I design software to automate work in cybersecurity, but I feel good about it because I know it's either: a) Work a human can't do b) Work teams don't have the bandwidth to handle, or c) Work that sucks, that people are happy to delegate In other words, work worth automating.

Picasso drew the same bull 11 times before he got it 'right.' Between 1945-46, he started with realistic, detailed drawings and ended with just a few simple strokes. Each drawing necessary to reach the next. You can't shortcut your way to simplicity. You have to earn it.

I’m back from a much-needed summer break with a new essay on Mac Miller’s Small Worlds and the quiet emptiness behind “having it all.” Part personal story, part cultural reflection, and a reminder of what makes life feel real. www.unknownarts.co/p/mac-miller...

My 18-month work sabbatical is coming to a close this week. I’m going to write a debrief soon covering: 1) My sabbatical experience as a whole 2) My recent application and interview processes So I’m curious: what questions do you have?

If the people most equipped to thrive with AI are generalists with small teams, having an entrenched generation of specialists on big teams optimizing to preserve their own careers will be a big blocker to progress.

"Content creator" and "software creator": the two most essential jobs of tech's next era.

Systems thinking FTW.

Writers used to be like painters, spilling words on a blank canvas. Now, they're becoming more like sculptors, carefully carving away AI-generated words to reveal the essence hidden beneath.

The visual side of software design will crossfade to the user. They will collaborate with AI to create their preferred UI for a given software service. To enable this, professional software designers shift toward designing the systems and interactions that make that collaboration possible

Building and tuning your AI's knowledge context and the tooling around it to support your workflows and outputs is probably the highest leverage thing any creative can do right now.

So much for "everyone's a designer." With ai, it's more like "everyone's a client." But as any designer will tell you, good clients are just as rare.

There's a whole lotta knowledge in the Unknown Arts archive just waiting to be discovered. 171 articles – multiple books worth of guidance – to help creative builders thrive. All FREE!

Exploring using textures that have surfaced in my @midjourney feature images in my brand logo.

Visual exploration for my recent article "AI is a Prism, Not a Source"

I’ve let creative projects guide my way across disciplines over the course of my 12+ year career. From advertising to engineering to design to writing, I always followed my excitement, built my way forward and ended up with a career that’s unique and my own. www.unknownarts.co/p/the-projec...

@patrickmorgan.org on the end of design certainty. ow.ly/FEZG50V3vWk

AI is a Prism, Not a Source www.unknownarts.co/p/creativity...

This week's article "The End of Design Certainty" is resonating.

"AI doesn't respect our craving for certainty. It doesn't wait for us to fully understand it before showing results. And the more we try to force it into rigid, explainable, deterministic workflows, the more we suffocate its potential." www.unknownarts.co/p/the-end-of...

How do we create user-centered experiences when our users aren't human? Wrote about OpenAI Operator and the emerging greenfield space of AI-first interfaces in this week's edition of Unknown Arts.👇 www.unknownarts.co/p/when-ai-ta...

@patrickmorgan.org lists eight design breakthroughs defining AI’s future. ow.ly/TiQi50UU8Bl

uxdesign.cc/8-design-bre... Great bird’s eye on how UI patterns in AI developed and how design technologists are using them

8 Design Breakthroughs Defining AI's Future www.unknownarts.co/p/8-design-b...

If you think 'GPT wrappers' are limited consider this: how many electric appliances do you own? Every one is just an 'electricity wrapper' that became a distinct product to serve different user needs. AI products will follow a similar trajectory and be as widespread.

The shock of AI surpassing human ability is coming for every creator. The question isn't whether we'll face the moment, but how we'll choose to define ourselves when we do. www.unknownarts.co/p/the-moment...

much of last generation’s software UI existed to guide users on how to perform specific actions. with AI handling most actions, that UI will disappear, replaced by interfaces that help users focus on what they want, not how to do it.

I constantly use dictation with ChatGPT, so I prototyped a voice-driven workflow triggered by a Task that guides a daily standup routine using a custom GPT and Notion.

This week, I wrote about how I'm turning my AI conversations into reusable assets powering my creative workflow.

"Copilot" is starting to feel more fitting for the human's role than the AI's role

Computational thinking is the new literacy www.unknownarts.co/p/computatio...

Fully personalized UIs will look worse on average because they aren’t trying to reflect a designer’s taste. But user satisfaction will go up because the UI is more aligned to the user’s preferences.

What does “sufficient human authorship” with AI work look like to you?

Every new year, I assess my tools: what's useful and what's clutter. Since many of you likely do the same, here's my current setup as inspiration—what's working, what isn't, and what I'm still exploring. www.unknownarts.co/p/my-creati...

The brand I started for my writing now carries across basically all my public facing properties: - Newsletter - AI knowledge base - Portfolio website - Portfolio slides - Resume

Design has no universal laws—only principles that guide. Use what works, adapt what doesn’t.

It'll be tough to find the sweet spot for a true AI creative partner: open, supportive, and trusting while pushing me and challenging my thinking with *just enough* disagreeableness

The "modern" UI of the bank that powers so many startups... yeesh.

‪Tech jobs in the 2010s became the Wall Street jobs of the 80s

Zoom: a rare company whose brand becomes a verb and still fumbles the bag.

Feeling stuck? Go full Costanza in 2025: Do the opposite of everything you'd normally do and watch it turn your life around.

Short form video is a weapon of mass distraction

As a person who gets stuck in my own head a lot, AI has been super helpful because it gives me an immediate outlet for speaking my ideas and getting a response. It doesn’t need to be ‘right’ to be helpful. Just the process of explaining out loud unblocks more often than not.

To maintain authenticity, embrace imperfection. More important than ever with AI-assisted creative work.

The question isn't "Will AI replace creativity?" It's "How do we preserve human creative identity?"

AI doesn’t need to be right to be useful.

Before AI / After AI.

A new wave of AI-enabled startups will never scale their human workforce. Instead, they'll effectively compete with established companies by leveraging AI teams.

AI UI design today feels like the early days of responsive design all over again. Back then, we faced fluid viewports; now, we're facing fluid data. In both eras, code prototyping becomes the secret sauce for great design.

Are you Team Right or Team Left when it comes to AI assistants?

State of the software industry.