We're caught between tooling vs thinking

Design has been getting rocked recently (2023-24).

I'm talking about the "solved problems" version of design: UI elements and patterns. The space was exciting and experimental 10ish years ago. Phones were new. Cloud was new. Now most of our software speaks to us in a familiar design vocabulary.

There's a reason why UI kits and Mobbin are popular.

I still think there's an art to constructing a cohesive UI. But that's secondary to content. And the average person's threshold of good design is pretty low. So why would someone pay a premium for solved problems?

Software development seemed like a lucrative and "safe" career for the past 25 years. But everyone in tech is getting rocked now.

Change is the only constant.