Still Rendering
First Thing Monday, edition #145
Happy Monday readers,
I’ll start with a little personal update. I was one of the 4,000 people laid off from Block last week. I talk about it a little more over on Linkedin, and will probably have more things to say soon. But for now, long story short is that I’m on the lookout for a new role. I’m open to lead, staff, principle, and founding designer roles. Let me know if you know of anything interesting.
Silver lining is that I’m going to have a little more time for writing, and First-Thing-Mondaying. Looking forward to taking some time to write more, build and share some side-projects, while looking for the next thing.
A few things that caught my eye recently:
Design is dead, it’s all evolution now - sad, but somewhat true.
“AI assistants don’t have to communicate in paragraphs. They can communicate through interfaces” - This is a really detailed and interesting piece about generative UI, design systems and avoiding the “text trap” of ai experiences.
WTF Happened in December 2025? - a breakdown of why December 2025 was the moment when software development truly changed. Fast forward to March, and we certainly are in a moment. Buckle up.
Martin Wright on How I’m dealing with the pressure to adopt AI as a designer.
Expose Your Design System to LLMs - how to feed your design system to AI coding agents so they stop guessing.
Why Typography might be the last thing AI can’t fake, and how custom typography can make us stand out from a sea of sameness.
I think Elena is right. Perhaps, more than ever we’re in the Minimum Lovable Product Era.
And finally, WalkmanLand pays tribute to the pocket tape devices of yesterdays: the Walkman. This was probably peak technology, in retrospect. (then again, maybe this was)
Take care out there,
Ben
Sorry about you being at the vanguard of the wave of firings. That said this edition was at the vanguard of everything I’ve been thinking about the past few weeks