It's satisfying to see an expert use a tool well.

“It’s satisfying to see an expert use a tool well.” A lead developer said this in a meeting where I was walking through designs in Figma. I’ve been riding that high for years.

I don’t like bragging, so there’s a point to this anecdote.

When I start using any tool, design or otherwise, I’m slow. And clunky. I don’t know the mechanics or shortcuts. So it takes me an incredibly long time to do something basic. But every time I fumble, I get a tiny bit faster.

Eventually, the tool fades into the background. Your mind focuses entirely on the work. The tool becomes an extension of yourself. You enter a flow state.

I’ve mastered many tools in my past 20 years of designing. I built my first website in Flash in 2005. And every time industry design tools evolved, so did I. I’ve designed interfaces in every iteration from Photoshop to Figma.

I’m excited for the next wave of design tools. AI is just a tool, but the right tool can be an incredible force multiplier for those who use it well. I’m still fumbling with AI, but I’m already blown away by how much I can produce in a short amount of time.

So I’m hosting a webinar to talk about what I’ve learnt and built. Remind me if I forget to put a link here later.

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P.S. Cybersecurity is going to boom thanks to all the AI-generated untested, garbage code.