this is all great advice from @joulee!

some thoughts. 
1) my hot take is that if you are a good founding designer material (0-1 product, not post-PMF), and thats what you are interested in doing then you should seriously consider doing your own thing/co-founding. 

similar risk,

## Everything can be done faster



It's your job as a leader to push the pace.



My apprehension about pushing came from the fear of being disliked. I didn't want to be perceived as an asshole. But after working for leaders who pushed me, and seeing the results, I realized being pushed is much better than mediocrity and stasis.



You can push the pace without being an asshole. The ideal state is that your team both loves what they're working on *and* can ship fast. Teams want to feel agency and durable ownership for what they're building.



If you're okay with things moving slowly, they will. Aggressive deadlines expose hidden complexity. They force conversations about what really matters. As a leader, you can speed things up by having these conversations and helping the team narrow focus.



My goal was to build a culture that set aggressive deadlines, but also was okay with sometimes missing dates. If there's no date, it might take 3 months. But if you set a date of 2 weeks and it actually takes 1 month, great, you just shipped a first version 3x faster.



I've watched radical deadline compression many times at Vercel. It often starts with a simple question: "what would it take to ship next week instead?" Extremely talented programmers find ways to get 10x more done in the same time.



It's one of my favorite parts about roles like DX and Design Engineers. These are folks who can code, design, build, and ship. They have extreme agency and operate more like founders.



**Takeaway:** Your greatest advantage can be how quickly you ship, listen to feedback, and iterate on the product.

complexity first, simplicity second

people say “keep it simple,” but most approach it backwards. they start from simple, then add on complexity without seeing the whole. that’s how you end up with frankenstein products: clean-looking components awkwardly stitched together, held

<n>MY OWN THOUGHTS</n> by artist <n>Helena Minginowicz</n>.

Website for Copenhagen-based designer <n>Berner Kühl</n>.

designing in layers

the best software doesn’t overwhelm you on day one or abandon you when you get sophisticated. it grows with you through carefully designed “layers” that reveal themselves exactly when you need them.

think of it like learning to drive. you start with

how can engineers (or anyone) get better at design?

i get this question a lot. as someone who went from cs to design, here's a real path:

start with systems thinking
engs already get this. design is just systems for humans & our senses, instead of machines. read “thinking in

imo, if you want to hire a great founding designer, you need to understand:

a. they are incentivized by first principles, not money
b. they don't want to be in your office all the time – they'll go when they feel inspired
c. they like to ask 'why' something works fundamentally

@ryolu_ "Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful." 

So common to forget the order of things.

About

Interior of the house designed by architect <n>Kunio Maekawa</n> in 1942.

37signals

Photograph by <n>Isolde Ohlbaum</n>, used as the cover for <n>Eva Schmidt</n>'s book <n>Ein langes Jahr</n>.

<n>Chongqing Longtang Lake Park</n> in Chongqing, China, designed by <n>WTD GROUP</n>.

stay true to the medium

the “liquid glass” approach to design is peak “design system” gone wrong — when you optimize for visual consistency over interaction fidelity, you lose the soul in each medium.

each input method has its own physics and affordances. touch needs bigger

The <n>Hyundai</n> <n>Heritage Series Grandeur</n>, a retro-futuristic electric concept car.

Home

Signs of engineering competence (that even non-engineers can sniff out):

1. When asked to explain a complex topic you know little about, does their explanation make you feel confused / dumb or way smarter afterward?

2. When confronting a bug, is it case closed when the bug is

@readswithravi @YungPueblo Uncertainty is not weakness. It is part of the climb.

Most men panic when the path is foggy. But clarity is earned through movement, not overthinking. You do not need all the answers. Just direction.

Faith is walking when the ground feels invisible. What matters is that you

A <n>Parallax Header for React Native</n> UI component developed by <n>Rit3zh</n>.

⚡️ Built a sleek Parallax Header component for React Native (Expo)

The header component is a part of

🔗 Github: