eats-all-work' stories don't pencil out because the real control isn't software, it's the infrastructure underneath.
• What structural rot in product design reveals across three levels: individual designers, organizational leadership, and industry-wide problems.
• How four visual principles—grids, typography, color, imagery—stacked consistently separate intentional design from random decisions.
• And more...

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State of product design in 2025

This sobering look at the state of product design breaks down the structural rot in product design across three levels: what individual designers face daily, what leaders need to fix in their orgs, and what the industry needs to address collectively.

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Fonts for people fighting for a better future

A curated portfolio of open-source typefaces built specifically for activist and climate justice work. Each entry includes design philosophy, licensing details, and real campaign examples showing the fonts in action. Free to use for non-commercial projects, organized to help organizers find the right visual voice for their movement.

What actually matters when you're teaching yourself to code

A collection of programming principles that actually help you write clearer code instead of just sounding smart in code reviews.

What makes design actually work

A breakdown of the four visual principles that separate intentional design from random decisions: grids, typography, color, and imagery. Each principle gets unpacked with practical guidance on how to apply it consistently. The throughline is that good design isn't luck or taste alone, it's strategic choices stacked on top of each other.

Logo.dev

moves 25 million requests daily across 30 million companies, keeping brand logos (and logo clouds) fresh with the latest assets. Alex MacCaw, who built Clearbit, called it "what I wish we could have built."

Best free fonts

214 free fonts sorted by type: serif, sans serif, script, monospace. One collection instead of scrolling through thousands on Google Fonts.

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Aging is a disease we can treat

This Big Think article breaks down how longevity science is shifting medicine from disease treatment to actively extending healthy human lifespan. It frames the movement as pursuing longer life as an intrinsic good, not just preventing early death.

A new chat interface

Agentic AI reasoning creates clutter. LukeW has a new take: the two-pane layout. It solves the "too much information" problem by splitting process from results, then collapsing the thinking column into a summary once the AI finishes. Meta, but worth a read.

icon:briefcase Work + Mindset

What AI Is Actually For

This piece cuts through the AI euphoria and asks a blunt question: What if the real game isn't smarter software, but who controls the land, water, and energy behind the data centers? It's a sharp, grounded read on why most 'AI eats all work' stories don't pencil out, and how the infrastructure grab underneath might be the only part that actually lasts.

Busy Simulator

Someone built a web tool that plays rapid notification sounds during Zoom calls to make you look swamped. Genius.

Blank Spaces

Blank strips your iPhone down to what matters. Lock specific apps, hide the rest, and watch what happens. Hint: Most people cut screen time by half in the first week.

• How 12 specific techniques let you systematize creative output through deliberate shifts instead of waiting for inspiration.
• Why treating Claude Code like a team member instead of autocomplete changes what you actually ship with it.
• How Cursor's $100M+ revenue runs on internal discipline and belief in the work, not external hype or exit obsession.
• And more...

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A look inside Cursor

A fascinating look inside Cursor's culture that runs on talent and real belief in the work. They find engineers through workshops and code patterns, ship an internal version three months before the public sees it, and nobody talks about getting rich despite hitting $100M+ in yearly revenue.

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Loram: A bold, modern sans with retro warmth

Loram is an all-caps sans-serif font that distinguishes itself through its bold, thick letterforms, crafted by Typeface Design Studio exclusively for YouWorkForThem.

Animating icons (that actually work)

Static icons just sit there. This React library pairs Lucide's icon set with motion primitives to make SVG icons actually respond when you interact with them, without killing performance.

N27 by Atipo Foundry

N27 is a typeface built for real work. 33+ languages, stylistic alternates, fractions, superscript, scientific inferiors, ordinals. If you're designing across markets or need actual typographic control without juggling five different font files, this does it in one.

What I actually use Claude Code for

A practical guide to getting more out of Claude Code by treating it like a team member instead of a fancy autocomplete. The contrarian bit: stop judging AI tools by how they work and start judging them by what they ship.

Closing the gap between thinking and doing

Fitts' Law started in 1954 as a button-clicking principle, but it's the backbone of every interface we've built since. In XR it becomes volumetric zones and muscle fatigue. In voice it's cutting down how much you have to say. In neural interfaces, it'll be closing the gap between what you feel and what the system actually gets. But do we really need it anymore?

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Designing Perplexity

In his AI Speaker Series presentation at Sutter Hill Ventures, Henry Modisett, Head of Design at Perplexity, shared insights on designing AI products and the evolving role of designers in this new landscape.

What's actually happening with AI in 2025

McKinsey breaks down where companies actually are with AI adoption versus where they think they are. It walks through the gap between widespread pilot programs and the handful of orgs seeing real financial impact.

icon:briefcase Work + Mindset

How to be creative (without taking drugs)

A collection of 12 specific techniques for systematically increasing creative output. Each one is a deliberate environmental or behavioral change you can make, built around the idea that creativity responds to new inputs, not just harder work. Practical, optimistic, and structured for people who want a repeatable system instead of waiting for inspiration.

Stop optimizing everything

This is a reflection on what it means to live without wasting your life, built around trusting your inner compass over cultural scripts. It makes the case that downtime, wandering, and time in nature aren't distractions from meaningful work but essential to it.

102 books in 12 and a half months

A collection of 102 books organized into 12 life categories (fitness, money, sleep, focus, etc.), with each section pulling out 5-15 key learnings from the books in that area. It's structured as a reference guide covering health, productivity, relationships, and personal development. The whole thing reads like distilled notes from a year of reading, organized by theme instead of chronologically.

• How Zohran Mamdani's bright yellow bodega aesthetic made political ideology feel tangible instead of theoretical.
• Why misalignment, not exhaustion, is what actually drives burnout when your values stay fuzzy.
• What a Midwest archival team preserved shows how intentional curation shapes how legacy gets understood.
• And more...

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How Superhuman, Grammarly, and Coda built their brands

Superhuman's rebrand started with a doodled cursor that looked like a cape, then evolved into a full motion-driven identity system. The team built custom Figma plugins (Superdots, Superflow) to generate branded textures at scale, and created a 5-layer marketing framework that visualizes the writing process itself. This article gives a rare look at how a design system actually gets built when the brand needs to move as fast as the product.

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Design actually mattered for Zohran

Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral campaign ditched red-white-blue for bright yellow and bodega aesthetics, making democratic-socialist politics feel like home instead of radical.

Springs and bounces in native CSS

Josh Comeau shows how CSS linear() timing functions can now handle spring physics with 40-50+ points instead of reaching for JavaScript. Not quite like the real thing, but close enough for most interactions.

Inside the top secret Virgil Abloh archive

In the years since the premature death of the former Off-White and Louis Vuitton creative director, a small team of Midwest archivists has tirelessly—and very quietly—tracked down and catalogued one of the most remarkable private fashion collections ever assembled.

Neuething's variable type family

Neuething Sans ships with 30 styles and variable width and weight controls. You can dial in everything from SemiExpanded to UltraExpanded without swapping files. It's the kind of type system that actually gives you flexibility without needing a dozen separate font families cluttering your design files.

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You should write an agent

Some concepts are easy to grasp in the abstract. Boiling water: apply heat and wait. Others you really need to try. You only think you understand how a bicycle works, until you learn to ride one.

Figma Weave: Designing with AI, not around it

Figma bought Weavy because AI alone (currently) ships rough work. The node-based editor that lets you branch outputs, layer in pro tools like masking and color work, and pick the right model for each job.

Designing with vibes: What Cursor taught me

Vibe coding with tools like Cursor is replacing Figma for prototyping. The practices that work are specific: Git commits for version control, upfront taxonomy to cut AI hallucination by 70%, treating code like frames. One builder shipped an entire product experience for $2-4k in tokens across 60 hours. No design tools opened.

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Why I run design tests one at a time

Comparative testing sounds smart but, you need triple the people, results get messy when users see multiple versions, and you still can't tell which parts actually worked. Adam Silver says the better move is to ship one solid design, watch where it breaks in real use, then iterate with clarity instead of running expensive A/B tests that probably don't prove anything.

How to define your core values

Your core values work like guardrails. They don't dictate every turn, but they keep you from veering off course. When you're clear on what actually matters to you, the career confusion and imposter syndrome quiet down. Most burnout isn't exhaustion. It's misalignment.

Jinna.ai

Jinna learns your business inside out—your clients, your cash flow, how you talk. Then it handles the admin work like drafting invoices, chasing down payments, scheduling follow-ups. The more you use it, the smarter it gets.

AI is accelerating this—letting us ship faster than ever. But with AGI still a decade away according to Andrej Karpathy, we're in this messy middle period where AI amplifies velocity but can't replace judgment.

Everyone's scrambling to figure this out. And maybe that scramble—that willingness to build messy, hybrid workflows while others wait for best practices—is the actual moat.

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Fast is a moat

Speed isn't rushing—it's collapsing the time between idea and prototype. When you ship fast, you set the conversation's terms instead of reacting to version four of a problem you're still solving for version one.

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Affinity goes free with rebrand that threads the Canva needle

Affinity's post-Canva rebrand solves a positioning nightmare—feeling premium enough for pros while staying accessible.

SVGL - searchable library of tech brand SVG logos

An open source collection of 300+ tech logos with light/dark variants and an API. This site saves you from digging through brand guidelines PDFs or begging marketing teams for proper logo files.

The real problem with AI coding is comprehension debt

When AI writes code, you skip the mental model building that happens when you write it yourself. Teams ship 100 lines in seconds, then burn 70 hours debugging because nobody understands the logic. The fix is shaping the architecture with AI upfront instead of accepting whatever it generates.

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AegisClip

This Mac clipboard manager stays 100% on-device and charges once ($14) instead of monthly. The step paste feature fills forms out sequentially, and text splitting breaks long docs into manageable chunks. And these are just two of the helpful features. Worth a look. Board Board is gaming hardware that puts the screen flat on a table and uses physical game pieces as controllers. Finally someone has a solution for the "everyone staring at their own screen" problem of modern gaming.

A Brief History of Domains

Four decades ago, the first domain was registered and the initial batch of top-level domains came to be. Nearly a billion domains have been registered since then. Let's take a tour of domain milestones over the last forty years...and ask what comes next.

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Taking money off the table

Holman's advice on tender offers is simple: take the money. Zenefits execs guaranteed him wealth weeks before their collapse. GitHub paper millionaires stayed functionally broke for years. The startup delusion makes you think this windfall happens every four years, but successful exits are timing and luck.

Original work is now an endangered species

AI dropped the creation barrier to zero, flooding platforms with identical Tailwind templates and LLM-rewritten listicles. Everyone ships "vibe-coded apps" that work but disappear from memory instantly because the tools replaced having ideas instead of amplifying them.

I don't know why I haven't written about this myself before—I've used this method for years, personally and professionally. It's dead simple and one of the best habit-breaking methods I've found. Give it a look and put it to use next week.

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Forming habits with Jerry Seinfeld's method

Forming habits with Jerry Seinfeld's methodA practical breakdown of Seinfeld's "don't break the chain" method, with four lessons learned from actually using it: start absurdly small, build rhythm before adding more, prioritize consistency over perfection, and use whatever tool you'll actually check.

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Navbar Gallery

A curated collection of navigation bar examples from real websites, useful for finding fresh approaches to site navigation patterns.

Serrif typeface collection

A neutral serif workhorse from Displaay, designed as the serif companion to their Saans family. Optimized for body text with vertical stress, lower contrast, and thicker serifs. Bookmark this and come back to it for your next project.

Next.js 16

is here and this version is delivering actual speed improvements you'll feel. The list of new features is a mile long, but worth taking the time to review if you’re app/project/site is built on this framework.

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Nike's Project Amplify

Nike's powered footwear reframes assistive tech as an accessibility unlock rather than elite performance gear, targeting casual runners at the 10-12 minute mile pace who want to go farther without grinding harder.

ChatGPT's Atlas browser is anti-web by design

Anil Dash breaks down how Atlas masquerades as a browser while replacing the web with AI synthesis, forcing command-line prompts over discoverable links, and turning users into unwitting data agents who give OpenAI access to private content it couldn't scrape on its own.

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Don't let a misunderstanding distract you from your goals

I love this story. Virgil Abloh got blocked by security at Louis Vuitton after being named artistic director. His response: choosing not to let small injustices pull focus from the larger work. A reminder that you control what moments mean to you.

AI is Making Us Work More

AI tools that never tire create a psychological trap where rest feels like wasted potential. The "can work" capability quietly becomes "should work," turning downtime into a moral failure and rest into an act of resistance.

Increasing your Luck Surface Area

Luck is formulaic: passion that builds expertise multiplied by how many people know about it. The serendipity you experience is directly proportional to doing work you care about and telling people about it. L = D × T.

The collection covers product/market fit, the onion theory of risk, when not to start a company, how big companies actually work, hiring for drive over credentials. Almost 200 pages of the thinking that became standard startup vocabulary.

If you're building something, it's useful to read the original context behind ideas that get repeated everywhere now. Save this one and search it often.

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The Marc Andreessen Blog Archives

Marc Andreessen's foundational startup writing from 2007-2009 covering hiring, product/market fit, dealing with VCs, managing executives, and building companies. The archive that shaped a generation of founders.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

Kibo UI: shadcn component registry

A custom registry of composable shadcn/ui components—color pickers, image zoom, QR codes, dropzones, and more. Free, open source, and built for extension.

Vault: A local-first bookmark manager

Open-source desktop app for saving links, notes, and images with folder organization, browser extension, markdown support, and full offline functionality. Everything stored locally with no tracking.

Neumorphism Generator

Visual tool for generating soft UI neumorphism effects with CSS output. Clean interface for creating that tactile, embossed look that was trendy in 2020.

Quablo typeface from atipo

A clean, functional font family with tabular figures, fractions, superiors, ordinals, and extensive language support across 100+ Latin-based languages. PRODUCT THINKING

You Still Need to Think

Different coding agent UX patterns shift where users spend their "thinking budget"—context, planning, implementation, or verification. LLMs excel at implementation but still need humans for context. Product design determines cognitive workflow.

Claude Skills are awesome, maybe a bigger deal than MCP

Simon Willison breaks down Claude Skills—Markdown files that teach Claude how to do specific tasks. Simpler than MCP, easier to share, and built on the coding agent pattern. The simplicity is the entire point.

Users already have muscle memory. Every change has a cost. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is make one thing significantly better rather than overhauling everything at once. This week reminded me how much of design work is actually deciding what not to design.

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Design leadership is moving from perfecting surfaces to architecting intelligence

The argument here is that we're past the Jony Ive era of obsessing over pixel-perfect surfaces and physical product curves. Future design leaders won't be known for aesthetic refinement—they'll be known for shaping how AI systems think and behave. I keep coming back to this because it names something I've been feeling: the work that matters now isn't about making interfaces prettier, it's about architecting how intelligence flows through them. That's a different skill set entirely.

Read more →

icon:briefcase Ways of Working

Pay yourself first with uninterrupted time for curiosity-driven work

DHH's reminder that your best work happens when you protect time for building, experimenting, and researching without needing to check in or justify it—just doing the work that actually matters to you.

Complex systems emerge from iterating simple designs, not designing complex systems

Naval breaks down how great products get built—start simple, iterate relentlessly, question every requirement before optimizing anything, and remove parts until only what's necessary remains, just like SpaceX's Raptor engine evolution.

icon:hammer Making Things

Seven animation principles that make interfaces feel responsive without mystical design intuition

A set of practical rules for UI animation. Scale buttons on press, never animate from scale(0), use ease-out curves, keep everything under 300ms, and add subtle blur when transitions feel off—no magic required, just better defaults.

Modern CSS color syntax decoded

A collection of CSS color updates that matter for relative colors, light-dark toggles, and getting wider color gamuts.

Six winning Figma Make projects and the prompting strategies behind them

Figma showcases six top Make-a-thon entries with specific prompt strategies. TL;DR: Structure code upfront, refine designs before building, use short iterative prompts, test in real browsers early, and embrace the revert button for safer experimentation.

icon:wrench Tools Worth Trying

WorkFlowy

A radically simple outlining tool built entirely on nested bullet points—no folders, no docs, just one infinite workspace where every node can become its own page, designed for people who think in hierarchies.

Podcast Magic

A frictionless tool from sublime.app that turns podcast screenshots into transcripts and video clips via email.

icon:eye Keep An Eye On These

A self-generating AI story experiment

An AI-powered story that builds itself over time, pushing the boundaries of what automated storytelling can do. This is absolutely fascinating to me.

It's Nice That's 2025 roster of emerging creatives to watch

An annual showcase spotlighting emerging talent across graphic design, illustration, photography, and moving image. Incredibly useful for finding fresh perspectives, tracking design trends, and discovering who's pushing creative boundaries right now.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

The thing about constraints that I keep relearning: they're not limitations you work around—they're the structure that makes good work possible. Whether it's DHH protecting uninterrupted time, Naval's argument for iterating simple designs, or just deciding which parts of an interface you're actually going to touch, the skill isn't doing more. It's getting ruthlessly specific about what matters and letting everything else wait its turn.

I'm now Head of Design at Atlas UP, an AI startup building business intelligence tools. I'm leading design across the company—product, brand, marketing—and building the design team from the ground up.

And the best part: I'm reuniting with Adam Little, my co-founder from 45royale, and Jere Simpson, Atlas UP's founder, who was a client and friend from back then. The timing was serendipitous, and getting the team back together just made sense.

I'll be sharing what I learn along the way—designing for AI systems, scaling a team from scratch, and the real lessons from inside an AI product company.

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Onlook is Cursor for designers

This is the design-to-code tool I've been waiting for someone to build properly. Onlook is an open-source visual editor that hooks directly into your codebase and writes the changes to your actual files in real time. No export step, no Figma-to-code translation guesswork. If you've ever been stuck in the loop of design → handoff → implementation → "that's not what I meant!" → repeat, this collapses that entire cycle.

Read more →

Why you should care about design context

Your messy Figma file just became a liability. Not because designers will judge you (and they will), but because AI systems reading your files to generate code depend on clear naming, proper auto layout, and logical component structure. Figma's pushing better organization because they know design tools are becoming the source of truth for AI-assisted development.

Abundant Intelligence

Sam Altman's making the case that compute capacity—not algorithms or talent—is the real constraint on AI. His argument: we need gigawatt-scale infrastructure buildouts now to avoid a future where we're rationing AI between cancer research and education.

A new (or rather, old) approach to typography on the web

Daybreak Studio is pushing back against the "everything must scale infinitely" approach to typography. Their argument: context-specific, opinionated type systems serve language better than flexible, token-based approaches. TOOLS WORTH EXPLORING

TabTab: Supercharged Windows & Tabs Manager for Mac

Command+Tab has needed an upgrade for years. This replaces it with something that understands context—recent windows and tabs across browsers, code editors, design tools, with search instead of endless cycling.

Craft: Personal Space for Notes, Tasks, and Big Ideas

Craft sits in the sweet spot between Apple Notes and Notion. It’s a Mac App of the Year winner with offline sync, on-device AI, and includes Readwise integration.

Agentic Commerce Protocol

Stripe and OpenAI built an open protocol for AI agents to handle purchases. Businesses stay merchants of record, agents manage checkout across any payment processor. Infrastructure for a world where buying is delegated to AI. FUNDAMENTALS

How to create a typographic hierarchy

This is a really solid reference for type decisions: start with content structure, scale intentionally, use weight and spacing for contrast, test in black-and-white, repeat styles consistently. Nothing revolutionary, but it's the kind of guide you bookmark and return to when setting up a new project and need to make fast decisions without overthinking.

There's something brewing that I think will change how I approach design, building, and the intersection of creativity and technology.

Next week, I'll be sharing what I've been working on behind the scenes—a new chapter that feels like the natural evolution of everything I've been building toward.

It's the kind of opportunity that makes you rethink what's possible when you combine the right team, the right vision, and the right moment.

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What happens when junior design jobs disappear?

Carly Ayres maps out what happens when AI guts entry-level creative work before new pathways emerge. The apprenticeship model that built creative careers for decades just collapsed, leaving new designers scrambling through cold outreach and unpaid gigs. What caught me is how this mirrors every creative field right now—the old training grounds are gone, but we haven't figured out what replaces them.

Read more →

Becoming the person who does the thing

Fred Rivett breaks down the flywheel between identity and behavior. Your beliefs about yourself dictate what you do, but every small action votes for who you want to become.

How to develop product sense

Jules Walter treats product sense like a trainable muscle instead of magic intuition. The framework is solid: user empathy, reverse-engineering products you admire, and deliberate practice with creativity exercises.

Things I Believe

Lee Robinson's operating principles distilled into one page. Speed over strategy, grit over talent, communication as the primary job. These feel earned, which makes them way more useful than most “leadership” advice. TOOLS + TECH<s

Jitter

Web-based motion design that promises professional animations without the After Effects learning curve. I'm skeptical of "simple" motion tools, but the interface looks thoughtful and the collaboration features make sense for teams that need quick social assets.

One list to rule them all

A comprehensive catalog of modern CSS features organized by category. Useful reference for staying current with what's actually available now versus what we think CSS can do.

Not the surface stuff—like knowing which fonts look good together—but the deeper editorial judgment about what matters and what doesn't.

This week’s lead article digs into this really thoughtfully. Worth reading if this question has been nagging at you, too.

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The Last Days Of Social Media

Mass platforms are drowning in AI slop while users retreat to smaller, intentional spaces. The shift toward friction-based, community-governed alternatives feels inevitable when engagement algorithms optimize for everything except human connection.

Read more →

Design for AI - the Invisible Features

The best AI features work like Gmail's spam filter—completely invisible until they gracefully fail. This piece makes the case that announcing your AI capabilities is usually a sign you haven't integrated them properly yet. BUILDING BLOCKS

A terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

Someone built this Go-based CLI tool in 10 minutes using AI to parse macOS system logs and identify slow cables instantly. Perfect example of how vibe-coding removes friction from utility scripts that would have taken hours to research and build manually.

Convierto: Native macOS file converter

SwiftUI-built converter that handles everything from PDFs to videos with smart format detection and batch processing. Sometimes you just want a tool that works like it belongs on your system instead of feeling like a web app pretending to be native.

It's a fascinating lens that's only going to matter more as we hand over bigger chunks of our personal and work lives to autonomous systems.

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Being Good Isn't Enough

Being Good Isn't EnoughTechnical excellence is table stakes now. You can write pristine code, design pixel-perfect interfaces, build bulletproof systems—and still have nothing to show for it. Today, more than ever, visibility beats ability. The winning builders will ship in public and write about the process.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

Everyday UX

Real UX patterns from actual products that include screenshots of how companies are solving interface problems. Definitely one to bookmark.

How to grow on 𝕏: Algorithm Breakdown

𝕏 finally showed us how to win on the platform. Replies > likes. First hour > everything else. Links still get buried, but at least now we have tactical instructions on how to build an audience.

icon:lightbulb Perspective Shifts

No, AI Is Not a Bubble

Everyone's looking for the crash, but this isn't 2000. AI is already embedded in how we work—from code completion to customer service.

The Micro-SaaS Revolution

The economics finally make sense for one person to solve very specific problems for a very specific group of people/users.

The Trust Quotient (TQ)

We don't need smarter AI, we need AI we can trust—and different tasks require different trust levels. Your spell-checker? Low stakes. Your medical diagnosis? Different story. TQ could be the most important metric of the AI-age.

icon:eye Culture Watch

Corpcore: The Aesthetic of Corporate Life

Gen Z has just turned PowerPoint into fashion and office supplies as accessories. Good luck bidding on that retro Microsoft t-shirt on eBay—you’re about to have a lot more competition.

SF Tech Workers Embrace 996

9am to 9pm, six days a week. What started as Chinese tech culture is spreading to SF.

icon:scale Counterpoint

You Don't Need Animations

On the web, every millisecond of delay is a potential hit to conversions. That smooth transition you over-engineered could be causing you to lose money/customers/users. Speed almost always beats beauty.

The AI-Native Office Suite

Stop thinking "AI-enhanced Word." Start thinking "what replaces documents entirely?" The next office suite won't edit your work—it'll do your work.

I built two paths:

Alternatives pages: Eight comparison pages that line Jasin up against tools like AAWP, Lasso, and Pretty Links. Each one has pricing breakdowns, feature notes, and comparison guides so people researching affiliate tools can see how we stack up.

Free tools: Two utilities anyone can use:

The goal is simple: when someone types "AAWP alternative" or "Amazon affiliate calculator" into Google, Jasin should be what they find.

• An ASIN Extractor that cleans messy Amazon links and pulls out the product IDs (great for spreadsheets).
• A Commission Calculator (my favorite) that shows how much you'd earn from Amazon sales.

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Are we in a bubble?

Dror Poleg argues you can't actually know if we're in a bubble anymore. When most valuations are built on intangibles—brand, software, networks—the only real proof is the pop. Markets aren't mirrors, they're guesses, and AI is making the guesses wilder.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

OpenCode

An IDE where AI isn't bolted on, it's baked in. Coding, debugging, and deployment all live in one place. Less "tool switching," more "get to done."

Interface Syntax Documentation

A sharp little reference guide for defining contracts in code. If you're building with others—or future-you—it's a reminder that clean syntax is collaboration.

Anthropic raises $1.3B at $18B valuation

Investor conviction in AI isn't cooling. But the question isn't whether AI companies get funded—it's whether they build tools people actually keep using once the hype cycle dips. ADVERTISING + DESIGN

IKEA Catalogue Archive

Every IKEA catalogue from 1950 to 2021. A living case study in how design evolves with culture. Flip through the 70s and you'll see more than furniture—you'll see what people believed "home" should look like.

American adverts of the 1930s

A Guardian gallery of Depression-era ads. The copy, the type, the color—it's both foreign and familiar. Proof that every "new" marketing trick is usually a remix.

That's why Jessica Hische's story about building Studioworks stood out to me. She shows how a lettering-first mindset doesn't just make software beautiful—it can shape the actual product decisions. Her taste became the compass, not just the craft.

It's the same shift I've felt moving from agency work into building Jasin. The design instincts I used to deploy for clients now sit at the center of my own product—shaping not just how it looks, but what it is.

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The History of Themeable User Interfaces

From early GUIs and video game sprites to today's design tokens, theming has been part of digital design for decades. The essay makes the case that tokens—paired with good governance—are the quiet engine behind scalable design systems.

Read more →

Macrowave

A small app that turns your Mac into a private, peer-to-peer radio station. You can stream audio in real time with no tracking, and there's even an iPhone app for listening.

NVIDIA Jetson AGX Thor

NVIDIA is putting server-class AI compute into a $3,499 robotics kit. Think 2,070 FP4 teraflops and 128GB of memory, packaged in something closer to a laptop than a rack of GPUs. For AI startups (or those thinking about it), that's a huge leap.

Framer hits $2B valuation

Framer just raised $100M at a $2B valuation, with plans to push deeper into enterprise and AI. They're sitting at ~$50M ARR and breakeven. It's another signal that no-code isn't just for side projects anymore—it's running full-scale company sites. BUILDER MINDSET

Designing for Ephemerality

A thoughtful reminder that software should be built with its eventual end in mind. That means planning exit paths, keeping data portable, and leaving artifacts worth holding onto.

The Illusion of Alignment

The essay makes the case for pre-mortems, shared definitions of success, and clear ownership so projects don't crumble under polite head-nods.

Lettering Artist → Software Founder

Jessica Hische shares how her lettering background shaped the way she built Studioworks. A useful example of how design taste isn't just cosmetic—it can shape strategy and product direction from the ground up.

The Bubble That Knows It's a Bubble

AI looks like past tech bubbles—fueled by breakthroughs, speculation, and overreach. The difference now is how self-aware the players are. But recognition alone doesn't prevent the cycle from playing out.

That's been my focus with Jasin this week. I doubled the free plan credits from 5 to 10, added a Pro Plus tier plan ($30/mo. for 100 credits), built public-facing pages for every embed, and started planning out ~500 programmatic landing pages. None of it will wow a demo crowd, but it makes the product easier to find and stickier to use.

The links I pulled this week circle that same theme: less flash, more foundation.

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Vibe Coding and the Illusion of Progress

AI can spin up features with a few vibes and prompts. It feels magical. But speed isn't progress if you're piling up technical debt and ignoring real problems. Are you mistaking momentum for traction?

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

Aqua Voice

This app is local voice input for with ~97% accuracy—even on technical jargon. I've been using voice more for coding, browsing, and even “writing”.

Conforto Font

A relaxed, convenience-first type family in Thin, Light, and Regular. Perfect for UIs where you want calm instead of shouty.

Ten Tips for Integrating Brand into Products

Adobe's playbook for baking brand into product decisions—everything from error states to emotional micro-moments. A good reminder that "brand" isn't decoration, but a series of choices that (hopefully) resonate with consumers. MD Radio I gave my radio station a fresh coat of paint this week. Lock in. Vibe out. Stay productive.

AI Is Changing Search Behaviors

NN/g's study shows how generative AI is reshaping how people find information. Users like AI overviews for quick synthesis, but still fall back on Google for trust. For builders, that means the "first reader" of your work might be a model, not a human.

The Body Remains the Interface

XR and AI are fun until they make you dizzy or leave you out. This essay argues that your body—not code—is the ultimate interface.

Claude Code turns any idea into working code without setup or clunky dev environments. Alto turns the notes already on your phone into a live website in one click. AGENT.md gives your AI tools a shared language so they stop fumbling your project details.

Strip away the in-between steps and creative loops get shorter. Today's flow looks more like this:

Think → Build → Ship → Repeat

The faster this loop spins, the more dangerous a solo builder becomes.

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Claude Code is All You Need

A firsthand case for Claude Code as a complete dev environment. Fast, tool-rich, and good enough to skip the traditional IDE for many projects.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

Alto: Turn Apple Notes into a Website

A macOS app that publishes Apple Notes as a website in one click—no CMS, no config. $5 one-time or $4/month.

: The Universal Agent Configuration File

A vendor-neutral Markdown spec for defining your AI agent setup in one place, with migration steps and a working example. MARKET MOVES

Apple's AI Comeback: Robots, Lifelike Siri, and a Smart-Home Push

Bloomberg outlines Apple's plan to get back in the AI game: an animated Siri, smart displays, home security gear, and a 2027 robot on the roadmap.

Move Over SEO: Why Retailers and Brands Need to Start Thinking About GEO

As LLMs handle more shopping searches, brands need natural-language, occasion-based product data, up-to-date pricing, and strong review signals to surface in AI-driven recommendations. PERSPECTIVES

I'm Worried It Might Get Really Bad

Daniel Miessler sketches a near-term scenario where AI job losses, stubborn prices, and debt pressures tip us into panic far faster than expected.

How to Articulate Your Thoughts More Clearly Than 99% of People

A short, practical framework for speaking with clarity—start with what/why/how, then anchor every point with a quick example.

The Evolution of Five of Adobe's Iconic Icons

A behind-the-scenes look at how Save, Hide Layers, Magic Wand, Pen, and Crop have evolved—balancing metaphor, culture, and tech shifts.

I've been trying to put words to the speed and weirdness of this moment, but Greg Isenberg already nailed it (thanks, Greg). His mini-essay on this fleeting window is worth a read—and if you're like me, it'll make you want to double down and build.

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Flounder Mode

Kevin Kelly didn't optimize. He “wandered with intention.” This profile breaks down how embracing detours and creative side quests helped him build a life of deep impact, without ever chasing the "next big thing."

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

Priority Compass

A deceptively simple prioritization tool that forces clarity—especially when your to-do list is starting to feel like a bug tracker. sake, more genuine habit formation. Think of it as quietly upgrading your OS.

Kyoshi

Playful pixel fonts in eight styles, full of gradients and video game nostalgia. Useful for brand moments that don't take themselves too seriously.

Boring Websites

A curated collection of low-profile, high-margin websites. Proof that you don't need a big swing to make meaningful revenue—you just need a useful corner of the internet. SIGNAL + OBSERVATIONS

We Are Still the Web

A welcome reminder that the open web is still alive—even if platforms want you to forget. Kevin Kelly's 2005 essay still holds, and this follow-up proves it: user-created weirdness is still the engine.

The Design Talent Crisis

Ström calls out what a lot of design leads are quietly admitting: layoffs gutted the bench. Super ICs are doing all the work, and the next generation's nowhere in sight. Long-term risk, short-term pressure.

With Figma's IPO this week, design looks alive and well. But the ground is shifting. Interfaces are turning into commodities. AI-assisted coding is killing off the craft layer—pixels, polish, and prototypes—in favor of systems, agents, and orchestration.

What felt like core skills now feels brittle. As creative founders, our edge depends on seeing these shifts early—and moving with them.

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Why I’m leaving design

Suff Syed walks away from a 15-year design career—not from burnout, but because the discipline itself no longer holds leverage or autonomy in the AI era. Prompt engineering and system shaping are now the skills driving real impact. Designers, take note.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

Pattrn

blends daily journaling with behavioral analytics. Less tracking for tracking's sake, more genuine habit formation. Think of it as quietly upgrading your OS.

Monotype

Minimal, nostalgic, and friction-free. Monotype strips writing back to basics, prioritizing focus and flow over feature overload.

IdeaBrowser

Real-world problems, validated by trends and data. No more "solutions in search of a problem." Skip ideation paralysis and build something people actually need.

icon:lightbulb Insights + Observations

We Live Like Royalty and Don't Even Know It

Most people today enjoy comforts—instant communication, climate control—beyond what historical elites could dream of. Yet, ironically, modern comforts rarely register as wealth because our benchmark has shifted from survival to status.

Meta's Personal Superintelligence Is Betting Big on Deep Personalization

Meta's vision for "personal superintelligence" learns from you continuously through always-on devices like smart glasses. It's a platform shift away from passive assistants to AI systems that proactively shape your day.

How to Build a Profitable MicroSaaS Business

MicroSaaS isn't just hype—it's quietly creating sustainable, niche-focused success stories. This guide is for the bootstrappers and solo founders ready to turn validated ideas into reliable monthly income.

I shipped Jasin code from 30,000 feet, visited the (rebuilt) Mai-Kai, and even managed a little R&R by the pool.

Now I’m back behind the screen, and this edition’s stacked with links worth your time—from thought-provoking to straight-up useful.

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The death of partying in the U.S.

Derek Thompson argues that parties aren’t superficial—they’re an indicator of community health. Their decline reflects deeper fractures: economic precarity, technology-mediated atomization, and a retreat from unplanned social life. If that rings alarm bells about rising loneliness or hollowed‑out civic life, read on.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Resources

A Short Explainer on MCP for Designers

A visual walkthrough of Model Context Protocol (MCP), breaking down how designers can leverage model-aware workflows to guide LLM behavior with clarity, structure, and modular thinking.

Snappy Notes

A lightweight note-taking app focused on speed and simplicity, allowing users to quickly jot down ideas without distraction or bloat.

Typeverything

A curated collection of bold, character-rich display fonts designed to add personality and visual impact to creative work.

Media Cheat Sheet

A regularly updated reference for ideal image and video dimensions across major platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more.

Type Foundry Directory

A long-needed searchable directory of type foundries around the world, making it easier to discover and support independent font designers. MARKET SIGNALS

OpenAI to release GPT-5 in August 2025

Axios reports that GPT-5 will launch in August 2025, with OpenAI promising major upgrades in reasoning, memory, and multimodal capabilities—setting the stage for another leap in AI fluency and utility.

Liquid Glass – iA’s Vision for the Next UI Shift

iA explores a paradigm shift in interface design toward "liquid" experiences—transparent, responsive, content-first UIs that dissolve the borders between information and interaction. DESIGN + CULTURE

The Rise of the Designer-As-Influencer

Elizabeth Goodspeed critiques the shift toward personal branding in design, arguing that performative visibility is crowding out the deeper craft of the work itself.

Andrew Ng on Speed, AI, and Feedback Loops in Startups

In this YC AI Startup School talk, Andrew Ng emphasizes how AI supercharges iteration speed, enabling startups to outlearn and outmaneuver slower incumbents through faster feedback and decision-making cycles.

On launch day, Jasin saw:

Jasin also received some incredible feedback ↓

"Jasin eliminates plugin bloat and iframe headaches, giving me confidence that every link pulls its weight. Hats off to Matt for turning affiliate embeds from a chore into a craft. This is the tool every content pro has been waiting for. 🙌"

"Nice launch! Turning Amazon links into clean product cards is such a simple but needed fix."

"That one code snippet changed my whole product layout. So clean, and it fits anywhere."

Jasin's been tracking well and seeing more people show up and test out the service. But launching as just the tip of the iceberg—now the real work begins.

Here's what's next in the near-ish future:

If you haven't given Jasin a try yet, I invite you to check it out.

And thank you to everyone who upvoted, supported, responded with kind emails/DMs—y'all are the absolute best and I appreciate every one of you!

• Hundreds of brand new visitors
• Dozens of accounts created
• 50+ new product embeds created
• Influencer/blogger/affiliate outreach. I have a few people/blogs that I'm targeting and will reach out to about giving Jasin a try.

• 20 articles on Jasin's blog. This will be programmatic, with a 70/30 split (70% targeting LLM search experiences and 30% targeting traditional organic SEO experiences)

• Auto-publish every embed card as a dedicated page (immediate SEO/marketing benefits)
• Increase the free plan from 5 credits/mo. to 10
• Add a Growth plan that allows for 100 credits/mo.
• Allow Pro users to change card titles, details, order of images, and more
• Custom embeds for Pro users (colors, typography, etc.)

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5 things I learned from 5 years at Vercel

Lee Robinson gives us a grounded reflection on how to scale products with taste, stay small on purpose, and keep your focus clean. A great read and some really nice behind-the-scenes photos from the Vercel team.

Read more →

Cobalt: Download media from nearly any site

A clean, powerful little tool that lets you scrape video, audio, and images from just about anywhere online.

Building an infinite SVG marquee with React Motion

If you're looking to create dynamic, high-performance text animations along SVG paths, this tutorial is worth a bookmark. Beauty and brains.

FAQ: Product Design in 2025

Sharp predictions on where product design is heading—tools, roles, and how AI is raising the floor (and ceiling) on what counts as "good."

Search is dead, long live GEO

Search is no longer the front door. LLM overviews, app-native answers, and aggregator models are shifting how people find things. SEO isn't dying—it's mutating. Sidenote: That’s why I’m focused on a 70/30 article method for Jasin like I mentioned in the intro ↑

Context Engineering as the next frontier

This post breaks down why designing your context window might matter more than clever wording.

Designers: We'll all be Design Engineers in a year

The line between designing and building is blurring fast. This piece argues for hybrid fluency as the new default.

iPhone Fold prototypes in testing for potential 2026 launch

Apple's reportedly testing multiple foldable designs. I guess Tim Cook is walking back a decade of "we'd never do that" after all…

If you're wondering how to help out on launch day, it's simple:

Your notes and encouragement have carried me through the usual late-night hiccups—I can’t thank you enough.

• Warm up your Product Hunt account this weekend. Log in, toss a few up-votes around, leave a quick comment. That 90-second loop makes sure your vote counts on launch day.
• Keep an eye out for an email from me on Wednesday morning titled "🚀 Jasin is live." Click the link, watch the quick product demo, and add your up-vote or comment. Every push gets Jasin in front of more people.

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The Dawn of Infinite Code

A sharp forecast on how AI agents collapse the marginal cost of software, shifting power from syntax to intent and containers to capabilities—framing "describe" as the new "upload."

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Links Worth a Look

Agent Rules – Formalized Patterns for AI Agents

A GitHub repo compiling opinionated, evolving guidelines for building reliable AI agents, covering architecture, evaluation, and design tradeoffs.

NAN Archy Font – Experimental Display Typeface

A bold, experimental typeface from NAN Studios, designed for high-impact headlines and branding applications with unconventional, architectural forms.

Skills That AI Makes More Valuable – 80,000 Hours Guide

A career-oriented guide outlining which human skills gain importance in an AI-saturated world—emphasizing judgment, originality, leadership, and strategy over technical depth alone.

Amazon Plans Alexa+ Launch with Over 1 M Users in Summer 2025

A paid tier, smarter agents, and a million-user target—Amazon's betting we'll subscribe to voice the way we pay for video.

My SaaS Made $60,000 Before We Built the Product

A firsthand story of validating demand and earning $60K in pre-sales before building the actual SaaS product—highlighting the power of positioning, urgency, and early audience building.

Mid-June came out swinging. And just when things couldn't get more chaotic, Cloudflare and Google Cloud knocked half the internet offline on Thursday. Yikes.

But we're back online—so here's what caught my eye, what I built, and what might spark something for you this weekend.

icon:star Most Interesting

Knowledge work is losing its edge—wisdom is the new differentiator

AI is busy digesting entire disciplines. The moat isn't "knowing more" anymore; it's emotional clarity, discernment, and the ability to connect dots others miss. Why it matters to builders: Your tools can help automate a workflow, but your unique experiences and know-how are what keep customers sticking around when competitors copy the feature set.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Links Worth a Look

Obra Studio Icons

A clean, modern icon library from Obra Studio offering simple yet distinctive visuals ideal for digital products and branding.

20 habits that separate exceptional startups from the rest

A sharp list of behavioral patterns and operating principles that distinguish top-performing startups from average ones, rooted in real-world founder insight.

The 30-year evolution of JavaScript

A comprehensive look back at JavaScript's journey from Netscape origins to modern runtimes like Deno.

Flexible — A dynamic and expressive variable font

A playful variable font that adapts seamlessly across styles, weights, and moods—perfect for identity-driven design work.

Nintendo Switch 2 hits 3.5 M units in 4 days

Record-shattering sales reinforce Nintendo's grip on hybrid console dominance.

Arc's new AI-first browser "Dia" enters beta

The Browser Company launches 'Dia,' an AI-native browser now in invite-only beta with early access for Arc users.

The Designer's Hierarchy of Career Needs

A thoughtful breakdown of what designers need at different career stages—moving from survival to significance.

Enhanced version of Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford address released

To mark the 20th anniversary, the Steve Jobs Archive remastered his iconic commencement speech—still a resonant message on creativity and intuition.

Greg Isenberg's new product surfaces startup ideas effortlessly, and honestly, they’re really good. It’s like Product Hunt for raw ideas. Whether you’re looking for your next big idea or just curious, you should definitely check it out.

Today’s topics:

• Better code comes from stepping away from the screen
• A look at Apple’s new design direction
• Hoodzpah’s new serif font, Bowery Lane

icon:star Most Interesting

Physicality could be coming back to UI in a big way next week

Sebastiaan de With's essay explores how Apple might be pivoting back toward tactile, physical-feeling interfaces. After years of flat design, there's a growing appetite for depth, texture, and material honesty in digital UI.

Read more →

icon:wrench Tools + Links Worth a Look

TaskMaster AI Coding Assistant

A dense but valuable walkthrough for anyone pairing AI with large codebases. Especially helpful for avoiding subtle hallucination errors.

Fly.io

One of the more honest and provocative takes on the current state of AI-assisted programming. Less cheerleading, more friction.

Bowery Lane by Hoodzpah

This new font by Amy Hood, one half of the mighty Hoodzpah, brings big personality and tasteful drama to serif fonts. 10/10, no notes.

As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

Juha-Matti Santala shares his thoughts on why the best thing you can do for your project is step away to a quiet place with nothing more than your notebook, pen, and thoughts. A refreshing take in a world of AI-everything.

If you asked Sam Altman or Dario Amodei about the future of AI and company building, you'd hear the same thing: the world's first one-person, billion-dollar company is probably just around the corner.

I think they're right. And the shifts that make it possible are already here.

AI isn't just removing friction. It's removing entire categories of friction, the kind that used to require headcount, capital, and years of runway to push through. When those barriers disappear, a lot of what we accepted as startup "best practices" start looking like expensive habits.

Five shifts are driving this, and they compound on each other.

1. Power is moving from capital to capability

If you can start, scale, and run a product by yourself without raising a dollar, what exactly is a VC bringing to the table?

Founders are replacing pitch decks with prototypes. Cursor or Windsurf is the first hire. When your leverage comes from shipping instead of fundraising, equity dilution starts to feel optional.

This changes who gets to play. The barrier to entry used to be access to capital. Now it's the ability to build.

2. Starting alone doesn't mean starting small

AI collapsed the cost of learning, iterating, and failing so much that one person can run a dozen experiments for the price of what a single validation sprint used to cost.

If you can describe it, you can build v1 yourself. And you'll learn faster in the process than most teams ever will.

Facebook's mantra was "move fast and break things." The 2025 version is "move alone and build everything."

3. Judgment is the constraint, not output

Anyone can generate. That's table stakes now.

Taste and curation used to be nice-to-haves. But when everyone can produce 100 variations in under ten seconds, the only moat is knowing which one to ship. The bottleneck moved from "can we make this?" to "should we make this?", and that's a question only a sharp founder can answer.

4. Distribution is the new moat

Features don't build audiences. People follow voices, narratives, and points of view. A solo founder with a strong story will outperform a funded team with better tech but nothing to say.

This is where individual founders have an asymmetric advantage. A team of twelve can't have a personality. One person can. And when you build in public, your process becomes your marketing.

5. AI scales operations, not just creation

This is the shift that makes the billion-dollar part plausible, not just the solo part. Previous generations of tools helped one person build a product. This generation helps one person run a company.

Customer support, analytics, financial modeling, code deployment, content production. These used to require departments. AI agents are collapsing them into workflows a single operator can manage. The ceiling on what one person can operate is rising fast, and it hasn't found its limit yet.

Give it a year

This isn't a fringe prediction. The infrastructure is live, the cost curves are falling, and the proof points are already showing up.

A billion-dollar company run by one person is on the near horizon. Might even be you.

Update

Peter Steinberger gave this thesis legs right after I published.

Steinberger built OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent that hit 180,000 GitHub stars, the fastest-growing project of its kind.

One person. No team. No funding. When OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft all came knocking, Satya Nadella reached out personally.

He chose OpenAI. The terms weren't disclosed, but context fills in the blanks: the same company had just paid over $6 billion for Jony Ive's io, and every major lab was competing for a single independent builder. The leverage speaks for itself.

The one-person billion-dollar company isn't hypothetical anymore. It's name is Open Claw.

Scared of being seen starting small. Shipping rough. Looking stupid.

I get it—me too. That fear's kept more ideas locked in drafts than I'd like to admit.

But that's why I changed this newsletter: to force iteration in public.

No polish. No perfection. Just process.

Ryan Hoover calls them "Iterative People"—the ones who show their work before it's ready. He lays out three traits:

• Share early, even when it's ugly.
• Hang out with builders, not critics.
• Chase sparks, not schedules.

Here's my ask: pick one. Use it. Build something this week you wouldn't have dared last week.

Then hit reply and tell me which one you're committing to. I'll be doing the same.

icon:star This Caught My Eye

AI is going to break the ladder most people are still trying to climb

"Cancer is cured. The economy grows at 10% a year. The budget is balanced—and 20% of people don't have jobs."

That line stuck with me. Not because it's provocative, but because it came from Dario Amodei—CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence.

It's easy to get distracted by the promise of exponential progress. But this piece openly talks about what happens when productivity goes vertical and employment goes horizontal.

You don't have to agree with every point to feel the signal: AI is going to break the ladder most people are still trying to climb.

If you're building anything right now, you should be thinking deeply about where the real leverage is shifting—and what you're doing to avoid being replaced by a shortcut.

Read more on Axios →

icon:hammer This Week I Built

Tightening core components and clearing out tech debt

Jasin's growing fast—but that's come with some pain. This week, I focused on tightening core components and clearing out tech debt.

Here's the breakdown:

• Embed stability: Modularized layout, added Shadow DOM support for better CSS isolation.
• Product logic: Refactored the ProductCard component and added smarter product categorization.
• Admin tools: Improved abuse detection and dashboard metrics.
• Dev hygiene: Cleaned up old test files, updated .env handling, hardened rate-limiting logic on Amazon API calls.

I'm still chasing some polish, but this round of updates pushes me closer to a flexible, fast, and scalable embed experience. Especially for bloggers who want power without bloat.

Want early access? Join the waitlist.

icon:wrench Tools I'm Trying

1517 Fund

The best VC positioning I've seen in a while. They're not trying to impress institutional LPs. They're backing dropouts, misfits, and scientific weirdos. In other words: actual edge. "We're a venture capital firm backing dropouts, renegade students, and deep tech scientists." That's what positioning looks like when you know exactly who you're for.

Deskminder

Stupid-simple, useful-as-hell. Lives in your Mac's menu bar and reminds you to take regular eye breaks. No bloat. No accounts. Just helps you not fry your retinas. It's the kind of tool I wish more indie devs made.

icon:palette Creative Corner

Thinking (Less?) with AI

Dustin Curtis wrote this and I felt it: "AI tools have had a dramatic effect on my brain. My thinking systems have atrophied. Because AI can so easily flesh out ideas, I feel less inclined to share my thoughts." I've been there too—thinking something clever, then typing a half-prompt instead. We're outsourcing the reps that sharpen intuition.

Everywhere Tools

Open-source resources curated for designers and creatives. Clean, focused, and super usable.

Anthony Hobday's UI Principles

Still one of the clearest, fastest design improvement guides online. Especially for non-designers.

Make ChatGPT Less Agreeable

Stop getting syrupy yes-man answers. This prompt teardown shows how to make AI outputs actually useful for strategy and critique.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

Think for yourself. Before you forget how.

With every new "thing" announced, I found myself landing in this uncomfortable middle ground. Aware that everything is changing, yet too overwhelmed to meaningfully act on any of it.

Nowhere is this more true for me than with SEO and AI—especially as I'm preparing to launch Jasin and thinking deeply about organic reach and marketing in the new world of search.

We're not preparing for what's coming. We're just patching what's breaking. And patching doesn't scale. The question isn't whether AI will transform search (it certainly will)—it's whether we'll be ready for what that means when it does.

Well, on that happy note (kidding... sort of...)—let's get into it.

icon:star This Caught My Eye

SEO as we knew it is dying

This LinkedIn post hit harder than I expected.

The author lays out a simple but brutal point: SEO as we knew it is getting replaced by AI that summarizes, rewrites, and re-routes attention—before a human ever lands on your content.

The really concerning part is that I realized how many of my assumptions still come from the old model:

• Write → rank → convert
• Keywords → content → traffic

But if AI is the first reader of your content... you're not writing for people anymore—you're writing through a filter that thinks faster and more broadly than you. That's what we're dealing with now, and it changes everything about discoverability on the web.

icon:hammer This Week I Built

Analytics got a full rebuild

This wasn't a flashy week for Jasin, but it was productive in all the right ways. I'm getting close to wrapping up work on the app itself, and I should be moving to marketing and a new landing page next week. But this week:

• Now you can reliably track views + clicks on each product card embed
• I setup a new admin debug page for testing and verifying clicks
• Better caching + error handling for users

The frontend also got cleaner and smoother, with better loading UI/UX, refined product card styles, and a lot more polish to make everything feel more cohesive.

If you're interested in playing around with it when I launch the beta, I'd love to have you sign up!

icon:wrench Tools I'm Trying

Delphi

I'm feeding Delphi my "brain"—all the links, notes, content I create online. Too early to judge usefulness, but if it delivers on its pitch (a single searchable interface for everything I write and read), you'll be able to chat with me about anything whenever you want. I'll keep you posted.

Claude 4 Sonnet and Opus

I've only used it for one day, but I'm legit impressed. The jump from 3.7 is real. It feels faster, better at context, way more of a co-thinker than a co-coder. Anthropic's getting serious. Give it a try if you haven't—you'll be impressed.

icon:palette Creative Corner

Three fonts that sparked my interest this week:

Utility Sans

Semi-monospaced, razor clean. Feels techy without being sterile.

Fixel

Wild range of weights and styles. Versatile for modern branding.

GT Standard

Balanced and beautiful. A variable font that can go serious or playful without losing its look.

icon:sparkles Style + Signal

Building my childhood dream PC

A nostalgic deep-dive into retro tech, which always holds a special place in my heart. This is a love letter to old machines—the ones we learned on and grew up with.

How to build an AI-powered product in a weekend

This is the process I use to go from "half-idea" to "shipped MVP" in under 48 hours—an approach rooted in modern AI product development tools, but grounded in old-school creative process.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

The goal posts keep moving. But maybe that's not the problem. Maybe the problem is thinking there was ever a fixed point to aim at.

This week felt like getting hit with a dozen "industry-shifting" AI announcements all at once. Every one of them supposedly demanded my attention, my strategy, my reaction.

But it's not just the speed that's tiring. It's the fact that most of us are still optimizing for a world that doesn't really exist anymore.

I keep seeing it in how people approach SEO, product marketing, and even in how I'm building Jasin. The ground is moving, but everyone's still just patching cracks in the old foundation.

I've been running into three big problems. Here's what they look like and what I'm doing about them.

1. We're still writing for Google 2019

AI now rewrites, reroutes, and re-summarizes your content before anyone even lands on your page. The classic model of write, rank, convert is broken. Your first reader isn't a person anymore. It's a bot with infinite memory and zero patience.

So you have to write for both. Structure your content so LLMs can parse it. Add clarity that machines actually pick up on. But don't forget that humans are still the ones who click, skim, and share. You need to be findable in the systems that reroute attention, and still be worth reading when someone actually shows up.

2. We're patching systems instead of rethinking them

It's tempting to duct-tape workflows together as the tech changes. I've done it with marketing. With content. With analytics. But when the whole foundation is shifting, patches don't hold.

I've been trying to rebuild my mental infrastructure one system at a time. For me right now, that's Jasin. This week I rebuilt the analytics pipeline: better event tracking, debug tools, and frontend polish. None of it flashy. All of it necessary.

3. We confuse noise with urgency

Every new tool, model, and framework screams for attention. But not every one deserves action. The hard part isn't knowing what's happening. It's deciding what to ignore while you build.

I'm testing Claude 4 Sonnet. I'm feeding Delphi my content to see if it can surface real insights. I'm exploring fonts that feel fresh. But all of it connects back to one thing: making Jasin better for launch. That's the filter. If it doesn't serve that goal, it can wait.

So where does that leave us?

You have to keep up. That's just the baseline now. But keeping up isn't the same as chasing everything. It's knowing what actually deserves your time and what just looks shiny.

Tools will keep changing. Your systems and strategy are the things that need to hold up.

I like to move fast, but I'm not going to sacrifice design quality or clear thinking to do it.

I've tried a ton of tools over the years. Most of them either slow you down with bloat or speed things up at the cost of knowing what's actually going on in your project. These six don't do that. They're in my daily stack because they let me work quickly without making a mess of my logic, my design, or my instincts.

1. Next.js: the foundation of nearly everything I build

Next.js is my full-stack framework. It handles routing, rendering, and performance out of the box, and it doesn't fight me on how I want to structure things. Pages, APIs, layouts, it's all fast to set up and fast to scale. I get to focus on product logic instead of boilerplate, which is the whole point.

2. Supabase: modern backend without the overhead

Supabase gives me a hosted Postgres database, built-in auth, edge functions, and instant APIs. I use it for caching, user data, and lightweight server logic, all without spinning up my own infrastructure. It's my go-to for anything that needs real-time sync or scalable data handling.

3. Tailwind CSS: still undefeated

Tailwind is just how I style things now. No naming conventions to argue with, no cascade weirdness. I prototype in the browser, refine as I go, and keep my design system tight without hopping in and out of Figma. It keeps me out of rabbit holes and lets me ship polished UI without breaking flow.

4. shadcn/ui: component primitives with taste

Built on Radix, shadcn/ui gives me accessible, composable UI components with clean defaults. No bloated markup. No endless overrides. Just solid pieces I can drop in and style with Tailwind. It respects both the craft of frontend work and the reality that I need to move quickly.

5. 9ui: the MVP accelerator

9ui lets me build internal tools and dashboards with drag-and-drop speed, but it still respects my logic and data structures. It's perfect for early-stage ideas, admin panels, or any workflow where speed matters but jank isn't an option.

6. Cursor + MCPs: my AI pair (supercharged with context)

Cursor gives me responsive, inline code generation. MCPs give me long-term memory and structure. I use them together to draft components, debug logic, and think through product architecture without losing clarity or momentum.

The stack matters

These tools don't just help me move faster. They help me think more clearly, stay organized, and ship with confidence. If you've got a stack that sharpens your instincts without slowing you down, I'd love to hear about it on X or Threads.

You want to stay sharp, keep up, and tap the bleeding edge of AI tools, automation, and workflows.

But then you catch yourself relying on them a little too much—outsourcing the work your brain used to do on its own.

It feels productive in the moment, and honestly, it might be. But there are trade-offs: thinking less, trusting your gut less, and forgetting how to wrestle with/work through hard problems.

It's something I've noticed in my own work. How about yours?

icon:star This Caught My Eye

LLMs are making me dumber

If you've felt your creative instincts softening lately, this piece will land. Vincent writes about how the overuse of AI tools starts to offload the very things that make us human—taste, judgment, memory, grit. I've felt this too. Staying current without becoming passive is a real balance.

Read more →

icon:hammer This Week I Built

Jasin's UI is growing up fast

Here's what changed:

• Google OAuth login flow now buttery smooth
• Context-aware upgrade modal: shows the why, not just the price
• Product color, loading states, and dashboard visuals all cleaned up
• Embed system refactored with Radix + Google Fonts
• Animated product carousel now live for previewing Pro embeds

If you're interested in playing around with it when I launch the beta, I'd love to have you sign up!

icon:wrench Tools I'm Trying

Clipmate

AI that repackages long videos into short, shareable clips. Haven't used it yet, but it's high on the list for content workflows.

CodeRabbit

Automated code reviews with useful summaries and inline suggestions. Still needs human judgment, but solid for early passes.

icon:palette Creative Corner

CTA Gallery

Curated inspiration for creative technologists. Experimental, visual, and just weird enough to be useful.

WannaThis Freebies

Free UI kits, 3D mockups, and illustrations. High quality, low commitment. Good for fast visuals.

Tangerine

A bold retro typeface with wide curves. Not subtle—but perfect when you want the text to punch through the screen.

Anatomy of the Letterform

Deep dive on typography from Pangram Pangram. Useful if you're brushing up on type fundamentals or just need new reference points.

icon:sparkles Style + Signal

FieldStation42

A Raspberry Pi rig that simulates old-school broadcast TV—complete with static, sign-offs, and live channel flipping. Pure digital nostalgia.

Internet Artifacts

A museum of weird, wonderful early web junk. Prepare to lose your weekend in a scroll hole.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

AI tools are like interns with unlimited energy but zero taste. They can do the work—but you have to do the thinking. The moment you stop, you're not delegating anymore. You're disappearing.

This week was the gut digging type.

It's not always visible, but it's the kind of work that earns compound interest. Especially when you're trying to turn a one-person idea into a product people use and trust.

Here's what I've been working on, thinking about, and bookmarking this week.

icon:star This Caught My Eye

A minimalist e-ink dashboard designed for focus

Most displays and dashboards are designed to pull you in. This display by TRMNL does the opposite. You set it up once and then forget about it. No notifications. No tabs. Just enough friction to keep you intentional.

The battery lasts months, you can host your own server, and everything runs through a plugin system that's open-source and developer-friendly.

If you're building a business and juggling five tools, this might be the calm surface you didn't know you needed.

Read more →

icon:hammer This Week I Built

Trading speed for stability (and finally using MCP)

I switched Jasin over to Supabase MCP for managing database changes. And honestly, I should've done it sooner. Schema updates are now version-controlled, predictable, and easier to roll back if needed.

On the product side, I rolled out:

• Credit limits for free users (5 credits across the board)
• Stronger UI state handling
• Better avatar rendering, modal styling, gradient extraction for product cards
• New analytics dashboard for Pro users to track views/clicks

None of this is loud work, but it makes the app way more durable. And it clears the path for bigger features without duct-taping every edge case.

If you're interested in playing around with it when I launch the beta, I'd love to have you sign up!

icon:wrench Tools I'm Trying

Hyper

A new markup language for UI components—built to be readable by both humans and AI. Still early, but I like the thinking behind it.

App Stacks

Teardowns of real app tech stacks and daily tools. Helpful for spotting patterns across successful builds.

icon:palette Creative Corner

Edgy Katrina

Found this YouTube channel late one night and ended up watching five videos. She's a freelance designer in L.A. documenting her process, projects, and creative struggles in a way that's more honest than most. Worth a sub.

Adobe x Mother Design

I know people have mixed feelings about Adobe these days. But this rebrand is sharp. Mother Design nailed the color work, layout balance, and restraint. Great reference if you're thinking about brand systems.

icon:sparkles Style + Signal

"Internet" hat

Picked up this banger from Wes Bos' shop. It's "a hat for the 90s kids raised on unrestricted internet access." Say less.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

Sometimes, the best progress often looks like nothing. But you feel it when things work more smoothly, or when you realize you didn't have to hack around something this time.

I'll take that kind of progress any week.

I shipped a working product last weekend. Not a prototype, not a wireframe, an actual thing people could use. It took about 48 hours from the first idea to deployment.

You don't need a team for this. You don't need funding. You need a scoped idea, the right tools, and a bias for action.

This is the process I use to go from "half-idea" to "shipped MVP" in a weekend. It leans heavily on modern AI tools, but it's grounded in old-school creative process.

First though, let's talk about why most weekend builds fail.

The #1 reason people fail to ship anything

They treat the LLM like a genie instead of a contractor. They assume it'll "just know" what to do, then they complain when the code is broken, the UX is garbage, and they have no clue what their app even does.

This isn't the model's fault. It's yours.

If you can't articulate the plan clearly, you're going to get spaghetti output.

Other common failure points:

• Starting with code instead of clarity
• Asking the wrong model to do the wrong job
• Building before validating the idea
• Trying to make it "perfect" before it works
• Using AI to brainstorm and critique (don't do both with the same model)

All of these are avoidable. What follows is a playbook built around clear thinking, tight loops, and using the right tools for the job.

Step 1: Validate the idea first

Before you write a single line of code, you need to validate that your idea has a reason to exist.

Drop that idea into Gemini 2.5 Pro and ask it to survey the field: who's already solving this, what's their pitch, and what's missing?

Give Gemini a 2-3 sentence summary of what you're building, who it's for, and why it's better than what exists. That becomes the foundation for everything else.

Step 2: Stress-test the idea with Claude

Now take that summary and hand it off to Claude 3.7 Sonnet.

Ask: "Act like a cofounder trying to talk me out of building this. What are 10+ reasons this is a bad idea?"

Claude's great at asking the uncomfortable questions. Treat it like a sharp cofounder, not a cheerleader.

Then switch it up. Ask what pain you're actually solving, who cares the most, and what's the smallest version of this that's still useful.

This is where AI assistants really shine: not because they write code, but because they clarify your thinking.

Step 3: Write a 1-page PRD

This is arguably the most important step. It's where you crystallize the product vision.

Tell Claude: "Write a one-page product brief for this app." Include what it does, who it's for, 2-3 core features, and what success looks like.

This isn't busywork. This is anchor text for every future prompt. Don't skip it.

Step 4: Break the UI into chunks

Still in Claude, take the product brief and ask it to split the interface into pages and components.

This becomes your front-end checklist. Each section is one focused build session. No aimless wandering.

Step 5: Build the UI in Cursor

Now launch Cursor. Start with layout, not logic.

Claude 3.7 Sonnet inside Cursor is ridiculously productive when scoped well. And just so we're clear, for the rest of this article, you should be using Cursor with Claude 3.7 Sonnet as your AI coding assistant inside Cursor.

Your goal is a working visual shell. Navigation, forms, cards, all mocked out.

Step 6: Stay organized with Git

Use Github. Make regular commits. Even on a sprint.

If something breaks (and it will), you'll want a save point to roll back to. Especially when your Saturday brain is fried.

Step 7: Define your backend before touching it

Before you connect to Supabase (my favorite open-source Postgres database), stop and ask Claude to write a README.

It should cover the project summary, stack overview, how to install locally, how to deploy to Vercel, and a short data model.

This is your system blueprint. Build clarity now so you're not rewriting later.

Step 8: Ground Claude with working code

Claude does its best work when you feed it working context.

Prompt it like: "Here's a working fetch from Supabase. Use this structure to build X."

Anchoring with real code avoids fantasy endpoints and weird errors. You're giving it a mental model to copy from.

Step 9: Build backend features

Use Supabase for auth, tables and schema, and CRUD routes.

Move slowly. One table, one route, one test at a time.

Keep it lean. It's a weekend build, not your Series A deck.

Step 10: Debug with clean prompts

When things break, don't just dump errors into Claude.

Instead, prompt like this: "I expected X. I got Y. Here's the current code and the full error log. What's wrong?"

Claude's reasoning shines with structured input. Garbage in, garbage out.

If it's not clicking after a few replies, wipe the slate and try again with a new chat. Fresh context beats spiraling in the wrong direction.

The weekend stack

Here's what I'm using for each part of the process:

• Research and market synthesis: Gemini 2.5 Pro
• Planning and build logic: Claude 3.7 Sonnet
• UI: Next.js + Tailwind in Cursor
• Code management: Github
• Backend: Supabase
• Hosting: Vercel

That's the whole thing. Ten steps, one weekend, a shipped product. The AI doesn't do the thinking for you, but it makes the thinking way faster.

Lately, I've felt one pulling me inward. Less reacting to what's happening out there. More building from the inside out.

That shift has me rethinking how I show up here.

So this newsletter is evolving. From an impersonal link-roll into something more intentional.

A builder's log. A backstage feed. A digital mixtape of the tools, ideas, and experiments I'm working with each week.

Because if you're building anything on the web, you could probably use a spark. A shortcut. Or just a reminder you're not doing it alone.

icon:star Most Interesting

Vibe Marketing with AI Agents

Uncharted broke down how AI agents + personal taste + smart systems = a new kind of marketing playbook. Highlights: Use agents to grow channels you own (email > algorithm). Build workflows that self-improve, not one-off campaigns. Shift from "tools" to "systems that generate momentum." It's not about replacing your team. It's about scaling what makes you unique.

Read more →

icon:hammer This Week I Built

Progress on Jasin this week:

• Cleaned up deprecated scripts/styles
• Added error handling + new carousel logic
• Refactored styling + pricing display
• Improved CLS and caching with preconnect ops
• Mobile previews now live

icon:wrench Tools I'm Trying

Aqua

Voice-to-task automation. My shortcut is ⌥ + =. Saves me clicks and context switching. Gonna try going deeper this week.

Motion-Primitives

Tailwind + Motion components for tasteful animations.

Rayon

I'm redesigning my office again. Rayon gives you drag-and-drop interior layouts without the overkill. I'd pay for a one-time fee, but the monthly sub is hard to justify unless you're a spatial layout nerd.

icon:palette Creative Corner

Deep Focus Playlist

Pair it with Klack for peak productivity. It's my new deep work ritual.

Orchid Synthesizer

An advanced chord-generating keyboard that helps you make progressions you didn't know you had in you. It's like having a musical co-founder.

icon:sparkles Micro Notes

ShaderGPT

AI-powered shader generation. Wild experiments in visual computing.

ShumerPrompt

A goldmine of AI prompts for writing, design, and dev.

Chongqing in Pictures

Photo essay on the world's largest city. Instant wanderlust.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

Your environment will try to convince you that staying the same is safer. But friction is a signal. The itch is real. You don't need to blow up your whole life—just start building something that feels like you.

Clients came to us because we had process, polish, and a team that could scale with them.

But if I were starting today, I'm not sure I'd build an agency the same way.

Not because the work is less valuable—but because the way value is delivered has changed.

Getting from zero to one is faster than ever. A single person with the right AI-assisted tools can design, ship, and test ideas in days—not months.

When I think about the extended discovery phases, the wireframes, the polished decks we used to send—it's harder to justify that cycle now.

You can build something simple, put it into the world, and start collecting real feedback almost instantly.

That doesn't make agencies irrelevant. But it does make the old model harder to defend.

The margin, the speed, the iteration loops—all favor a different kind of business now.

Smaller. Tighter. Less human overhead. More systems thinking.

If I were starting today, I'd focus less on building a team—and more on building a system that could adapt, learn, and ship faster than the competition.

That's where the leverage is and where we're heading.

icon:star Most Interesting

What I learned at Figma

Robert Bye's reflections on his time at Figma emphasize the importance of developing strong product sense, including customer-centric thinking, collab culture, and iterative learning.

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The Age of Abundance

Tom Blomfield on what happens when AI makes everything cheaper to create.

Productivity by Sam Altman

In this oldie but goodie, Sam Altman emphasizes the significance of choosing the right work, cultivating independent thought, and surrounding oneself with positive, driven individuals.

icon:wrench Top Resources

Droppable

Easy file transfers for creatives. A native macOS app designed to send large files (up to 2TB) directly from the desktop.

Lovable 2.0

The AI coding assistant gets a major upgrade.

Perfektta

A font by Displaay Type Foundry available in 8 weights with italics and variable fonts. This blend of mechanical precision and humanistic quirks makes it a perfect choice for editorial and branding use.

icon:trending-up What's Trending

The Always-On Economy

Sequoia Capital's article explores how AI is transitioning industries into continuous, 24/7 operations by eliminating temporal constraints.

What I'd do as a college freshman

Murat Demirbas reflects on what he'd prioritize if starting over today.

OpenAI, Windsurf, and the future of AI workspaces

OpenAI is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Windsurf (formerly Codeium) for approximately $3 billion, marking its largest acquisition to date. OpenAI wants to develop the platform beyond a coding tool—making it a general-purpose AI workspace.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

The old model isn't dead—but the leverage has shifted. Build systems, not just teams.

I ran a creative agency for 14 years.

Clients came to us for the polish. The process. The confidence that we could scale with them.

But if I were starting today, I wouldn't build a creative agency the same way.

Not because the work isn't valuable. It's because the way value gets delivered has completely changed.

Going from zero to one is faster than it's ever been. One person with the right AI tools can design, ship, and test ideas in days, not months. That's just where we are now.

In that world, long discovery phases, polished decks, and endless wireframes don't just feel slow. They feel reckless. Especially for agencies still running the old playbook.

A scrappier team can build a prototype in 48 hours, start collecting real usage data, and outlearn you before your kickoff call is even over. You're not just behind. You're irrelevant.

Speed isn't a bonus anymore. It's the cost of entry.

The advantage goes to businesses that are smaller, sharper, and built to learn faster than they sell.

Creative agencies weren't built for this pace. But they could be, if they stopped optimizing for headcount and started optimizing for leverage. Less human overhead, more systems thinking. The leverage comes from stacking tools and feedback loops, not bodies.

If I were building today, I wouldn't start with a team. I'd start with a system that adapts, learns, and ships while everyone else is still scheduling meetings.

That's where the leverage is. And that's where creative agencies are heading, if they're willing to evolve.

Spoiler: Nobody.

It's a common trap—when personal passion masquerades as product validation. It feels like progress because you're busy, engaged, and "shipping." But it's often just motion without traction. A feature no one touches doesn't add value—it just adds weight.

In today's world, building is easier than ever. Deciding what to build and why—that's the hard part. Most of the time, a few quick customer calls, a rough prototype, or a ruthless two-week usage check will tell you more than weeks of building ever will.

icon:star Most Interesting

The scratch-my-own-itch trap

Jason Cohen explains why "I built it for myself" sounds better in theory. Founders love this origin story, but it often skips the hard part—finding out if anyone else needs the thing you're building.

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Notion Mail is here

Notion's take on email—designed for people who live in their workspace.

icon:wrench Top Resources

Monaspace

GitHub Next and Lettermatic built a type family that softens monospaced fonts. It adjusts spacing dynamically, so your IDE looks less like a ransom note. Tiny fix, massive daily impact.

That Guide to UI Design

A comprehensive, well-organized guide to UI design principles and patterns.

People's Graphic Design Archive

Design history, told by the people who made it. A messy, beautiful, crowd-sourced time machine. Oral histories, process docs, weird stuff from the 90s—it's all in there. Less museum, more mixtape.

icon:trending-up What's Trending

What makes designers and developers happy at work?

Figma's data says creative teams are thriving. 41% more satisfaction, 97% remote, and finally some respect for design orgs. Figma's report proves smart management and lightweight AI aren't perks—they're baseline. Happy teams build better products.

A practical guide to building agents

OpenAI's official guide to building AI agents—practical, grounded, and useful.

The new moat: Memory

Jeff Morris Jr. breaks down OpenAI's new memory feature—and why it changes the game. Persistent context means less prompting, better outputs, and a bond that's hard to replicate. Stanford data shows a 62% bump in long-haul tasks.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

Motion without traction is just exercise. Make sure you're building something someone actually needs.

I knew better, but I built it anyway.

Last Saturday I found myself deep in the weeds polishing an avatar builder for Jasin. Custom inputs. Slick UI. Thoughtful defaults. Designer catnip.

It felt like progress, until a stubborn bug slowed me down just long enough to ask the obvious question:

Who's actually going to use this?

Then it hit me. I wasn't building for users. I was building for myself.

It's a trap I've seen (and fallen into) plenty of times: creative momentum masquerading as product-market fit.

Passion feels productive, but it doesn't always ship. If you're not careful, it just burns time and clutters your backlog with beautiful dead ends.

The real challenge isn't building. It's deciding what not to build. Especially now, when AI-assisted tools make it easier than ever to build almost anything. That's where a lean mindset helps: validate ideas quickly, build only what's proven to matter.

To avoid falling into the same trap again, I've started running every new feature idea through a simple filter. It's nothing fancy, just a lightweight way to keep my roadmap focused and user-driven.

1. Ask "who cares?" before you touch any code

Every feature should have a clear user and a clear reason to exist. If you can't write that down in two sentences, stop. Write the README first. If it sounds vague or dull, the feature probably is too.

2. Don't let vibes determine what makes the cut

I felt productive because I was engaged. But engagement isn't evidence. If no one uses a feature in two weeks, archive it or cut it. Vibes don't scale. Clarity does.

3. Scratch your own itch on weekends, build for users during the week

It's tempting to indulge yourself. But if you're building a product (not a playground), your time has to earn its keep. Every hour you spend should compound for someone else.

This kind of deliberate prioritization might sound rigid, but it's what prevents bloat and keeps your product aligned with actual needs instead of your own enthusiasm.

That avatar builder was polished, slick, and useless. The faster I made peace with that, the faster I stopped mistaking motion for traction.

• Perplexity crossed 10M monthly users.
• Reddit now shows up in half of Google queries with the word "real" in them.
• 40% of Gen Z use TikTok as a primary search tool.

What started as a curiosity—trying out Perplexity, asking ChatGPT for quick summaries—has quietly turned into default behavior. I reach for specialized tools without thinking about it. They're faster, less cluttered, and give me answers shaped for how I think, not just what I typed.

I was curious to see if I was the only one. Turns out I'm not:

Search is no longer a monolith. It's splintering.

Google still owns the long tail—but the high-intent, high-friction stuff is leaking out.

Now I use Rewind to resurface things I've seen. Cursor handles all of my dev questions. For product reviews, Reddit, not Google. For research, Perplexity beats link-hopping every time.

We're watching the old idea of "search" fracture into jobs to be done. And the tools solving those jobs best? They aren't general-purpose.

They're specialists.

Focused, vertical tools that answer not just what, but why, how, and what's next.

They don't try to index the whole internet—they just get you what you actually needed in the first place.

That doesn't mean Google's dead—but the gravity has shifted. The winners of the future will be the tools that give you more clarity, not more choices.

And the best ones won't feel like "search" at all.

icon:star Most Interesting

Aperture wants to turn your phone inside out

Aperture reimagines phones with playful, tactile design—think peekable covers and real-time animations. It's weird, but delightful.

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The Great Progression

Kevin Kelly on how AI and technology are propelling us into a future of abundance.

Make new things and care deeply

Paul Graham argues that life's worth comes from crafting original work, not just doing what's expected.

icon:wrench Top Resources

MagicQuit

Taming Mac clutter by auto-quitting inactive apps. It avoids forced closures so unsaved work stays safe. Offline and open source, it cuts background bloat hassle-free.

Untools

A collection of thinking tools and frameworks for problem solving, decision making, and understanding systems.

Notes on problem solving

Jeremy Mikkola outlines a hands-on blueprint for tackling complex technical puzzles.

icon:trending-up What's Trending

What happens when a game studio forces AI on its devs?

Hint: nothing good. Almost every single metric that matters suffered after a game studio's CEO forces everyone to use AI.

The Age of Abundance

Tom Blomfield on what happens when AI makes everything cheaper to create.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

The best search tools won't feel like search at all. They'll feel like thinking.

I came to a realization this week: I hardly use Google anymore.

It started as curiosity. I tried Perplexity a few times, asked ChatGPT to summarize some things. But now it's just my default. I reach for specialized tools without even thinking about it. They're faster, cleaner, and they're shaped around how I actually think, not just the words I typed into a box.

So I got curious if this was just me being on the bleeding edge. It's not:

• Perplexity crossed 10M monthly users.
• Reddit shows up in half of Google searches that include "real."
• 40% of Gen Z uses TikTok as a primary search tool.

Search isn't a monolith anymore. It's splintering fast.

Google still dominates the long tail, sure. But the high-friction, high-intent stuff is already leaking out. Quietly. Consistently. The unbundling is happening whether Google likes it or not.

Dev questions? I use Cursor.

New products and ideas? Reddit and Hacker News.

General search and research? Perplexity beats hopping through SEO-choked links every time.

Search isn't a single destination anymore. It's a behavior, powered by LLMs, split across whatever tool is best for the job.

I think we're watching "search" fracture into jobs to be done. And the best tools don't try to do everything. They just solve your problem, and they do it really well.

They're specialists, not generalists. They don't show you the whole internet. Just the part you actually needed.

And maybe that's the future. Not more results, but better resolution. Not better rankings, but better reasoning. Not broader coverage, but sharper context.

Google isn't dead. But the gravity has definitely shifted.

The winners of the next decade won't feel like search engines. They'll feel like tools that think with you, not ones that just sit there waiting for input.

You scroll past them daily—half-baked comments, duct-taped workflows, broken UX that people oddly love. But instead of leaning in, we chase trendy, newer, "smarter" projects. Why? Because that obvious idea feels beneath us.

This week's links are a reality check: the best founders don't dream bigger, they observe better. If you're still hunting for your next big thing, maybe it's already in your search history—you just haven't reread it yet.

In this week's edition:

• Les Mapp's dead-simple method for spotting million-dollar ideas in Reddit comments and old forums
• Seth Godin on why obsessing over your startup's name is just high-effort procrastination
• Karri Saarinen's anti-hustle playbook for building standout products without sprinting into burnout
• A retro gaming stunt that exposes how fast tech loses its magic—and what that means for founders chasing "new"
• The UI kit that's weird on purpose—and why that's exactly what your design process needs
• And more...

icon:star Most Interesting

New tech wears off fast—and breaks your brain

A retro gaming stunt proves modern tools feel old in days. Our brains crave novelty, then delete the buzz almost instantly.

Read more →

The name doesn't matter

Seth Godin on why obsessing over your startup's name is just high-effort procrastination.

Million-dollar ideas are hiding in Reddit threads

Les Mapp turns niche complaints into recurring revenue—no AI, no big tech. He hunts raw pain in obscure comments and validates fast with simple MVPs.

Craft > chaos: Linear's slow-product strategy actually works

Karri Saarinen ditches speed for precision, proving that deep focus still builds buzz. His 10 rules prioritize clean teams, thoughtful decisions, and real user trust. Proof that "move fast" is just tech bro cope.

icon:wrench Tools I'm Trying

Joi Planner

A thoughtful planning tool for folks who want to be intentional about their time.

Fancy Components

Weird UI components that somehow spark better ideas. A copy-paste playground of offbeat Tailwind/React blocks. The weirdness feels silly until you use it—then it's liberating. A low-stakes way to un-stiff your design brain.

icon:trending-up What's Trending

Two-pizza teams just got replaced by one dude and ChatGPT

AI is vaporizing product workflows—no more docs, mockups, or meetings. Just build, ship, fix, repeat. If you're still scoping for six weeks, congrats—you're already behind.

The case against conversational interfaces

A thoughtful counterpoint to the chat-for-everything trend.

AI-2027

OpenBrain unveils a series of AI agents that rapidly outpace human research. AI-2027 maps a month-by-month collapse of control as models scale past human oversight. It's fiction—but barely. This timeline feels less like sci-fi and more like a spoiler alert.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

The best startup ideas aren't impressive—they're embarrassingly obvious in hindsight. Stop looking for clever. Start looking for annoying.

If you're looking for your next product idea, don't skip over the ones that feel obvious. Not because they're guaranteed to work, but because they often already are working.

That messy Notion doc someone turned into a business. The janky Chrome extension with 10K daily users. The product that looks like it was designed in 2014, but people keep using it.

These are the kinds of ideas that don't look impressive at first glance, but damn if they don't work.

You've seen them. You've probably dismissed them. I have too.

It's easy to chase the sleek idea, the trendy launch, the thing that "feels" more ambitious. We want to feel like visionaries. But those obvious, duct-taped solutions are often solving something real, quietly and effectively.

It sucks to admit, but I've skipped over simple ideas because they didn't feel "smart" enough, only to watch someone else build them, grow them, and turn them into a sticky little business.

How to spot better product ideas by watching what people already use

If you only take one thing from this post, it should be this: you don't need a novel invention. You need a better observation.

The friction you've worked around five times this week? That might be it. The tool you hate but still use? That might be it. The "dumb" thing in your search history that keeps popping up? That might be it.

In my case, that's exactly how Jasin started. I was tired of hacking ugly Amazon links into halfway-decent blog layouts. None of the existing tools felt modern or remotely enjoyable to use. So I built the tool I wished existed: clean product displays, powered by the Amazon API, that actually look like they belong on a site built this decade.

It didn't start as a grand plan. It started with a small friction point. But like a lot of good product ideas, it kept resurfacing until I had to build it.

Ideas don't always shout. Sometimes they're buried in habits. In duct tape. In spreadsheets. But when you see someone suffer through a broken process and do it anyway? That's not a red flag. That's demand.

Great product ideas often look small at first. But once you start noticing the patterns (habits, workarounds, pain points) they show up everywhere.

Not because they're clever. Because they're useful.

If you've ever opened, clicked, replied, or forwarded—thank you. Here's to a hundred more.

In this week's edition:

• Going all-in on obsessions: How fixations can fuel your deepest creative streak
• A weird A/B test: Crisp screenshots replaced with blurry teasers—conversion rate soared
• White-collar layoffs: Starbucks slices 1,000 corporate gigs, proving no job is bulletproof
• And more...

icon:star Most Interesting

Stamina > Talent

Obsession isn't a bug. It's the whole operating system. A designer followed their weirdest fixations—snakes, treadmills, antique signage—and built a wildly original career around them. This piece nails why chasing interests beats chasing productivity.

Read more →

Kupajo

One of the weirdest A/B tests I've seen (but it worked). Tom blurred part of his product screenshot—and conversions jumped. The lesson? Sometimes curiosity is more interesting than clarity, at least for first impressions. It's dumb, effective, and very internet.

Read more →

icon:wrench Top Resources

Screenshot exports still look like garbage? Here's the fix.

Max Burnside explains how to stop Figma's color profile bugs from ruining your exports. If your UI looks washed out on Twitter, this is why.

Polarr ColorMatch

A powerful tool for matching color profiles across different platforms and devices.

High Agency: Rethinking limits through bold, creative action

A great piece by George Mack. If you read one article in this week's newsletter, this should be it.

icon:trending-up What's Trending

Is knowledge work headed for a permanent decline?

Starbucks cuts over 1,000 corporate gigs as white-collar job losses spike. Rising unemployment, flat wages, and AI shifts unsettle how office work operates. (NYT)

What kind of disruption?

Benedict Evans on the different flavors of disruption and what they mean for the future.

Browse no more

Paul Stamatiou says we're done clicking around. With AI interfaces answering for us, the whole premise of "surfing" is on the decline.

icon:message-circle Closing Thought

100 editions. 100 weeks. That's a lot of time spent finding, filtering, and sharing. But here's the thing: I don't do this because I have to. I do it because curiosity is a muscle, and this is how I train mine.

Thanks for being here.

There's this myth in the creator world that scrolling equals research.

Every tap, every swipe, every "just checking what others are doing" gets dressed up as staying informed or finding inspiration. But here's what's actually happening: you're avoiding the hard part. The not-knowing. The blank page. The discomfort of not having it figured out yet. So you hand the algorithm your attention and hope someone else's clarity will stand in for your own.

And the worst part? It feels productive.

The real cost of digital distraction

I've done it too. Told myself I'm collecting ideas.

You're tapping through your feed, watching what other creators are building, convincing yourself it's fuel for your own work. But halfway through, I realize I'm not collecting anything. I'm comparing. I'm not creating. I'm consuming. The more tabs I have open, the less I trust my own ideas.

It's not inspiration. It's sedation.

Replace scrolling with sorting

Instead of feeding your brain someone else's clarity, feed it your own breadcrumbs. Take the same 15 minutes you'd spend doom-scrolling and review your notes, your voice memos, your unfinished drafts, your half-built prototypes.

You don't need more input. You need to process what you already have. That's what actually builds a creator mindset.

The old belief is dying

We're leaving the age of just-in-case consumption. There's too much noise out there now (thanks, AI).

You don't need to see what every founder on X is building. You don't need 42 tabs open "just in case." You don't need to absorb more before you feel ready. You need trust in your own direction, and the focus to follow it.

The people who are actually building things aren't always in your feed. They're too busy being in the weeds. If you're tired of living in the margins of someone else's clarity, maybe it's time to unplug and get back to yours.

Every founder is a gambler at their core.

Not in the reckless, chips-all-in-on-a-bluff way, but in the calculated, asymmetric-upside way. Every decision you make (what to build, when to launch, who to hire) is a bet. Some look like sure things. Others feel like total long shots. And some don't even make sense until you see them in the rearview mirror.

I've been thinking lately about a few bets that paid off:

• A FAANG engineer who quit before AI made the decision for them.
• Founders shipping before they feel ready, because the only real validation is market feedback.
• Entrepreneurs doubling down on what's working while everyone else chases trends.

None of them had a guarantee. But they all knew the same thing: waiting for certainty is the safest way to lose.

Safe bets are a myth

Hindsight makes bold decisions look obvious. But in the moment, they feel risky. That's the whole thing about real bets, they don't come with safety nets. Staying put feels safer, but that's just inertia pretending to be logic.

Amazon didn't look like a guaranteed win. Neither did Airbnb. Neither did the first person who slapped a $99 price tag on a PDF and called it a business.

But that's the point. The biggest wins tend to come from bets that, at the time, felt just a little reckless.

Bet on what you can control

Trends shift. Markets change. The only real hedge is your ability to make decisions with incomplete information.

Most people treat action like a high dive. They stand on the edge, analyze the angle, calculate the entry, wait for the perfect moment. But great founders don't hesitate at the edge. They step off, adjust mid-air, and figure out how to hit the water right before impact.

If you're waiting for permission, for guarantees, for everything to line up just right, you're not betting. You're stalling. And if you're going to bet on something, bet on your ability to land on your feet.

Your inbox probably looks a lot like mine right now. Stuffed with marketing emails that all sound the same.

The same templates. The same buzzwords. And now, mixed in everywhere, those AI-generated emails that somehow manage to sound both robotic and trying-too-hard-to-be-human at the same time.

Everyone's copying everyone else. We're all chasing metrics and "best practices," but we've forgotten something important: people want to connect with people. Real people. Not algorithms, not templates, not whatever ChatGPT thinks a human sounds like.

Think about the last email that actually made you smile. The one you wanted to read. I bet it felt like it came from a real person, not some marketing robot. In a world where AI is writing more and more of our content, your voice matters more than it ever has.

Here's what I've learned working with creators and newsletter operators over the past couple of years. The magic isn't in fancy templates or growth hacks. It's in being human. Writing like you talk. Telling stories that matter.

When you drop the marketing speak and just write like yourself, something interesting happens. More people read your emails. They reply to share their own stories. Real conversations start. And yes, real sales happen too (naturally).

I see it all the time. The writers who dare to be themselves build genuine connections. Their subscribers stick around. Their business grows. And they actually enjoy writing again.

Your subscribers signed up to hear from you: the real you. Not some polished corporate version. Not some cookie-cutter template. And definitely not an AI pretending to be you.

It's time to write like a human again.

I always get reflective around the new year. Not the highlight-reel version, but the actual story of what happened, what worked, and what didn't.

2024 wasn't what I expected. There were no big viral moments or massive launches. It was a year of laying foundations, making connections, getting clarity on the work, and positioning things for 2025.

Here's what that looked like.

Finding my people

Building online can be really lonely.

You're sitting at your desk late at night, working on something you believe in, and you start wondering if anyone else gets it. If any of it matters.

I spent most of 2024 looking for those people. The ones who understand why you'd spend hours tweaking a line of code or reworking a sentence until it feels right. I found them on X first, where I spent most of the year engaging with other creators and founders.

But things changed in November.

I discovered a totally different energy on Threads. It felt more real. Less about metrics and growth hacks, more about community, friendship, and building things that matter. The conversations there reminded me why I started building in the first place.

This year didn't bring immediate collaborations, but it brought something better: real connections with people like me who understand the journey. That's the kind of thing that makes me excited for what's ahead.

Making a creative home at Switchyards

Switchyards finally opened a location near me this year, and I'd been waiting for it. The vibe is different. Calmer. More intentional. No forced networking or startup buzzwords. Just people in my community focused on creating good work.

View on Threads

I'll be honest, I haven't taken full advantage of the space yet. Life gets in the way sometimes. But each visit reminds me why I wanted to be part of it. It's exactly what I've been looking for: a place to connect with other creators, recharge when working from home gets isolating, and focus without distractions.

I'm spending more time there in 2025, because sometimes you need more than a home office to do your best work.

The evolution of my personal site

Every creator needs a home base. A place that's truly theirs. My personal site has always been that for me. This year I focused on making it better, not just different.

First came the new logo: a geometric, flowing "MD" mark that feels modern but personal. I also worked on a simple new color palette that I'll roll out across the site in early 2025.

Then there was MD Radio. A side project built with Next.js that wasn't about growth or numbers. It was about experimenting with a framework I've been wanting (and needing) to learn for a while. I change the music with the season, so it's a way to keep my chops up while building something fun just for the heck of it.

But the design and build updates aren't the real story. The real story of 2024 is the writing.

I published 36 articles this year. Not for SEO. Not for metrics. I wrote them to explore ideas that needed more room to breathe and to give other creative founders answers to questions they're struggling with that I've already tackled.

Testing the waters with coaching. Again.

I'd run a successful asynchronous coaching beta the year before. The reviews were great. But two questions kept nagging at me:

• Was this program actually helpful, or did I just get lucky the first time?
• Could I see myself doing this long-term, or was it just a nice experiment?

So I tried it again. Six people signed up: course creators, founders, designers. Each with their own challenges and their own ideas about building something meaningful.

The feedback was great. "Matt's a very smart guy," one participant wrote. "He's got a lot of experience across the whole gamut of digital marketing, product creation, audience building, and more."

But the biggest lesson wasn't about the feedback.

It was about scale. Coaching creates deep change, but it's still trading time for money. Now I'm thinking about a bigger question: how do you scale impact without losing what makes it special?

I'm still offering my Spark plan for folks looking for an immediate impact, but I've paused adding new members to the program until I figure things out.

Refining Digital Native

Digital Native has been around in one form or another for years. And like everything worth building, it needed to evolve.

This year, that evolution sped up.

Reader feedback pushed me toward more tactical, practical content. Last week I sent out the final email of 2024, letting subscribers know there will be less stories about what I've done (which are great, but very specific) and more content to support modern creative founders: resources, links, interesting articles, and some fun along the way.

I also made a tough call: I pruned the subscriber list substantially. A bigger audience isn't always a better audience. Sometimes you need to focus on the people who actually want to be there. So I chopped over 50% of my subscribers and decided to start the year fresh.

Moving to Beehiiv was another big milestone. The platform has everything I need: a built-in ad network, great publishing tools, and it's founder-led, which matters to me. My small angel investment in the platform reflects my belief in their vision, but more importantly, the product itself makes creating and sharing content a joy.

I even got to flex my dev skills by building a custom login form with their API (because why use the default when you can make something fun, right?).

View on Threads

Digital Native is changing again in 2025. Less about my journey, more about yours. More curated resources. More tools creative founders can actually use to move the needle and make this the best year yet for their business.

If that sounds like it's up your alley, you can sign up to get the first issue of 2025 on Saturday.

Learning from 1,000 sales

Here's something embarrassing: I made over 1,000 Super template sales without a proper post-purchase email funnel. No upsells. No follow-ups. Nothing. Just silence after the sale.

It's one of those things you know you need to fix, but it ends up on the back burner staring at you for months, judging you.

So this year, I finally did something about it. The implementation isn't anything special: just a simple 3 email sequence. But it's done and it offers an upsell that wasn't there before. Sometimes that's enough.

There was another bright spot this year: my Solo template for Super. It almost instantly became one of my bestsellers and people from all over the world are using it to feature their work. That's still so cool to me.

Building JASIN: the modern Amazon affiliate toolkit

The success of Solo taught me something important: when you solve a real problem with thoughtful design, people respond.

That lesson led me to my next project, which started with a frustration.

My frustration was with AAWP: the tool everyone uses for Amazon affiliates. It works. It does the job. But it looks and feels like it was built in a different era of the web. Because it was.

So in late October, I started building JASIN: a way to turn boring Amazon Affiliate links into beautifully branded templates.

It hasn't been easy. The Amazon API feels like it was designed by a committee that never met. Building a user-friendly interface over something that complex sometimes feels like trying to gift wrap a cactus.

But with AI code pairing tools like Cursor, it's been manageable. And when you're building something you believe in, the headaches are worth it.

Q1 2025 is when it all comes together. I'm planning to launch JASIN officially and get it in the hands of Amazon Affiliate marketers who can give me feedback and help shape the future of beautiful, personalized Amazon listings for everyone.

The year that was

Looking back, 2024 wasn't what I expected. It was better.

It was about building foundations, making connections, and learning what matters. Every project, every conversation, every late-night coding session pointed toward something bigger. Not just what to build, but who to build it for.

That's the kind of progress I can be proud of.

I use my calendar as a to-do list. Instead of writing tasks down on paper or in an app, I put them directly into time slots on my calendar.

It's not a new idea, but it works better than any productivity system I've tried. Here's why:

A calendar forces you to be realistic about time. No matter how optimistic you are, you can't fit 8 hours of work into a 3-hour window.

If you're new to time blocking or just want to try it more in the new year, let me show you how this actually works.

How time blocking actually works

I'm a knowledge worker, and the thing that took me a while to figure out is that you have to block time intentionally. Pick a digital calendar (Google or Apple Calendar both work great) and start by blocking just one important task.

Instead of writing "Write proposal" on a list, put it in your calendar: "Tuesday, 10am-11:30am: Write proposal."

The difference between this and a regular to-do list is that you can see exactly when you'll start each task, not just that you need to do it. Think about a typical workday: emails, meetings, deep work, all fighting for your attention. Time blocking gives each thing its own space. I batch all my client calls on Tuesday afternoons, do creative work in morning blocks, and handle admin stuff (email, invoicing) in two focused blocks after lunch.

I've also found that task batching makes this way more effective. Instead of scattering three writing tasks across the day, block time for them back-to-back. Think of it like laundry. You don't wash one sock at a time. So why would you handle similar tasks one at a time? Your brain will thank you.

To make batching work even better, I use a real timer (not my phone). When I batch-process emails, I set a 30-minute timer and get through as many as I can. For writing, I might set three 45-minute blocks back-to-back with short breaks in between. The point is staying focused during each block, and that's why I use a cheap kitchen timer instead of my phone. One more thing: don't block every minute. Leave gaps. Things always take longer than expected, and sometimes you just need a minute to think.

Common time blocking challenges (and their solutions)

Here's where most beginners get stuck:

"What if my day gets completely derailed?" Treat your time blocks like water, not ice. They can flow into new spaces when needed. The goal isn't perfect adherence, it's intentional planning.

"How do I handle interruptions?" Build in buffer blocks. I keep 30-minute gaps between major time blocks. They catch the overflow from tasks that run long and handle surprise interruptions.

"What about tasks that take longer than expected?" This is honestly the best part of time blocking: you learn how long things actually take. When a task runs over its block, that's data. Adjust future blocks based on what you learn. After a few weeks, your estimates get surprisingly accurate.

"Do I really need to block time for small tasks?" For the first few weeks, yes. Block time even for 15-minute tasks. It feels like overkill, but it teaches you something important: how your time actually gets spent. Once you have a feel for it, you can group smaller tasks into a single "admin time" block.

After years of doing this, the biggest thing I've taken away isn't about getting more done. It's about being realistic with my time and energy. When you see your day laid out in blocks, you make better decisions about what you can actually take on and what needs to get pushed or dropped.

If you want to try this, open your calendar right now. Find a 90-minute slot tomorrow. Block it for one important task. That's it. You've started time blocking.

Your team is fixated on getting the design just right. You're spending hours tweaking button colors, adjusting padding, debating whether that shade of blue feels "energetic enough."

Things are moving. Everyone's engaged. It feels like progress.

But there's that nagging feeling in your gut, the one telling you none of this is addressing the real problems your product has.

The declining user engagement. The growing list of feature requests. The scalability issues you've been putting off.

This plays out in product teams everywhere. We pour energy into redesigns, surface tweaks, and UI overhauls. Not because aesthetics don't matter, but because it's easier to feel productive when doing them. It's a defense mechanism, a way to avoid confronting uncomfortable truths about your product or business.

I call it the productive procrastination trap. And if you're building digital products, you've probably fallen into it more times than you'd like to admit.

Why we mistake busy work for real progress

Think about the last time you knew something was fundamentally wrong with your product. Maybe users weren't sticking around, or key metrics were heading south. What did you do?

If you're like most teams I work with, you probably launched a redesign project, tweaked the UI "to improve user experience," spent days perfecting animations, or debated color schemes endlessly.

It feels productive. It feels safe. And that's exactly the problem.

Because while you're busy making things pretty, the real issues (the ones that actually matter to your business) keep growing. It's like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The uncomfortable truths we're avoiding

In my experience working with dozens of startups, productive procrastination usually masks three things:

Core functionality problems. Your product might look stunning, but if basic features are broken or confusing, no amount of polish will fix that. I recently worked with a SaaS startup that spent months on a beautiful dashboard redesign while their core feature had a 40% failure rate.

Market fit uncertainty. Sometimes the hardest truth to face is that people might not want what you're building. One founder I know spent weeks perfecting his landing page, all while avoiding the pile of user interviews showing people wouldn't pay for his solution.

Technical debt. Your backend might be held together with duct tape and prayers, but hey, at least those buttons have a nice hover state, right? This is especially common in early-stage startups where quick wins feel more valuable than structural improvements.

Breaking free from productive procrastination

Getting out of this trap takes awareness and a plan. Here's what I've seen work.

Ritualize core problem-solving. Instead of endless design meetings, try this approach I learned from a successful product team in my 45royale days. Schedule weekly "reality check" sessions focused exclusively on user feedback and core metrics. No discussion of aesthetics allowed, only functionality and value. Document decisions and next steps.

Use data to drive priorities. Before any visual changes, ask yourself: what problem does this solve? How will we measure improvement? Could this time be better spent on core issues?

Make the scary stuff routine. Turn those big, intimidating tasks into regular habits. Monthly user interview days. Weekly technical debt reviews. Regular deep dives into usage metrics.

The mindset shift

The teams I've seen break free from productive procrastination all share one thing: they learned to get comfortable with discomfort.

They understood that real progress often feels messier than surface improvements. That's okay. Actually, it's necessary.

Because your users don't care if your blue is "vibrant enough" if your product doesn't solve their problems.

The next time you find yourself in a three-hour design debate, stop and ask:

"What am I really avoiding here?"

The answer might be uncomfortable. But facing it is the only way to build something that truly matters.

Q4 is here. The last three months of the year always feel like they carry more weight than the other nine, and honestly, they probably do. Every decision you make from now until December 31st shapes how this year gets remembered. But it's not just about wrapping things up. These months are the bridge to next year.

I think a lot of people treat Q4 like a countdown. They're already mentally checked out, thinking about the holidays, wondering how many days are left. But that's exactly when there's the most opportunity. If you can stay locked in while everyone else is coasting, you'll be surprised how much ground you can cover.

So here's how I'm thinking about the rest of the year: make every day of Q4 count, reflect on the wins and losses from the first nine months, use those lessons to prep for next year, and stay aware of the unique rhythms this quarter brings (holidays, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, all of it). These events are real opportunities, but only if you're ready for them.

Compound your quarter

A lot of people wait until December for the big year-end push. But that's too late. October and November matter just as much. A strong finish isn't about sprinting at the end. It's about consistent effort every single day.

Take a minute to look back at what worked this year and what didn't. No judgment, just honest assessment. Ground your Q4 actions in those lessons and you'll set yourself up for a much stronger close than if you just wing it.

Define your year, now

Everything you do in these next few months will shape the story of this year. That's not motivational fluff, it's just how it works. The projects you ship, the problems you solve, the effort you put in, that's what defines the year.

So decide what kind of impact you want to make. Get clear on it. Align your focus (and your team's focus, if you have one) with that vision. When you're intentional about every move, you leave a mark. When you're not, you just kind of drift to the finish line.

Foundations for tomorrow

I'm focused on finishing this year strong, but I also know that the habits and choices I make right now are going to fuel next year's momentum. It's both at the same time.

Balance your immediate goals with the bigger picture. Think about how today's decisions set you up for what comes after January 1st. By building that kind of foresight into your Q4 plans, you're not just closing out the year. You're giving yourself a head start on the next one.

Go with the flow

Q4 isn't just about reflection. It's also packed with possibilities. As the year winds down, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by everything that's happening. But try to see it the other way: there's a ton of momentum to ride right now.

Have a plan, but stay flexible. The pace of Q4 is different from the rest of the year, and you need to be ready to adjust. Things will come up that you didn't expect. Some of those things will be problems, some will be opportunities. Either way, staying agile is what separates a strong finish from a stressful one.

The year's not over. There's still time to make it count.

The internet has been about volume for a long time. More content, more options, more noise. But the value being created online right now isn't really about how much you produce. It's about what you choose to highlight, share, and talk about.

If you're a creative founder building digital companies, products, or SaaS businesses, curation is going to become a bigger part of your role. Knowing what deserves attention (and why) matters more than just pumping things out.

It's not enough to build something and push it into the world. Markets are too crowded. Audiences are too overwhelmed. People aren't looking for another option, they're looking for the right option.

Curation helps filter the noise down to what actually matters and what resonates. I'm not just talking about content or features here. It's about framing a narrative, setting a tone, and defining what your brand or community stands for.

When you curate well, you don't just attract "customers" or "clients", you attract people who see things the way you do. You're building a shared understanding. A collective mindset. And that's where things get interesting.

You're not just offering a product. You're creating a context in which that product or idea thrives. Curation isn't a tactic. It's a form of leadership. And that connects directly to the power of exclusivity.

Exclusivity done right

Exclusivity isn't about shutting people out. It's about making the experience feel earned and shared. When access to your product, community, or curated content feels special, it adds real value.

People want to feel like they're part of something that not everyone gets to be part of. It's not just about being in the know, it's about being in. Part of a group, a movement, a vision. But exclusivity has to be handled carefully. It should create depth, not division.

There's actually a good lesson from more traditional organizations like fraternities and sororities. They've thrived for decades, not by letting everyone in, but by carefully selecting who fits their culture and values. Membership isn't just a status. It's an identity, a shared journey.

Digital companies and SaaS platforms can take a page from that. It's about creating environments where members feel part of something meaningful, not just consuming a service.

The human element

In a world where algorithms try to predict our every move, the human element in curation is what sets you apart. The curators who stand out aren't the ones who follow trends. They're the ones who shape them. Who don't just respond to what's happening but define what comes next.

Data can tell you what's trending, but it can't tell you why it matters.

I do think there's a flip side though. Over-curation or too much exclusivity can create a narrow bubble, a space where diversity of thought is lost and new ideas struggle to break through. The challenge is striking a balance: creating something that feels curated and intentional but not closed off to new voices. Being selective yet open. Creating a sense of belonging that still invites contribution and evolution.

Curation as a strategic advantage

In a world where information is cheap and abundant (the AI-driven world at our doorstep), the value lies in the ability to filter, focus, and provide meaning. Curation is going to transform from a nice-to-have skill into a real strategic advantage. The future belongs to the people who curate not just content but experiences, who guide their communities with purpose and vision.

It's less about shouting to be heard and more about saying something that matters.

And honestly, this is what people want. It's what they've always wanted. Less noise, more clarity. Less overwhelm, more insight. If you can provide that, if you can be the curator who defines what's worth paying attention to, you're not just another option. You're the one people come back to.

I've been building creatively driven businesses for about a decade now. Here's what I wish someone had told me when I was starting out.

1. Prioritize action over perfection

Nine times out of ten, launching with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is better than waiting for "the perfect time." It rarely exists. Real-world experience and quick customer feedback will teach you more than endless planning or polishing ever could. Just ship it.

2. Invest wisely

You might think saving every penny is important at the beginning. In some cases, it is. But excessive frugality can actually cost you more in the long run. Strategic spending upfront saves you headaches and expenses later. Spend on equipment and people first, then focus on scaling.

3. Target higher-value customers

Over time, you'll realize it's often just as easy to attract a $10,000 customer as it is a $1,000 one. Aim higher and price your services with confidence. Your pricing is a signal of your value. Don't underestimate what you're worth.

4. Embrace the non-scalable

Not every business needs to be a unicorn to be successful. And having a "lifestyle" business isn't a bad thing. In fact, most people I know with a lifestyle business are very happy, both personally and professionally.

5. Simplify your offerings

Too many choices can overwhelm potential customers. My agency experience taught me that a streamlined, well-curated selection of products or services can actually boost sales and simplify your operations. Focus on what you do best.

6. Create value before sales

Trust is the currency of business. Build trust first by giving away valuable content. Once you've earned it, guiding potential customers to your offerings becomes much easier.

7. Be prepared to evolve

As your business grows, you might need to change direction or even let go of certain customers. This is a sign of progress, not failure.

You don't need a perfect plan to get started. Turn the key and hit the gas: the road will teach you how to drive.

Last Thursday, an email from Greg Isenberg's newsletter hit my inbox. It immediately caught my attention, and since I knew I'd be flying in a few days, I saved it for later.

Well, I just finished reading it and wanted to jot down my thoughts while they're fresh (and while the good vibes from this Jack and Ginger at 30,000 feet are still with me).

In his email, Greg makes the case that marketers are the new engineers. He says the tech world is shifting: from idolizing the 10x engineer to crowning the content marketer.

His reasons come down to three things.

First, AI is changing everything. With tools like ChatGPT and Claude generating code in minutes, the value isn't just in engineering anymore. It's about capturing and holding attention. I couldn't agree more.

Second, the brand evidence is hard to ignore. Greg highlights that "Companies investing in content marketing see six times higher conversion rates. Brands with strong content marketing enjoy 7.8 times more site traffic." He points to Duolingo's quirky TikToks, turning a language app into a social media sensation with 12.5M followers, and Notion's community-driven content that's so impactful fans tattoo the logo on themselves. That's loyalty.

Third, content is the new moat. In a world where products are easily replicated by ever-cheaper and accessible technology, your unique edge lies in how you tell your story.

Greg's points are spot-on, but they sparked something bigger for me. A realization about a broader online shift that goes beyond just marketing: the rise of copywriting as a universal skill.

Copywriting: no longer nice-to-have

Copywriting used to be a secret dark art that came solely from the bellies of ad agencies and marketing departments. Businesses would shell out piles of cash, footing the bill for three-martini lunches, all in the name of "creativity." We've all seen Mad Men, right?

But these days, I'm noticing copywriting everywhere. Whether I'm tuning into a podcast or scrolling through X, it's impossible to miss its growing presence.

Those entrepreneurs spending days fine-tuning their pitch decks for funding? Copywriting.

The landing page your favorite indie developer put together to sell their product? Copywriting.

And those content creators on X you follow, the ones who always seem to have something compelling, interesting, or unique on their timeline? Say it with me: copywriting.

Copywriting isn't just for Madison Avenue anymore. It's becoming a vital skill for anyone looking to make their mark on the world. Whether you're selling a product, an idea, or yourself, you're in the copywriting game now.

The brave new world of content marketing

If copywriting is no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity, today's content creators are going to have to navigate some uncharted territory.

I think the creators and marketers who will succeed in the coming years aren't just good writers. They're a hybrid: part copywriter, part community builder, part psychologist, and full-time brand guardian.

These marketers won't just "create." They'll forge new connections while pulling their product, idea, and brand identity forward.

That's a tall order.

So what does this mean for content creators, marketers, and entrepreneurs over the next few years?

First, you need to sharpen your storytelling skills. Learn to say things simply, beautifully, and persuasively: clear over clever, every time.

Next, master the art of distribution. The best content in the world means nothing if it's hidden away in a dark, dusty, digital corner. You need to spend as much time getting your words, ideas, and stories in front of people as you do creating the content.

Finally, build your brand, because it will be both your shield and your spotlight. Figure out what makes you "you," and lean into it with everything you've got.

The 3 C's

Your ideas matter, and people want to hear them. To navigate this new world where everyone's a copywriter, I think focusing on three areas can make a real difference. I call them the 3 C's.

Convey. Can you explain complex ideas with real clarity? Can you simplify the complicated without dumbing it down? Can you explain blockchain in a way that your grandma would understand and actually be intrigued by?

Convince. Can you craft an argument so compelling that your audience can't help but nod along? Can you persuade without being pushy? Think about how Apple convinces us we need the latest iPhone: not through hard sells, but through storytelling that makes us feel like we're part of something bigger.

Connect. Can you build genuine relationships through your words? Can you make each reader feel like you're speaking directly to them? This is what separates good content from great content: the ability to make your audience feel seen and understood.

Flex those copywriting muscles

I hope you take some (or all) of these ideas for a spin. I'll be working on these skills more myself, but for now, I have a Jack and Ginger to finish.

P.S. Sign up for Greg's newsletter if you haven't already. You won't be disappointed.

So you've made the sale, either through your Welcome sequence or your Nurture sequence. Pop the champagne, right? Not so fast.

If you think your job is done once the money hits your account, you're leaving a ton of cash on the table. But worse than that, you're missing the chance to turn one-time buyers into people who actually care about your brand.

These post-purchase emails are basically a friendly follow-up conversation with your customers after they buy. It's not just about saying thanks. It's about making them feel like they made the right call and pulling them deeper into your world.

A few things I want you to take away from this:

• Post-purchase emails build real relationships with customers
• They can seriously boost sales and loyalty
• A good sequence includes thank you, support, and bonus offer emails

Why post-purchase sequences matter

I've seen firsthand how post-purchase email sequences can make or break a business. They're not just about saying "thanks for buying." They're about building relationships.

Think about it. You've been in their shoes. You just bought something online. You're excited, maybe a little nervous, and you're probably wondering what happens next.

That's where a good post-purchase sequence comes in. It's like having someone guide you through the experience instead of leaving you hanging.

Here's an example: I once bought a new coffee maker. The company sent me a series of emails that made me feel like a barista-in-training. They shared tips, recipes, and even a fun quiz about coffee. I was hooked.

A well-timed post-purchase sequence can boost sales, build trust, increase customer satisfaction, and create actual brand advocates. Over the years, I've landed on a few key components that make these sequences work. Here's what I use.

1. The "thank you" email

I always start with a genuine thank you. It's not just good manners, it sets the tone for the whole relationship. I make sure to personalize it with the customer's name and what they bought.

Example

"Hey [Name],

Thanks so much for your order of [Product]! I'm thrilled you chose us and can't wait for you to try it out.

I'll keep you posted on shipping updates. In the meantime, if you have any questions, just hit reply.

Thanks again, [Your Name]"

This simple gesture goes a long way in making customers feel valued right from the start.

2. The "quick win" email

Next up, I like to help customers get an early win with their purchase. It builds excitement and shows them the value of what they bought before any doubt creeps in.

For instance, if I sold a productivity app, I might send:

Example

"Hi [Name],

Ready for a 2-minute productivity boost? Here's a super quick way to set up your first task in [App Name]:

1. Open the app
2. Tap the '+' icon
3. Type your task and hit 'Save'

Boom! You're already more organized. How easy was that?

Can't wait to see what else you accomplish! [Your Name]"

This gives them a taste of success and keeps them engaged with the product.

3. The "onboarding resource" email

I always include an email with helpful resources. It shows I care about their success and gives them the tools to get the most out of what they bought.

Here's an example for a fitness program:

Example

"Hey [Name],

I want to make sure you crush your fitness goals. Here are some resources to help:

• Beginner's Guide to [Program Name] (PDF attached)
• Video: 5-minute warm-up routine
• Link to our private Facebook group

Check them out and let me know if you have any questions!

Happy training, [Your Name]"

This email sets them up for success and shows I'm invested in their progress.

4. The "community builder" email

Building a sense of community can really boost customer loyalty. I use this email to introduce customers to the wider group of people using the same product.

For a cooking course, it might look like this:

Example

"Hi [Name],

You're not alone on your cooking journey! Join our community of food lovers:

• Facebook Group: Share recipes and tips
• Instagram: Tag your creations with #[YourBrand]Cooks
• Monthly Zoom Cook-along: Next one is [Date]

Can't wait to see what you whip up!

Happy cooking, [Your Name]"

This helps customers feel part of something bigger and keeps them engaged long-term.

5. The "exclusive bonus" email

I love surprising customers with something they didn't expect. It's a great way to exceed expectations and build goodwill.

Here's an example for an online course:

Example

"Hey [Name],

I've got a surprise for you! As a thank you for joining [Course Name], I'm giving you free access to my exclusive 'Advanced Tips' webinar.

It's packed with strategies I don't share anywhere else. You can access it here: [Link]

Enjoy! [Your Name]"

This kind of bonus makes customers feel special and increases the perceived value of their purchase.

6. The "ongoing support" email

Finally, I make sure customers know they can always reach out for help. This builds trust and shows I'm committed to their success beyond the initial sale.

For a software product, I might send:

Example

"Hi [Name],

Just checking in to see how you're getting on with [Product].

Remember, I'm always here to help:

• Quick questions? Hit reply to this email
• Need a demo? Book a call: [Link]
• Check out our FAQ: [Link]

Your success is my priority!

Best, [Your Name]"

This open line of communication can prevent frustration and build lasting relationships.

The real point of all this

Post-purchase sequences aren't just about keeping customers happy (though they do that). They also give you real data on customer behavior, what they like, what confuses them, where they get stuck. You can use engagement rates and responses from these emails to refine your products, your marketing, and the overall experience.

Each email should add value and make the customer feel good about their purchase. I always say, "The sale is just the beginning." With a strong post-purchase sequence, you're not just selling products. You're creating loyal fans who'll stick with you for the long haul.

If you've been following along, your welcome sequence is humming along, your nurture emails are building trust, and your audience is warmed up. Now it's time to actually present your offer.

But this is where even good email strategies fall apart. I know because my first Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) sequence was a mess of corporate jargon and "best practices" I'd copied from other people. It bombed.

Mistakes teach you a lot though. So let me walk you through a BOFU sequence that actually connects with people and gets them to buy.

The 5-email BOFU sequence

Every email in this sequence has one job: guide your reader toward a decision.

1. The "objection addresser"

People hesitate for a reason. If you address those doubts directly, it shows you get where they're coming from and that you've thought about it.

You want to hit the common objections, back up your offer with proof, and weave in a personal story that makes it relatable.

Example:

Subject: Let's talk about your doubts (I've had them too)

Body: Deciding to join the Email Mastery course isn't easy. I get it. I've been in your shoes, wondering:

1. "Do I have the time?" Yes, because each module is designed for busy people: short, practical, and to the point.
2. "What if it doesn't work?" That's why there's a 30-day, no-questions-asked refund policy.
3. "Is it right for my niche?" Students across industries (from knitting to quantum physics) have seen results.

I wrestled with these same questions before investing in my first course. But taking that step gave me the framework I needed to grow.

Have questions? Hit reply. I'm here to help.

2. The "success stories" email

People trust stories. Sharing real examples of what's possible helps your audience picture themselves getting those same results. Include a mix of relatable testimonials, specific outcomes, and a reminder of your guarantee.

Example:

Subject: Real results from real people

Body: The best way to show what Email Mastery can do is to share these stories:

• Sarah, Freelance Designer: "Three months in, my subscriber count tripled, and my income doubled."
• John, Tech Blogger: "A 30% boost in open rates just from the subject line techniques."
• Maria, Fitness Coach: "This course helped me launch my first four-figure product. The step-by-step guidance made it possible."

These results aren't magic. They're from putting in the work. If you're ready to join us, enrollment is open for the next 48 hours. Questions? Just reply to this email.

3. The "sneak peek" email

Give them a taste of what's inside. Something useful that leaves them wanting more. Share a practical tip from the course, show how it fits into the bigger picture, and open up a curiosity gap.

Example:

Subject: A quick tip for your next email

Body: Today, I want to share a subject line formula from Module 2:

• Identify a common problem.
• Hint at an unexpected solution.
• Create curiosity.

Instead of: "5 Ways to Grow Your List", try: "The Tactic That Grew My List 50%."

In the course, we explore six more formulas like this, along with the psychology behind them. If you're curious, enrollment is open for the next 24 hours.

4. The "FAQ" email

Clear up the lingering questions so there's nothing standing between them and a yes. Hit the most common questions, cover the logistical stuff, and remind them the clock is ticking.

Example:

Subject: Your questions, answered

Body: Here are answers to the top questions I've received:

• How long do I have access? Lifetime, with free updates.
• Is this for beginners? Absolutely. We start with fundamentals.
• What if I fall behind? No problem. Go at your own pace.

Still unsure? Reply to this email. I'd love to help. Enrollment closes tomorrow at midnight.

5. The "last call" email

This is your final nudge, but don't be pushy about it. Remind them of the deadline, hit the key benefits one more time, and give them a clear call to action.

Example:

Subject: Final hours to join Email Mastery

Body: In a few hours, enrollment closes.

• Full email strategies from start to finish
• 20+ tested templates
• Lifetime access and updates

More than that, you'll gain the confidence to grow your business through email.

Enrollment ends at midnight. I'd love to have you in the course, but if it's not the right time, that's okay too. Thanks for considering.

The big idea

A good BOFU sequence doesn't push people into buying. It guides them. Address their concerns, show them what's possible, and make saying "yes" feel like the natural next step. Write with empathy, offer real help, and trust that the right people will take action.

Most people think the hard part of a newsletter is getting subscribers. It's not. The hard part is getting those subscribers to actually care about your emails once they're on the list.

Having a huge list of people who never open anything is basically pointless. It's like filling a restaurant with people who don't order food.

A good nurture sequence fixes this. It's the thing that turns "I guess I signed up for this" into "oh nice, a new email from that person." And it works way better than most people expect.

What's a nurture sequence?

It's a series of automated emails that go out to new subscribers. Think of it as a relationship builder that runs while you sleep, taking someone from "who is this?" to "I trust this person" over the course of a few emails.

I use a four-email formula that's worked really well for me. Here's how it breaks down.

The 4-email formula

Email #1: The "I get you" email

This is your first impression, and it's all about establishing common ground. Share a challenge you've faced that your subscribers can relate to.

Example

Subject: "Why my 'perfect' strategy failed miserably..."

Body: "Last year, I poured three months of my life into crafting the 'ultimate' lead magnet. Late nights, sacrificed weekends, the works. The result? A whopping 17 downloads. Not 1,700. Not even 170. Seventeen. I felt like I was shouting brilliant advice into a void filled with indifference..."

That example is specific, which is the point. The structure you want is: open with an attention-grabbing hook (something counterintuitive works great), tell a personal story about a specific failure or challenge, be brutally honest about how it made you feel, then hint at the solution without giving it all away.

This works because it shows you've got battle scars. It separates you from the "overnight success" crowd. The specific details (three months, 17 downloads) make it real and relatable. It's proof you've walked the walk, not just empathy.

Email #2: The "Here's how I can help" email

Now that you've connected over a shared problem, it's time to offer a solution. Not a hard sell, just proof that you know what you're talking about.

Example

Subject: "The 'backward' approach that 10x'd my results"

Body: "After my lead magnet fiasco, I had an uncomfortable realization: I was creating content I thought people wanted, instead of solving problems I knew they had. So I flipped my approach. I became a detective, diving into forums, comments sections, and yes, even cold DMing people. The result? My next lead magnet snagged 1,500 downloads in a week. Here's the counterintuitive method I used..."

Again, specifics matter. Start with a quick reminder of the problem (keep it brief), share the realization that led to your solution, describe the specific steps you took (the more unique the better), show concrete results with real numbers, then bridge to how the reader can apply this without giving everything away.

The contrast between 17 and 1,500 downloads does the heavy lifting here. You're giving a glimpse of your method that's useful on its own, but with enough left unsaid that they want more.

Email #3: The "Don't just take my word for it" email

People trust other people more than they trust marketing copy. In this email, let someone else do the talking.

Example

Subject: "From 'Mom's the only subscriber' to 5-figure deals"

Body: "Remember Alex? The guy whose mom was his only loyal reader? (Sorry, Alex's mom.) He took the 'backward' approach we discussed. Instead of guessing what his audience wanted, he spent a week stalking... I mean, researching his target audience. Three months later? His open rates tripled, and he just landed a five-figure partnership deal. Here's Alex's unfiltered take on what made the difference..."

For this one you want to introduce a relatable character (ideally someone who was skeptical at first), show where they started, describe how they applied your method, share the specific results, include a direct unfiltered quote, and let the reader connect the dots for themselves.

A success story from a previous skeptic addresses doubts head-on. The humor keeps it from feeling like a testimonial ad, and the specific results (tripled open rates, five-figure deal) give readers something concrete to latch onto.

Email #4: The "Last chance" email

Time to create urgency. Maybe you're closing course enrollment or ending a special offer. Whatever it is, make it clear that now's the time to act.

Example

Subject: "Two paths diverged in a yellow wood..."

Body: "In 48 hours, enrollment for the 'Audience Whisperer' workshop closes. This isn't just another course. It's a fork in the road for your newsletter journey. Path A: Three months from now, you're still refreshing your stats, wondering why your brilliant insights aren't getting the traction they deserve. Path B: You're fielding partnership offers, your open rates are the envy of your peers, and your subscribers are evolving into your biggest advocates. The choice is yours. But remember, not choosing is still a choice."

You need a clear and specific time limit, vivid stakes (what they gain or lose), two contrasting futures, a simple call to action, and something that triggers a bit of FOMO.

Two contrasting futures are way more motivating than "buy now!" The literary reference gives it some weight, and "not choosing is still a choice" is a quiet push that doesn't feel salesy.

Making your sequence work

I use Beehiiv for my nurture sequences. Their automation features are intuitive enough that even my technology-challenged uncle could set one up, and their segmentation lets you get as granular as you want without needing a PhD in data science.

For timing, I've found that spacing emails 2-3 days apart hits the sweet spot. Sending daily is like asking for a restraining order. You want people to have time to digest each email without forgetting you exist.

Personalization goes beyond just using someone's name. If a subscriber always opens emails about writing but ignores your marketing tips, they're telling you something. Listen.

A/B test your subject lines, experiment with send times, but don't obsess. You're writing for humans, not algorithms. Don't sacrifice your voice for the sake of optimization.

And write like you're talking to a friend, not delivering a keynote. Use contractions, ask questions, let your personality come through. Your subscribers signed up to hear from you, not some watered-down "professional" version of you.

It's about connection

A nurture sequence is simpler than most people make it. Show your subscribers you understand their problems, offer real help, and prove you can deliver.

You're building a community, not just a list. Treat your subscribers like the real, sometimes-frustrating humans they are, and they'll reward you with their trust and attention. That's worth way more than their email address.

Your welcome sequence could probably be better. That sounds harsh, but if you're following the cookie-cutter advice floating around the internet, you're likely boring your subscribers to death. Or worse, you're actively pushing them away.

I've been there. My first welcome sequence was a disaster. It was so "best practice" heavy that it reeked of corporate aftershave and desperation. I ended up with crickets, tumbleweeds, and a list full of people who'd rather watch paint dry than open my emails.

It took a while, but I eventually figured out that a well-crafted welcome sequence can be your best tool for growth. It's the difference between building a community of engaged fans and shouting into the void.

So let's dissect the welcome sequence (warts and all) so you can avoid my mistakes and build yours the right way.

The (counterintuitive) truth about welcome sequences

Forget everything you've heard about welcome sequences being a "warm hug" for your subscribers. They're not here for a hug. They're here because they think you can solve a problem.

Your job isn't to "welcome" them. It's to prove they made the right choice by trusting you with their email address.

Here's the framework I use now after years of trial and error:

1. Deliver value so fast it makes their head spin
2. Challenge their assumptions (yes, even if it's uncomfortable)
3. Paint a vivid picture of transformation (but be brutally honest about the work involved)
4. Prove you're not just another "guru" (by admitting your failures and showing your scars)
5. Give them a backstage pass to your business
6. Give them a reason to stay (hint: it's not about you)

Let me break this down email by email. Whether you're selling digital products, artisanal cheeses, or unicorn grooming services, these principles apply because they're about human psychology, not industry specifics.

Email #1: The "Holy Sh*t" email

Forget the polite "Welcome aboard!" opener. Hit them with value so fast and hard that they have no choice but to pay attention.

Example

Subject: "The 2-minute tweak that doubled my client's revenue"

Body: "Most 'gurus' will tell you that increasing your digital product sales is all about better copywriting or fancier funnels. They're wrong. Here's the truth: I increased my client's revenue by 127% with a single, 2-minute change to their checkout process. It's not sexy, but it works. Here's exactly how we did it..."

This works because you're immediately proving your worth. No fluff, no BS, just pure value right out of the gate. You're also challenging the prevailing wisdom, which positions you as someone who prioritizes results over hype.

Email #2: The "Uncomfortable Truth" email

Now that you've got their attention, it's time to shake things up. Challenge a deeply held belief.

Example

Subject: "Why most digital products are doomed to fail (and how to make sure yours isn't)"

Body: "Let's face it: Most [your industry] businesses are built on a foundation of lies. Lie #1: [Common misconception]. Lie #2: [Another industry myth]. Lie #3: [One more falsehood]. Here's the uncomfortable truth about why [your industry] businesses fail, and the three critical elements yours needs to succeed..."

This works because you're differentiating yourself from the crowd by being willing to call out industry BS. It builds trust and makes you stand out. It's like being the kid who points out the emperor has no clothes. People might be shocked, but they'll respect the honesty.

Email #3: The "This Is Gonna Hurt" email

Now it's time to paint a vivid picture of transformation, but with a twist. Instead of just highlighting the benefits, be brutally honest about the work involved.

Example

Subject: "The ugly truth about building a 6-figure digital product business"

Body: "I could tell you that creating a successful digital product is easy. That you'll be sipping piña coladas on a beach while the money rolls in. But I'd be lying. The truth? It's hard work. You'll lose sleep. You'll doubt yourself. You'll want to quit. But if you push through, here's what's waiting on the other side..."

Being honest about the challenges builds credibility and sets realistic expectations. This attracts serious subscribers and weeds out tire-kickers.

Email #4: The "I Screwed Up" email

Vulnerability is your best friend here. Share a major failure and what you learned from it.

Example

Subject: "How I lost $50,000 on my first digital product launch (and what you can learn from my mistake)"

Body: "I thought I had it all figured out. I'd read all the launch playbooks. I'd studied the 'gurus'. I was ready to rake in the cash. Instead, I lost $50,000 and almost gave up on digital products altogether. Here's what went wrong, and the three critical lessons that turned everything around..."

Sharing your failures makes you relatable and human. It shows that you're not just another "expert" who's never faced adversity.

Email #5: The "Behind the Curtain" email

This one's my favorite. Give your subscribers a peek behind the scenes and show them something they can't get anywhere else.

Example

Subject: "The $100K mistake I'm making right now (and why I'm doing it anyway)"

Body: "Most 'gurus' only show you their wins. Today, I'm going to show you a massive risk I'm taking in real-time. I'm investing $100K in a new digital product launch that goes against everything the 'experts' recommend. Here's exactly what I'm doing, why I think it'll work, and what I'll do if it fails spectacularly. I'm also attaching my actual project plan and financial projections. Use them, learn from them, and maybe avoid the mistakes I'm probably making..."

This email does a lot of heavy lifting. It creates a sense of exclusivity by sharing insider information. It shows vulnerability by sharing a current, risky venture in real-time. It gives away real business documents, which is genuinely useful. And it builds anticipation for future emails where you'll share the results.

But most importantly, it cements your status as a trusted adviser who's in the trenches, not some infallible guru on a mountaintop.

Email #6: The "Choose Your Own Adventure" email

We're rounding out the welcome sequence with a "choose your own adventure"-style email. Instead of pushing for a sale, give them a choice. Show them you're committed to their success, whether they buy from you or not.

Example

Subject: "Two paths diverged in a yellow wood... (Which will you choose?)"

Body: "You're at a crossroads. Path A: Keep piecing together free advice and hoping it all works out. Path B: Let me guide you step-by-step through building a digital product empire. There's no wrong choice. If you choose Path A, here are three free resources to help you on your journey. If you're ready for Path B, here's how we can work together..."

By giving them a genuine choice and providing value regardless of their decision, you're proving that you actually care about their success. That goes a long way.

Making your welcome sequence work

A few things to keep in mind, especially if you're new to sequences.

Space your emails 2-3 days apart. Any closer and you're a pest. Any further and they'll forget who you are.

Use Beehiiv to automate your sequence, but use merge tags to make it feel personal. "Hey {FirstName}!" is a simple first step toward personalization.

About 60% of emails are opened on mobile, so if your emails look like War and Peace on a phone screen, you're dead in the water.

A/B test your subject lines and CTAs, but don't obsess over it. You're writing for humans, not algorithms.

Metrics that actually matter

Forget vanity metrics like open rates. Here's what you should be tracking:

• Engagement rate: Are people replying to your emails? Aim for at least 1-2% of recipients engaging.
• Click-through rate: For emails with a call to action, you want at least a 2-3% CTR.
• Unsubscribe rate: Counterintuitively, a slightly higher unsubscribe rate (0.5-1%) can be good. You're weeding out the tire kickers.
• Revenue per subscriber: This is the real one. Calculate it by dividing total revenue by number of subscribers.

Track these ruthlessly. If an email isn't performing, don't be precious about it. Kill it and try something new.

Some final notes

Even though I've laid out a clear path, starting a welcome series can be hard. There are a lot of steps, and you're bound to run into a few speed bumps.

Maybe your first email lands in spam. Maybe your big reveal falls flat. Maybe you get a flood of angry replies.

Don't panic.

If deliverability tanks, check your sender score, clean your list, and consider a re-engagement campaign. If engagement drops off, your subject lines probably suck. Study companies outside your industry for fresh ideas. If you get angry replies, celebrate. Seriously. It means you're saying something worth disagreeing with.

A "failed" welcome sequence is just a data point. Learn from it, iterate, and try again.

Creating a killer welcome sequence isn't about following best practices or copying what worked for someone else. It's about having the courage to be yourself, to challenge your industry's status quo, and to truly serve your audience. Even if that means fewer subscribers but more true fans.

Now go tear apart your welcome sequence. Be ruthless. Be authentic. And for the love of all that's holy, be interesting.

Remember when the whole game was crafting the perfect subject line to boost open rates? Those days are gone.

Email subscribers are more savvy than they've ever been, and with all the recent privacy changes (thanks, Apple), open rates are about as reliable as a weather forecast.

But this shift isn't the end of email marketing. It's actually a chance to focus on what really matters: clicks, conversions, and engagement.

With Digital Native, my average open rate on weekly emails is ~60% (even higher on my welcome sequence). Those numbers were impressive in years past, and honestly, they still are. But I'm not obsessing over opens anymore. I'm focused on clicks, engagement, and conversions.

These are the email metrics you should focus on too, and I'll explain why.

The email metrics that actually matter

Apple's privacy changes broke open rate tracking. Opens are inflated and unreliable now. The old playbook used to mean obsessing over open rates, but that doesn't work anymore.

A subscriber opening your email doesn't pay the bills. Clicks, engagement, and conversions do. These are the metrics that show your subscribers are actually interested in what you're offering, not just glancing at your email while clearing their inbox.

So what should you be tracking? I'm paying attention to three things: click-through rates (are people actually engaging with your content?), conversion rates (is your email driving the action you want?), and overall ROI (is your email strategy actually making you money?).

These metrics tell you if your email is working, not just if it's being seen.

Open rates might be dead, but subject lines are more alive than ever

I know, I know. I just said open rates are dead because they're unreliable, but you still need people to open your email if you want a click or conversion to happen.

So writing good subject lines is as important as ever.

Your subject lines need to do more than tease. They need to align with your email content and offer clear value. Think of them as trailers for blockbuster movies. They should give a taste of what's inside and make people want more.

There are a bunch of ways to approach this. A few that work well for me:

• Be specific. "5 Proven Strategies to Double Your Conversions" beats "Improve Your Conversions" any day.
• Make it relevant to the reader. Tailor your subject line to your audience's interests and pain points.
• Match the subject line with the email content. Never, ever bait and switch.
• Open curiosity gaps. "The unconventional tactic that boosted our sales by 237%" makes people want to know more.
• Use power words. Words like "Essential," "Exclusive," and "Limited" can drive urgency and action.

What you don't include in your subject line can be just as important as what you do include. Avoid these:

• Clickbait. It might get opens, but it kills trust.
• Over-promising. If you can't deliver on it, don't say it.
• Being too clever. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: clarity trumps creativity every time.

So subject lines still matter. But what else can you do to actually drive clicks and conversions?

People are (still) the priority

Personalization is king these days, but it goes beyond just slapping a first name in the subject line (that's so early 2000s).

Now it's about understanding your audience and consistently delivering value.

Segmentation is a big one. Tailoring subject lines to specific audience segments will drive way more engagement than generic ones. Behavioral triggers are another, where you use past engagement to inform future subject lines. A lot of ESPs have these built-in now, so make sure you're taking advantage of them. And then there's the value-first approach. One of the best things you can do in your newsletter is lead with the benefit to the subscriber.

Your goal isn't just to get opens. It's to drive real engagement that leads to conversions.

Getting even more personal

So how do you craft subject lines that don't just get opens but drive real engagement? You have to get more personal.

AI tools can help you analyze your audience's behavior and predict which subject lines will resonate. But don't let the machines take over completely. Always apply human creativity and intuition. The machines don't always know best.

Go beyond just using names. Use behavioral data to create hyper-relevant subject lines. Something like "Continue your journey on [Topic They Last Engaged With]" can be surprisingly effective.

And when you're A/B testing, don't just test for open rates. Test for clicks and conversions. Try variations like question vs. statement, benefit-driven vs. curiosity-driven, short vs. long, direct vs. playful, formal vs. informal.

Keep in mind that what works for one audience might flop for another. To loosely paraphrase Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, "ABTL (Always Be Testing and Learning)."

The future of email engagement

Email isn't going anywhere, but how we measure success is definitely evolving. We're moving toward engagement metrics that consider the entire customer journey, not just a single open event.

I think we'll see more AI-driven personalization, a bigger focus on post-click behavior, and tighter integration between email metrics and overall customer data.

The key to staying ahead is the same now as it's always been: never stop experimenting, learning, and adapting.

In email marketing, it's not just about getting in the inbox. It's about making an impact once you're there.

Most emails are noise. I don't think that's controversial to say. But every once in a while, something lands in your inbox that actually gets you to stop scrolling, read the whole thing, and genuinely look forward to next week's edition.

That's a newsletter with a strong brand. The person behind it has built a connection with you, and it keeps you coming back.

And that doesn't happen just because someone slapped a logo or a catchy tagline on their email header. It happens when the newsletter's identity actually resonates with you as a reader. It builds trust. It creates a sense of community.

Take my newsletter, Digital Native, as an example. Every detail, from the aesthetics to the content to the tone, is designed to connect with a specific ideal reader. The goal is to build a relationship that keeps that reader coming back each week. That should be your goal too.

Here are a few things I think about to make sure a newsletter cuts through the clutter and gets people excited about the content.

Standing out is (more than) half the battle

Your inbox is probably full of stuff that all looks and sounds the same. That's because most of it is the same. Creating a unique and recognizable visual identity for your newsletter isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's essential.

Think of your favorite brands. Whether it's the logo, layout, mascot, or color palette, you know their visual vibe instantly. Your newsletter should create that same kind of familiarity and connection.

For Digital Native, I went with bold colors and a modern feel, including a retro-futuristic logo and wordmark. Over time, if I do my job right, those visuals should be easy to identify and process at a glance.

That "glance test" is what you should aim for when designing your own newsletter brand. It's about making an immediate impression that sticks. Visual identity is your first impression, so make it count.

Finding your unique edge

A unique perspective is another huge competitive advantage in a crowded inbox. Beyond the look of your newsletter, ask yourself what sets your content apart from everything else out there.

Are you offering fresh takes on industry trends? Sharing personal stories that resonate? Giving practical advice that others overlook?

The goal is to provide something your audience can't find anywhere else. Make your newsletter feel like a breath of fresh air, something they actually look forward to and can't wait to open.

Building trust with consistency

If you want to build trust with your audience, you have to be consistent. Period.

Here are four ways to make sure your newsletter establishes a reliable, professional appearance with your readers.

Use the same design theme in every email. For Digital Native, my logo, bold colors, and retro-futuristic elements make it easy for readers to recognize and trust what they're seeing. Keep the same voice and tone too. I use a conversational, engaging style so readers always feel connected, and I try to never break from that.

Stick to a regular schedule. Whether it's weekly or monthly, consistency sets expectations and builds reliability. And deliver quality every single time. Skip the filler, focus on value, and keep readers engaged. That's really what earns trust over time.

Why consistency matters

Consistency builds a strong relationship with your audience. Over time, that trust becomes loyalty, with readers genuinely excited for each new edition.

Here's a thing a lot of people don't think about: a well-branded and consistent newsletter is also more attractive to potential sponsors. When sponsors see that you have a dedicated and engaged audience, they want to be associated with your brand. That opens up real opportunities to monetize your efforts.

By sticking to these principles of consistency, you'll create a newsletter that stands out and builds deep community connections.

And speaking of community, it's one of the more underrated parts of building a newsletter brand.

A strong community = a strong newsletter brand

Trust and consistency are important, but how do you take engagement to the next level?

You deepen the relationship with your subscribers and focus 100% on connecting with them.

Your brand immediately gains credibility when your community knows who you are, what makes you tick, and what to expect from you.

Here's how I think about it.

Be authentic. Your readers aren't dumb. Share your genuine thoughts, experiences, and insights without sugarcoating. That transparency is what builds real trust and loyalty.

Be provocative (but not for the sake of it). When it matters, challenge the status quo and don't be afraid to voice unpopular opinions if they're backed by solid reasoning. This can spark conversations and keep readers engaged, eagerly waiting for your next issue.

Be conversational. A brand is not built in a vacuum. Encourage discussion, replies, and feedback on everything you put out. In all my years building brands, this is one of the most important things you can do.

This kind of engagement transforms passive readers into active participants. When your subscribers are emotionally invested, they're more likely to interact with your content, share it, and tell other people about it. That deep connection increases your reach and builds a loyal community around your newsletter. The flywheel keeps spinning, and the brand gets stronger.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Are you ready to take newsletter branding seriously?

Cutting through the noise isn't just a goal. It's your brand's mission. With a unique visual identity and consistent, engaging content, your newsletter can become the highlight of your readers' inbox.

Be authentic. Share your boldest ideas. Build a community that feels like home. When you do this, your newsletter doesn't just attract readers. It attracts like-minded sponsors, creating growth opportunities and new ways to serve your subscribers.

Make every email count.

I don't like to admit it, but I used to get really upset when people unsubscribed from my newsletter. I took it personally. It felt like an attack on my content, my value, my insight.

It hit me especially hard when someone I respected, or someone I'd had real conversations with, hit the unsubscribe button.

"How could they not want to read my newsletter?"

But that was my ego talking. I was letting people's actions affect my worth and, worse, my content. If you've spent any time writing newsletters, especially ones that aim to sell products or services, you quickly realize it's never about ego. The only thing that matters is the result.

I want to show you how embracing unsubscribes and being proactive with audience pruning can actually strengthen your messaging and drive better results.

People who unsubscribe are doing you a favor

Embracing unsubscribes took me a while. But unsubscribes are a healthy and necessary part of growing a newsletter audience. Even the most successful newsletters deal with people leaving. They know it's part of the process.

So why are unsubscribes a good thing?

First, they're a natural, organic way to keep your list clean and focused. If someone opts out, they're probably not finding value in your content. Yes, it stings at first, but it's a signal to focus on the people who stay: the ones who open, read, and engage.

Second, most ESPs (Email Service Providers) charge you per subscriber. If a subscriber doesn't want to be there, you're better off not paying for someone who doesn't want your content delivered to them.

Unsubscribes are a natural filter. They help you build a more engaged and responsive audience. Nurturing the core of your audience creates a more powerful, profitable community.

Oh, and before I get into pruning, make sure unsubscribing is easy for people. We've all seen those emails without an unsubscribe link, or the ones saying "Thanks for unsubscribing, we'll remove you from the list in the next 14 days." That's just sleazy. People shouldn't feel trapped if they don't want to be on your list anymore. Make it simple and let them go about their day.

You'll build trust, and if they decide to come back later, they'll know you're a straight shooter.

The power of pruning your audience

So we've talked about unsubscribes, which happen naturally over time. But what about the subscribers on your list who never engage or interact with anything you send them?

These people are a different breed of subscriber. And they need to be pruned.

I know that sounds harsh (and maybe a bit dramatic), but it's true.

And look, it might not even be their fault. Maybe when they signed up, they were searching for answers and your content delivered those answers. Or maybe they were initially keen on what you offered because they were in a particular role or stage, but have since moved on.

You won't know everyone's circumstances, but if someone isn't engaging with your content, it's probably time to do them a favor and remove them from your list.

This brings me to a really important point: when building any audience, especially a newsletter audience, it's almost always better to have 1,000 truly engaged subscribers than 100,000 people who are checked out and disengaged. Yeah, the bigger number looks better (there's ego again), but 9 times out of 10, that won't translate into more sales.

In fact, most email marketers I've talked to would take the smaller engaged audience over the larger disengaged audience every single day.

Because the smaller audience is probably the right audience. They're likely more dialed in and have a better chance of fitting the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

Almost every time I've either pruned my own audience or helped another digital business owner prune theirs, it results in better deliverability, a stronger sender reputation, and higher engagement across the board.

When you remove inactive subscribers, your emails are more likely to land in the inboxes of your engaged audience instead of the spam folder. Your messages are actually seen by the people who care, which is the whole point. On top of that, email providers monitor how recipients interact with your emails. If a large portion of your list never opens or engages, it hurts your sender reputation. Pruning those inactive subscribers helps improve that reputation, which means better inbox placement for the people who actually want to hear from you.

But the biggest thing I see is that the KPIs that actually move the needle, like click rates, response rates, and conversion rates, all go up. When your list is full of people who genuinely want to hear from you, they're more likely to engage with your content, take action on your calls to action, and become customers.

If this isn't enough to encourage you to actively prune your newsletter audience, I don't know what is.

The real takeaway

Unsubscribes and pruning aren't the enemies of your newsletter. They're allies.

A smaller, engaged audience beats a large, apathetic one every time. When you nurture that core group of subscribers who genuinely want to hear from you, they're the ones who will drive your conversions, spread the word, and become your loyal customers.

So the next time someone hits unsubscribe, don't sweat it. Let them go. And don't hesitate to prune the people who've checked out. It's not about the numbers. It's about the quality of connections and the value you bring to the right audience.

I was recently watching "A Brief History of the Future" on PBS, and one line stopped me cold:

"Stories are the shortcuts we use to navigate the world."

Simple, but it hit hard. It got me thinking about newsletters and the ways people present their products and services.

Stories about your digital offerings should do three things well: sway decisions, spark action, and drive conversions.

Here are the four storytelling methods I keep coming back to, and the ones I think you should work into your newsletter copy and sequences.

My 4 favorite storytelling methods (that get results)

There are tons of ways to tell a story in written form. I've tried a lot of them over the years. But I keep coming back to these four because they actually produce results. When I use them, I see more actions and conversions, and I'm confident you will too.

#1: The Hero's Journey

You already know this one, even if you don't realize it. It's the backbone of countless movies and books, and there's a reason it keeps showing up: it works.

Joseph Campbell introduced the concept back in 1949 when he outlined the common patterns and stages found in myths and stories from cultures all over the world. Since then, it's been at the heart of storytelling and influence.

So how do you actually use The Hero's Journey in your newsletter copy and sequences?

Think of your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) as the hero of their own story, navigating challenges and looking for a transformation. If you don't know your ICP, check out The Audience Magnet. Your job is to position your products and services as the trusty "guide" that leads the hero to success.

If your hero wants to save more time, show them how your product automates tedious tasks and frees up their schedule. If they're seeking knowledge, present your services as the path to the skills and insights they need. If they're struggling to stay organized, show how your products bring structure and efficiency to their workflow.

Those are just a few examples of how you can position your products as the guide (solution) your hero needs to become the person they want to be.

Give it a try. I think you'll be happy with the results.

#2: Problem-Solution

Think about the last time you hit a frustrating problem and then found the perfect solution. That relief, that satisfaction. It's a powerful feeling.

That's exactly what the Problem-Solution method taps into.

Identify a problem your audience deals with. Describe the pain, the challenges, the daily frustrations. Then introduce your product as the thing that fixes it.

Maybe your audience is overwhelmed managing multiple social media accounts. Present your social media management tool as the thing that consolidates and automates their tasks, saving them time and effort. Maybe they're struggling to convert leads into customers. Highlight your email marketing course that gives them strategies and templates to boost conversion rates. Or maybe they can't keep up with content creation. Show how your content calendar and planning tool helps them stay consistent without burning out.

The key is showing your audience that you get their frustration, then presenting your solution as the cure. This method works because it speaks directly to their needs and shows your product's value in a way that feels real and relatable.

#3: Before-After-Bridge

Transformations grab attention because they show the power of change. The Before-After-Bridge method is about painting the picture of life before your product, walking through the transformation, and landing on the improved outcome.

Start by describing what things look like without your product. The challenges, the inefficiencies, the pain points. Then take your audience through what it looks like to actually use your product, ending with the new reality on the other side.

Here's what this looks like in practice. Say your audience is drowning in chaotic project management. After using your tool, they've got streamlined processes and higher productivity. The bridge is the story of how others made that transition, with specific features that made the difference. Or maybe they're dealing with low website traffic. After implementing your SEO strategies, they see a real increase in organic traffic. The bridge is the step-by-step process and tools they used to get there. Or they feel disconnected from their customers. After using your engagement platform, they're building stronger, more meaningful connections. The bridge highlights the specific features that made that deeper engagement possible.

This method works because it gives your audience a clear, relatable narrative. It shows them that change is possible, and that your product is what makes it happen.

#4: Customer success stories

Real testimonials and detailed accounts of customer experiences are incredibly persuasive. They provide social proof and show potential customers that others have actually used your product to overcome challenges and hit their goals.

Gather genuine testimonials from your customers and focus on the details of their experience. What were they struggling with? How did they use your product? What did the outcome look like?

For example, maybe a digital marketer was struggling to manage multiple campaigns across different platforms. After using your marketing automation tool, they saved time and increased their campaign ROI by 30%. Or an e-commerce store owner was having trouble managing inventory and fulfilling orders. With your inventory management software, they streamlined operations and saw a 40% improvement in order fulfillment times. Or a freelance designer couldn't find clients consistently. By using your networking platform, they built a steady client base and doubled their monthly income.

When you share stories like these, you build credibility and help your audience picture their own success with your product. But authenticity matters here. Make sure these stories are genuine and relatable.

Put these to work

Good storytelling should sway decisions, spark action, and drive conversions. I keep coming back to The Hero's Journey, Problem-Solution, Before-After-Bridge, and Customer Success Stories because they do exactly that. Work them into your newsletter copy and sequences and I think you'll see the difference pretty quickly.

Attention is the currency of the internet, and it's never been in higher demand. But as the scramble for followers, likes, retweets, and [insert your favorite vanity metric here] reaches a fever pitch, a lot of creators and entrepreneurs are starting to question what these numbers actually mean.

They're realizing that reaching a large audience doesn't necessarily mean reaching the right audience.

This shift is changing how creators, entrepreneurs, and business owners think about audience building. More people are jumping off the social media/content hamster wheel and going back to the principles in Kevin Kelly's now-iconic essay, "1,000 True Fans."

I want to talk about how this mindset is helping people grow their businesses with fewer resources, attract the right audience for their products, and use social media and other discovery platforms to build relationships on their own terms.

The pitfalls of vanity metrics

Vanity metrics are seductive because they provide instant gratification. A high follower count might imply importance. Hundreds of likes could imply validation.

But that's not always the case.

These numbers can be misleading, giving the illusion of success without any meaningful engagement behind them. A post with thousands of likes might not generate a single sale, while a smaller, more engaged audience can drive real revenue.

The true power is in meaningful engagement. It doesn't matter how many people see or like your content. It matters how many people actually care about it. A smaller, engaged, dedicated audience will usually be far more valuable than a large, stagnant, indifferent one.

That's why I think modern entrepreneurs should focus way less on vanity metrics (including those found in newsletter reporting, mind you) and build more authentic relationships with their audiences instead.

This is where "1,000 True Fans" comes into play. Instead of chasing big numbers, aim to attract a core group of followers who are truly invested in your work. These people will support you, buy your products, and advocate for your brand.

Modernizing the "1,000 True Fans" concept with discovery platforms

Here's a modernized take on Kelly's message that uses discovery platforms to attract superfans and then offload them to your relationship platform (aka your email list):

• Know your audience. Understand who your true fans are. Look at your existing audience and identify the most engaged and supportive people. Find patterns in their behavior, preferences, and feedback. Check out The Audience Magnet worksheet if you want to skip the line and find your true fans fast.
• Create high-quality content. Consistently deliver stuff that resonates with your true fans. Focus on quality over quantity, and make sure your content provides real value that lines up with what your audience cares about.
• Engage authentically. Build genuine relationships with your fans. Respond to comments, messages, and feedback personally. Show appreciation for their support and make them feel valued.
• Offer exclusive benefits. Reward your true fans with exclusive content, early access to new products, or special discounts. This shows appreciation and strengthens loyalty at the same time.
• Build a community. Create spaces where your true fans can connect with you and each other. Social media groups, forums, live events, whatever works. A strong community creates a sense of belonging and keeps people coming back.
• Ask for support. Don't be afraid to ask your true fans for support, whether that's purchases, sharing your content, or providing feedback. True fans are usually eager to help you succeed.

Discovery platforms are great for initial engagement. But the real value comes when you transition your audience to your relationship platforms and turn them into superfans.

Transitioning to relationship platforms

Once you've attracted fans on your discovery platform, you need to work on transitioning them as soon as possible. Here are a few things you can do to entice people to join your relationship platform:

Make the move appealing

This one's the easiest: offer them something they can't resist. Exclusive content, early product access, special discounts. Make it something valuable and only available to email subscribers.

Use clear and strategic CTAs

On your discovery platforms, be strategic with your calls to action. Use direct, clear language in your bios, post captions, and video descriptions that guides your fans to sign up for your email list. Put links in your social media profiles, stories, reels, and posts to make subscribing easy.

Engage through storytelling

People connect deeply with stories. Share personal anecdotes, success stories from your community, and insights into your creative process. Storytelling in your emails can create an emotional bond with your subscribers that you just can't replicate on social.

Use lead magnets

Offer lead magnets related to your posts or videos. If you have a popular blog post or video, provide an additional downloadable resource or guide that's only available through an email subscription. This adds value and gives fans a reason to join your list.

There are more strategies out there, but these four should get your wheels turning. The main objective during the transition from discovery to relationship platforms is to provide value along the way. If you make joining your relationship platform a no-brainer, you'll reach 1,000 true fans in no time.

Measuring success beyond vanity metrics

Now that you've moved your superfans to your relationship platform, you need to measure success with metrics that actually mean something. Traditional vanity metrics like open and click-through rates (CTR) are becoming less relevant.

Focus on metrics that reflect engagement and conversions instead. They give you a much clearer picture of how your platform is actually performing.

Engagement rates

Engagement rates tell you how your audience interacts with your content. Think about things like reply rate (high replies mean active participation and real interest), time spent on content (how long are people actually reading your emails?), and social shares and forwards (are people sharing your stuff with others? That means it's resonating).

Conversion rates

Conversions are the real goal. Track your purchase rate to see what percentage of subscribers buy after getting your emails. Watch your sign-up rate for events or training to gauge interest. And if you offer tiered memberships or premium content, measure your upgrade rate. That's a strong signal of trust and perceived value.

Customer loyalty

Building a loyal fanbase matters a lot. Keep an eye on your retention rate (the percentage of subscribers who stay on your list over time), your Customer Lifetime Value or CLV (total revenue a subscriber generates over their entire relationship with you), and your referral rate (how many new subscribers come from existing ones). These tell you whether your community is strong and whether people are willing to advocate for you.

These are some of the metrics that actually indicate success. No room for vanity here.

The takeaway

The future of audience building in the creator economy is an inch wide and 100 feet deep. Huge audiences are great, but I'd take a smaller, more engaged audience any day.

If you prioritize quality over quantity, nurture your true fans, and create a supportive community that values and supports your work, you might just find yourself financially supported and emotionally rewarded by your 1,000 true fans.

I talk to a lot of newsletter creators who are stuck. Their subscriber count hasn't moved in weeks (or months), and they're not sure what to do about it. I've been there too, so I figured I'd lay out the four approaches that actually work for growing a list.

I'm going to cover organic growth, paid ads, partnerships, and referral programs. Some of these cost money, some don't, and they all work differently depending on where you are in your newsletter journey.

How to grow a newsletter organically

Growing organically just means getting subscribers without paying for ads. It's slower, but the people you attract this way tend to be more engaged because they found you on their own.

Using quizzes and webinars to grow newsletter subscribers

Interactive content is a surprisingly good way to pull people in. Quizzes are fun, people actually share them, and they tell you a lot about what your audience cares about. Platforms like Quizizz or Typeform make it pretty easy to build quizzes that tie into your newsletter's topic.

I know what you're thinking: webinars in 2024? I'd probably feel the same way, but they can actually work if they pair well with your niche.

The trick is making webinars not feel like webinars. Include polls and live Q&A so it's not just you talking at people. Bring on guest speakers who actually know their stuff. Offer something exclusive, like a behind-the-scenes look or a sneak peek at something you're working on. You can even gamify it with challenges or prizes. And invest in decent visuals and video quality, because nobody wants to sit through a blurry screen share.

Quizzes and webinars both work because they create a real connection with your audience. That connection is what gets people to hand over their email address.

Social content to get more newsletter subscribers

If you already have a decent social following, this one's a no-brainer. If you don't, you can start by sharing consistently, contributing to conversations, and finding your people. Update your bio to include a link to your newsletter sign-up page and make sure the content you're posting aligns with what your newsletter covers.

I'd recommend picking one social network to start with (either X, LinkedIn, or Instagram) and focusing there before branching out. Trying to be everywhere at once usually means you're nowhere.

A few things that help: post regularly so people don't forget about you, keep your content on-topic so you attract the right subscribers, and use analytics to figure out what's actually working. Then do more of that.

Combining interactive and social content is one of the best ways to grow organically and build a community of readers who actually look forward to your emails.

Growing your newsletter with paid ads

Paid ads can grow your list fast. But if you jump in too early, you'll burn through cash without much to show for it.

I only recommend paid ads when your newsletter meets at least one of these criteria:

• You have a monetization strategy in place. If you're selling products, services, or premium content, ads can pay for themselves. Without a way to generate revenue from subscribers, you're just spending money to collect email addresses.
• You want to target a specific audience. Paid ads let you get very precise with demographics, interests, and behaviors. If you know exactly who your ideal subscriber is, ads can put you right in front of them. (So can my Ideal Audience Blueprint.)
• You're launching something new. A new product, service, or feature benefits from the immediate visibility ads provide. They help you reach beyond your existing list.
• Your organic growth has stalled. If what you're doing isn't working fast enough, ads can give you the boost you need. But make sure you have a clear path to ROI before spending a lot of cash.
• You're promoting something time-sensitive. Limited-time offers, events, webinars, or special editions all benefit from the urgency that paid ads create.
• You're retargeting interested visitors. Retargeting ads are one of the best tools for list building. These people already showed interest in what you offer, they just need a nudge. These ads remind them why they were interested and push them to subscribe.

Here are the platforms I'd focus on:

Using Meta Ads for newsletter growth

Meta's targeting is incredibly specific, which makes it great for finding your ideal subscribers. Create ad creatives that clearly show the value of subscribing.

For Meta ads specifically: make sure your call-to-action is obvious and strong. Run A/B tests on different formats, creatives, and copy until you find what works, then double down on reach or spend (or both). And definitely use retargeting ads to bring back people who showed interest but didn't subscribe.

Using Google Ads to get more newsletter subscribers

Google Ads are powerful because you're catching people who are actively searching for topics you cover. Search intent is high, which means these people already want what you're offering.

To make Google Ads work: do your keyword research and find high-traffic terms relevant to your newsletter (this can also mean bidding on your competitor's keywords). Write ad copy that's engaging and clearly communicates why someone should subscribe. And make sure the landing page your ad points to is optimized for conversions with a clear CTA and an easy sign-up process. That last part is critical.

Using X Ads to grow newsletter subscribers

X is great for reaching people who like conversation and debate. Since X is primarily text-based (and so is your newsletter), it's an underutilized place to find subscribers.

If your newsletter covers fast-moving topics or trending ideas, X is probably the best platform to promote it on.

Promoted posts can extend your reach, so make sure they're engaging and give people a clear reason to subscribe. Hashtags work for some niches and not others, so test and see if your audience uses them to find content. And engage with anyone who interacts with your promoted posts. Commenting, replying, and participating in conversations builds credibility.

Paid ads give you immediate visibility and precise targeting. If you have a clear path to ROI once you've acquired a subscriber, they're an absolute no-brainer.

Building partnerships and cross-promotions

Partnering with other creators lets you tap into their audiences and attract subscribers who are already interested in similar content.

One of the best ways to get more subscribers is through mutual promotion with other newsletters. Find newsletters that serve a similar audience and propose a partnership where you promote each other's content.

To get started, identify newsletters with similar topics and demographics (the more aligned your audiences, the better the results). Reach out with a clear proposal that explains how the collaboration benefits both sides. And agree on the format, whether that's a dedicated section in each newsletter or a specific ad style that fits naturally with the content.

Focusing on quality over quantity

It's better to partner with a few newsletters that have a highly engaged audience than to spread yourself thin across a bunch of low-quality partnerships.

One thing to note: not all newsletters are created equal. Some will have larger audiences, better click-through rates, etc. So you'll need to agree on how to keep things fair. One of the best ways I've found is to focus on unique clicks rather than sign-ups. This ensures both parties get real exposure, with the focus on actual engagement.

Finding partners to grow newsletter subscribers

Finding partners can be tough when you're just starting out. But there are services that make it a lot easier.

If you're building your audience on Beehiiv (and I recommend you do), they've made it easy to find partners through their Boosts marketplace. The partner network is built right in. It doesn't get easier than that.

If you're using another email service provider, consider using the SparkLoop partner network to find partnerships. They integrate with several quality ESPs and make it easy to get started. I used them for years before moving to Beehiiv. They're solid.

One more thing: when starting out, look for newsletters with similar subscriber counts. You'll both be in a similar spot growth-wise and likely more willing to go the extra mile to make the collab work.

Implementing a referral program

Referral programs drive high-quality growth on autopilot. You're incentivizing your existing subscribers to refer friends and colleagues, which taps into new networks and brings in like-minded people.

Here's how to make them work:

Beehiiv has a built-in referral feature that's a no-brainer if you're already on their platform. For other ESPs, SparkLoop offers referrals along with its partner network, which makes it a great option.

Referral programs might not generate huge volume, but the quality is typically very high. Referred subscribers are more likely to trust and engage with your content because someone they know recommended it. For incentives, digital products work best: cheat sheets, checklists, exclusive reports, swipe files, that kind of thing.

Pro tip: only offer physical referral rewards if you have the logistics to fulfill them. For 99% of newsletter creators, that's a headache you don't need.

To set up a program that actually works:

• Make the referral process as simple as possible. The easier it is, the more people will do it.
• Offer digital products for 1-3 referrals. Make them immediately valuable and relevant to your audience.
• Regularly remind your subscribers about the program in your newsletters. Give them clear instructions and shareable links.
• Use Beehiiv or SparkLoop's tracking features to keep up with who's referring your newsletter. Deliver rewards on time to maintain trust and keep people motivated.
• Publicly acknowledge your top referrers in your newsletter. It rewards them and motivates everyone else to participate.

A well-structured referral program creates a steady stream of high-quality subscribers who are likely to stick around and stay engaged.

Pick one and start

You don't need to do all four of these at once. Pick the one that makes the most sense for where you are right now. If you're just getting started, go organic. If you've got revenue coming in and you know your audience, try paid ads. If you've got a decent list already, partnerships and referrals can compound what you've built. The point is to actually do something, not just read about it.

"Copy is not written. Copy is assembled." Eugene Schwartz.

I think about this quote a lot when I'm writing emails. Because that's really what good email copywriting is: assembling the right pieces in the right order so people actually read, click, and buy.

Subject lines, body copy, calls to action. Every piece has to pull its weight. If one falls flat, the whole thing underperforms.

This post covers the stuff I keep coming back to: writing with clarity, nailing subject lines, structuring messages so people stay engaged, and using persuasion without being annoying about it.

Foundational principles of email copywriting

Before getting into tactics, there are three principles I think matter more than anything else: clarity, personalization, and focusing on outcomes.

Clarity and simplicity

Think about how you read email. You're scrolling through your inbox, probably half-distracted, and you've got dozens of unread messages competing for your attention. The last thing you want is to decode someone's jargon or slog through giant blocks of text.

So keep your language clear and your points short. Write like you're explaining something to a friend. Use short paragraphs, bullet points where they make sense, and plenty of white space. Confusing copy doesn't convert. When in doubt, pick clarity over cleverness every time.

Writing to one person

It's easy to think of your audience as this faceless crowd, but every person on your list reads your email individually. So write like you're talking to one specific person, your ideal customer.

Address their pain points, desires, and objections directly. Use "you" and "your" to keep things conversational. And don't be afraid to let your personality come through. If you're known for being funny, be funny. If you're more of a straight-shooter, lean into that. People connect with voice, not corporate-speak.

Focusing on outcomes with benefits-driven copy

Most people miss this: your customers don't buy products or services. They buy results.

They don't care about your fancy features or your sleek design. They care about how your thing makes their life better or easier.

So don't just list features and expect people to connect the dots. Paint a picture of what happens after they buy. Will it save them time? Boost their revenue? Simplify their day-to-day? Make those outcomes the star of your copy, and conversions will follow.

Writing compelling subject lines

Your subject line is the first thing people see, and the stakes are real. 35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line alone. If yours doesn't land, over a third of your list will never even see what you wrote.

But that stat shouldn't scare you. It should motivate you to get really good at this part.

The Zeigarnik Effect and open loops

There's a psychological principle called the Zeigarnik Effect: people are more likely to remember and engage with things that feel unfinished. In email terms, this means creating an "open loop" in your subject line, hinting at something intriguing that can only be resolved by opening the email.

Instead of something generic like "Our New Template Features," try "You won't believe what our new template can do..." The ellipsis creates that open loop. It sparks curiosity and gives people a reason to click.

Tips for click-worthy subject lines

Beyond psychology, here are some practical things that work:

1. Keep it under 50 characters so it doesn't get cut off on mobile.
2. Start with action verbs like "Discover," "Unlock," or "Reveal" to create momentum.
3. Use merge tags to personalize with the reader's name when you can.
4. Hint at the value inside. Give people a reason to open.
5. Create urgency with phrases like "Limited Time" or "Last Chance" to play on FOMO.

A good litmus test: if you saw your subject line in your own inbox, would you open it? If the answer is no, keep iterating.

Persuasive writing techniques

So your subject line worked and someone opened the email. Now you need to get them to actually do something. Here are four techniques I rely on.

Educate and elevate

People will only buy from you if they understand the value you're offering. Use your email copy to show them how your product or service solves their problem.

If you're selling a productivity tool, don't just list features. Explain how it helps people get more done in less time so they can focus on the work that actually matters. Then go a step further and paint a picture of the transformation. Maybe your tool helps them reach Inbox Zero. Maybe it gives them the breathing room to finally start that side project they've been putting off. Make that change feel real and attainable.

Spark curiosity

Curiosity is a powerful motivator. Use intriguing headlines, provocative questions, and enticing hints to make readers want to keep going.

A subject line like "5 Time Management Secrets Your Boss Doesn't Want You to Know" will get people curious. But you have to deliver on that promise in the body. Nobody likes clickbait that goes nowhere.

In the email itself, you could reveal one of those secrets and tease the rest, encouraging readers to click through to your blog or landing page for the full story (and hopefully buy).

Create urgency

Nothing motivates action like a deadline. Use time-sensitive offers, limited quantities, and exclusive deals to push people to act now.

You could run a 24-hour flash sale on your course, or give the first 50 signups access to an exclusive bonus. Words like "instant," "now," and "today" help too. "Sign up now and start saving time today" hits different than "Sign up whenever you get around to it."

Persuade without being pushy

Persuasion is an art, but it shouldn't feel like a hard sell.

Focus on benefits over features. "Save 10 hours a week" is way more compelling than "Includes calendar integration." Use social proof to build trust, things like customer testimonials or stats about your product's effectiveness. Offer genuine value in your sales emails, like a productivity tip or a free trial. And make your call to action clear but not aggressive. "Get started today" is inviting. "BUY NOW!!!" is off-putting.

The goal is to guide your readers toward a decision, not corner them into one.

Put it to work

You've got the principles and techniques. Now pick one thing from this post and try it in your next email. See what happens to your numbers. Then tweak, iterate, and keep going.