Splitting Atoms & Splitting Hairs
Atomic design got us from thinking about pages to thinking about components, but we don't need to keep carrying the periodic table around.
Annotated
Thinking about the overlaps between culture, commerce, ethics, design, people and technology, one messy idea at a time.
Latest posts
The value is in the difficulty
On building software, vibe coding, and what happens to market prices when the barriers fall
Interaction Costs: The High Price of Low Usability
How Balsamiq's recent redesign broke rapid wire-framing.
I work, I think?
How AI may quietly dismantle the feedback loop that turns inexperienced people into competent ones, and why my work matters to me.
Stop asking users what they want — and start watching what they do.
People's opinions about themselves and the things they use rarely match real behaviour.
The point is to understand
Machines can’t make sense of the world for us. Generating content that looks like knowledge isn't the same as producing it. We lose everything by confusing the two.
Fidelity scales inline with certainty
Fidelity in design isn’t about how finished something looks — it’s about knowing when something is ready to be finished.
The AI recruitment ouroboros
AI is breaking the simple act of getting a job.
The worst designer I've ever worked with was also the most productive
When companies mistake volume for value, and incentivise outputs over outcomes.
Bring squiggle birds to your workshops
A simple silly and powerful drawing exercise that unlocks creative thinking instantly in workshops about complex things
The product designer's paradox
How UX design’s quest for more influence led to its quiet subordination
Business leaders don’t care about design (and that’s a good thing)
Or why your boss was probably right not to support your design ideas.
Incentives eat your strategy for lunch
How short-term sales culture destroys product strategy, and what founders can do to stop it.
Equity compensation: a lottery ticket with terrible odds
Exits are low probability events and don't offer real value to workers.
Founders: The best predictor of your SaaS failing is visualising your future too soon
Why high-fidelity mockups create cognitive lock-in that prevents real growth
Ghost kitchens in academia: How AI wrapper products threaten research integrity
Behind the glossy branding and false authority, wrappers hide the same flawed systems — eroding trust, distorting methods, and putting academic knowledge at risk.
The AI Bubble: Efficiency Theatre at Scale
Investors embraced AI not for its genius, but for its promise to cut people, cut costs, and boost portfolios.
AI in Peer Review: Heuristics for Academic Publishers
A draft evaluation framework to assess risks, trade-offs, and practices in scholarly communication.