While AI can generate endless “perfect” outputs, the crucial design decisions are innately human: which questions to ask, guided by feeling & relationships rather than pure logic, and aligning execution against context and strategy. AI might generate hundreds of landing page variants, but it takes design sensibility to know which will genuinely... See more
The winning path is clear: design literacy as a cultivated mindset, not another acquired skill—embedded in every role from engineering to sales. Teams that embrace this will take risks to build cultures where authentic expression outweighs safe choices, conviction beats consensus, and craft is prioritized more than algorithmic smoothness. This does... See more
Startups are the ideal canvas for applying design literacy. They require continuous iteration, not static perfection, in order to succeed. They are not timeless; they exist and succeed in their moment alone. They cannot rely on distribution or incumbency, only original thinking, relentless iteration and, for those persistent enough, transformative ... See more
This human element of design literacy will become as important as verbal literacy, not only in understanding culture and aesthetics but also in forming and expressing new ideas. It’s a new type of intelligence and design that will separate those who thrive from those who fade into the noise.
Just as the printing press proliferated printed text and commodified knowledge and communication, AI is accelerating the speed of inference and democratizing access to intelligence — commoditizing creation and transforming technical competence.
“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” – Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility 1935
Often, we see this brilliance in early versions of products—born from founder-built brute force and passion—only to see it fade with scale. Ultimately, you are only as good as your team, so you better craft it intentionally and with heart. The company becomes your great work. The best designed of these organizations become durable as they scale and... See more
These founders recognize that company design goes beyond playbooks, case studies, or podcasts. Consider how modern startups approach product development: A technically proficient team might build perfect features, but design-literate founders create experiences that make users feel something when using the product. Notion succeeded not through tech... See more