Since 2016, I've had conversations with ~5000 design leaders at 200 dinners and ~100 virtual events, and lots of slack threads. I also helped drive some industry benchmarking reports. I finally synthesized all the notes. A thread on lessons learned about design leadership. 🧵

Building is rewarding and humbling.

Robotics will lead the next industrial boom, which will also spill into the large infrastructure focus in the USA (e.g. bridge repair). I agree with @intern that robotics is the most underappreciated industry for what it is right now, compared to what it is in the future.

One of the most impactful musicians in my life is @billwurtz. The world is such a better place because of your creations.

Giveaways you wrote with AI Use an em dash -- Talk about what the thing isn't

As AI and humans build together, we will see more value in the market (duh) But what does that look like in practice? adamfrypierce.com/writing/ap…

Juniors will learn about the craft through a mix of hands on work, and QAing agents like Claude and Gemini. They'll learn by orchestrating agents, evaluating output, and building judgment through curation. The better they become in their domain, the more impact they can have.

Dysfunction is costly

The most valuable tech skill in the next 10 years will be marketing

Since Jan, I’ve been working on two products in my studio with 3 humans, and about 20 agents. Product 1: - mvp built, established product market fit, got our first 50 consumer customers Product 2: - prototype built, established partnership with enterprise client 🫨🏃💨

Flag post 62/144 goes to one of my oldest and true friends in this world, original studio pal, one of the best thought partners and someone you can always discuss the world with. @AdamFryPierce you keep us going 💪

I'm 43. If you're still in your 20s (or 30s), read this:

FROM MAGA TO CHINA Here are four things MAGA is getting wrong, and why it's handing over the world to China. (1) First, MAGA correctly understands that America’s economic position is in decline but thinks this is due to economic competition itself, rather than lack of competitiveness. (2) Second, MAGA also understands that the US has wasted trillions abroad in foreign wars, but thinks the problem is global leadership itself rather than poor leadership. (3) Third, MAGA knows that their Blue American enemies have allies abroad, but has incorrectly overreacted to this by treating every non-Red-American as an enemy. (4) Fourth, MAGA sees the billions of dollars flowing from the US to foreign recipients, but isn't grasping that the US can only print those dollars in the first place so long as it's the hub of a global empire. When you put these together you can both understand MAGA's actions and understand why they will not lead to the intended result. Basically: MAGA is hyperfocused on cutting off any apparent flow of funds from Red Americans to Blue Americans and non-Americans. And they only have ~500 days in power. So they're trying to quickly shut off imports, close down institutions, and exit all wars. OK. Except the reason the imports exist in the first place is because US products aren't competitive relative to Chinese products (or Fed printing). The reason those institutions exist is because the US set them up to run the world. And the reason those wars are happening is not because of American leadership per se, but because of the absence of good leadership. If you shut all of that down at once — if you abandon global competition and global leadership — you shut down American Empire, and with it the ability to print money. And then everyone in that empire has a very bad time.

Anytime you read an insane viewpoint on X that seems like a lot of people are agreeing with (for example, invading a sovereign country can be justified): Try and search their name on Linkedin or Instagram and see if they’re actually real people. You will be surprised how much of your worldview is shaped by bots.

This is beautiful and I’m excited to see all of the good that comes out of this initiative ❤️🤩

Both are true

It’s almost like @benjamincowen has been right all along