AI, Cringe, Design, and all other things that everybody can't stop thinking about.

I spend a lot of time online, getting to know voices that aren’t afraid of change.

There is always a new tool, a change on the market, a new policy. Some panic, but some ride the wave. People can adapt to anything, and some make the best of things that scare others.

This week I sat down with one of them - Ileana.

Ileana Marcut is a product strategist, UX + AI designer, builder, and co-founder of Creative Glue Lab. She writes about designing and building with and for AI at UX + AI. She works with teams that need external expertise to define, launch, and scale their digital products (the right way!)

My community isn’t just job seekers. It’s designers, researchers, and leaders, and right now everyone is asking the same thing: what AI is automating, what it isn’t, what the future of work looks like.

There’s no right or wrong here. But some opinions deserve to be lifted up, and hers is one of them.

Ileana and I chatted about all things AI and authority, and here is how it went.

• Curiosity beats fear - because AI isn’t happening to you. “I don’t feel it like it’s something that’s happening to me... I always like to get closer to the change that’s happening. And I’m trying to understand it.”

• The tools change; the craft doesn’t. Sketch, Figma, now Claude Code. The taste, the critical thinking, the connection to the users - that stays.

• There’s no how-to guide. There’s experimentation. Replicate your own process, see where AI is reliable and where it isn’t, keep what works, drop what doesn’t.

• Invest in yourself - even one hour on a Saturday. If your company won’t pay for it, you should. Your career is your career, and you can be laid off in an hour.

• Sharing your craft builds authority as a side effect. A Substack became a visible portfolio for work that’s otherwise invisible or under NDA - and brought paid subscribers and inbound clients.

• The cringe never fully goes away. Do it anyway. Imagine the worst case, then post. The upside is always bigger than the downside.

Fear vs. curiosity

There are a lot of people who think it’s an exciting time, and there’s a lot of fear about it. So what’s different for you - why are you not fearing this time, but feel excited about it?

Ileana

“I see it as something that you need to be flexible about. It’s a change that you need to adapt to. And I don’t feel it like it’s something that’s happening to me. Because if you’re thinking ‘hey, this is something that’s happening to me, and I’m scared, I don’t know what to do’ - you’re just standing still and waiting for things to happen. And I’m not that kind of person. I always like to get closer to the change that’s happening, and I’m trying to understand it. I’m very curious by nature. I never even thought about being scared. I was just very excited, because it’s a new thing - and who doesn’t like new toys? It’s just a new thing, a new toy, a new medium, something exciting to explore and understand. Curiosity drove me to not fearing it.”

Lena

That landed for me. Thinking about hiring five, eight years ago - curiosity was exactly what made a designer a designer. Every good designer or researcher is curious. They ask questions. They dig in. Using new tools has always been normal in the design workflow: Sketch, Figma, now Claude Code. The tools are changing. The designers stay - the taste stays, the critical thinking stays, the connection to the users stays.

Using it in client work

Do you have to use Claude for your actual client work? So many people are talking about vibe coding, about using Claude for personal projects - which I think everyone should. But there’s still no how-to guide: okay, this is your workflow, this is how you implement Claude, this is what you keep, this is what you automate. How did you handle it?

Ileana

“I started working with AI before it was very popular, and I really loved it. I worked with everything that was in beta, so I had a very long period of adaptation. I always experimented. I tried to replicate some of my processes and see how AI does it - where I can put AI and where I can’t, where it’s reliable, where it’s not, where it doesn’t make sense to replace. By experimenting, I could decide: this works for me, I’m keeping it. Or this doesn’t work, I wasted time, move forward. It’s all about adapting it to your own way of working, your own team, and your specific project limitations.”

Paying for it yourself

The objection I hear most from my community isn’t really a question - it’s “Lena, I can’t use it at work, so now I have to pay for it out of my own pocket not to be left behind?” My short answer is yes. It’s cheaper than you think, and I treat mine like an employee — still cheaper than hiring someone.

She agreed, and went further:

Ileana

“You should pay from your own pocket if you can, because you need to learn and understand how this entire thing works. A lot of designers tell me the same thing: ‘I work in a bank, 40 hours a week, very intense, I’m completely stressed, I don’t have the brain power for extra projects. What do I do?’ The reality is you have to invest, and you have to find space for it. I don’t care if it’s one hour on Saturday at one o’clock - that one hour, you have to dedicate. What does it mean for me as a designer in this company if I’m not allowed to use this and the world moves ahead? Do you have a plan for it? You have to just do it. You have to do it.”

Lena

We grew up with the mindset that your company is responsible for your development - you wait for your manager to bring it to a one-on-one, you wait to be told you’re ready. But we’re on our own. Your career is your career, and it’s in your hands. I’ve been laid off. You get an email, and in one hour - ciao. You can’t access your inbox anymore, and you’re on the market with people who’ve been experimenting, paying, understanding.

Writing, and why it builds authority

She’s a practitioner who also writes and talks about the work.

Ileana

“I always loved the idea of sharing, and I started doing workshops - teaching people, practical sessions. Writing is just another format of that. Someone from Substack, a past client and friend, told me ‘you should write on Substack, that’s for you.’ So it came from someone else. I don’t consider myself an influencer or a content creator. I was just sharing stuff, doing my job, practicing what I do. I didn’t have a big strategy or a plan, to be honest. I had no idea what I’m doing.”

Your Substack is growing. Do you feel you’ve got to a level where you can see it bringing some financial opportunity - what does this exposure do for you?

Ileana

“First, it’s authority in the domain. You have proof that you know what you’re talking about, which helps with my clients - it almost serves as a portfolio of my work, which is most of the time invisible or under NDA. Second, I have a paid plan, and I started having paid subscribers, so there’s a financial part I can see growing. And I’ve had potential clients request services from Substack. I’ve never been approached on LinkedIn or Instagram with ‘hey, let’s do something together.’ It feels so much easier on Substack.”

Lena

This is the part I believe most: craft-based, experience-based sharing is what builds authority. You don’t try to build a following - you try to educate, and the authority is the side effect.

The cringe

So many incredible designers, researchers, and founders feel it. That word is cringe.

Ileana

“I’m not comfortable on social media. I always have the fear of judgment, of people hating me, everything negative you can imagine - I have it. I’m not in my element. But I’m the type of person who doesn’t care if I’m not in my element - I’m still going to do it. Caring about what other people think will still be there. Some people say ‘I don’t care what others think.’ No - you will care. I care every day. But the action of doing it is more important. I imagine the worst thing that can happen: someone leaves a bad comment, I block it, I delete it. So what’s the worst that can happen? I’m doing it. It’s not that bad.”

Lena

Same for me. I’ve always been in the written format, and now I’m moving to video. I look at myself in the recording and think, oh my god, shut up. But that’s the cringe - it’s not because I’m saying something wrong; it’s because it’s a new format of expressing myself. You can’t be good at something the moment you start. And the upside is always bigger than the downside.

Read you soon,

Lena