I love this post about "backseat software." When software evolved into an economic engine of its own, user-centric product design got clobbered by aggressive business growth tactics. This is why so many products now feel more hostile than helpful: blog.mikeswanson.com/backseat-sof...

BEFORE AI: "Would it be faster to do this manual task, or to write a script to do the task for me?" AFTER AI: "Would it be faster to do this manual task, or to ask an approximation machine to solve it accurately, then proofread its inevitable messes?"

Small personal news: a few weeks ago I started a new job at Superhuman, as the head of design for Superhuman Mail. Had a truly wonderful time at Figma, but have been feeling the itch to try something new. Excited to work on communication tools again (it's my happy place)

Seriously asking: what the heck happened to iOS autocorrect? I remember some point in the past when it worked properly, and now … not

Catherine O’Hara is one of those few people who could turn a creative role into a higher art. Not just a comedian or actor, but someone who elevated and changed the entire idea of those things. Absolutely inspiring legend 💔

Just tried @aeronautapp.com, a Mac app for Bluesky. It feels like being transported back to the glory days of Twitter 3rd party apps (like 2014 or so? It reminds me of Tweetie or Echofon.) Anyway, this makes Bluesky nicer. Well worth the subscription!

The brutality of all of this is absolutely horrific and unconscionable, but what really gets me is the pointlessness. None of this needs to happen for any reason whatsoever. It’s just dumb stupid brutality for the sake of it

💔

This piece is spot on. And let’s also remember that literally anyone in Musk’s orbit or anyone working at X could move to fix it, but they’re just letting this disgusting trash fester anyway

I fussed around with this oddball Search tab/button pattern SO MUCH before iOS 26 came out. The new iOS design language has many different ways to accomplish similar things, and affordances are less differentiated, so it's really hard to know what's "right." ryanashcraft.com/ios-26-tab-b...

we’re here now (and we’ve been here for a while)

For a while I’ve felt that we’re entering the Post-Trust era of information, where skepticism becomes our default mode of consumption, since almost nothing can be believed as real at a glance.

RIP feeling a tiny shred of cautious optimism about politics in the new year Jan 1, 2026 – Jan 2, 2026 it was a good run

happy canoe peer, friends

weirdly, my resolution for 2026 is to be on social media MORE. and getting back into longform writing. (I've been on hiatus from here for a while. I needed the mental break, but I miss posting pithy bad jokes. sorry in advance)

AI assistants Politicians 🤝 unabashedly lying with false info but confidently presenting it as the truth

Hello Weather is the app of the day all over the world today! Amazing to see this rolling out globally 🥹 apps.apple.com/us/story/id1...

just started thinking about the film Metropolis for totally no reason at all

Lately I've been impressed by the volume of writing some folks are producing, and I've wondered how they're finding the time to be so prolific! Then I read the writing and remember: oh. right.

This new option (in iOS 26.1 beta 4) is dramatically better for everything and should be the default.

What's everyone's social media approach right now? Which platforms do you lurk vs post vs ignore entirely? (I've been on a long hiatus from everything, and I'm not sure what's good anymore)

well, ok then

New in Hello Weather this week—Liquid Glass support for iOS 26, plus a bunch of related improvements! Hop over to the App Store to grab it: apps.apple.com/us/app/hello...

New on the @figma.com blog – I wrote about building resilient design teams, especially in times of constant macro change and instability. Sharing some tips here around team health and culture, craft, scaling with intention…and having fun together while you’re at it: www.figma.com/blog/how-to-...

144 available pixels, dozens of stakeholders, a handful of icons. My definition of a good time. figma.com/blog/the-mak...

First summer garden sunflower 🌻

One of my long term goals in running an indie software project is to directly support other independent creators. For the new Hello Weather, we hired freelancers to help us (like the legendary @matthewskiles.com), and we’re sponsoring a handful of indie publications: 512pixels.net/2025/07/spon...

What's your least favorite corporate jargon? I dislike all of it, but using "asks" and "solves" as nouns is a special kind of terrible

being forced to embrace Liquid Glass as an iOS app developer

I was not expecting to feel a kinship with Donkey Kong, but as it turns out, both of our realities are completely bananas

Someone should create a web browser feature to automatically choose the least possible cookie tracking on any given website. (Who ever wants *more* tracking? This doesn't need to be an explicit choice)

one of my favorite life experiences is being late to a meeting, but still being earlier than all the other participants

The all new Hello Weather is finally here! We’re rolling it out gradually this week, so if you don’t see the update yet, hop over to this App Store link and grab it. apps.apple.com/us/app/hello...

been thinking about the original Liquid Glass youtu.be/hObxaCAsQ7M?...

we put a small homage to Mac OS 8 into the new Hello Weather, and I really hope Apple is cool with it, because I love it so much

we’re finally launching our mega update to @helloweather.com! Click this link to get notified when it’s released on June 30: apps.apple.com/us/app/hello...

trying out a new approach for visualizing all the little stuff I do as a manager

Shipping a product is so tough. You’d think it’d get easier with a lot of experience, but no. Your standards and ambition just get a little higher every time

These ultra-translucent interfaces rarely work well as a system, because the transparency introduces way more problems than it solves. It’s form over function. I’d bet that a lot of this liquid glass stuff will end up more like semi-opaque-frosted-glass in the end. But it looks cool as a demo!

It’s counterintuitively great to see a bunch of “Bluesky is dead” hot takes, because that means Bluesky is *not* dead, and it’s thriving enough to warrant continued attention

Just getting caught up on the day's events, and I'm not surprised to learn that the least surprising outcome of all time finally occurred in an unsurprising manner

took a week off starting today. should I… - finally ship the new version of @helloweather.com - do a bunch of deferred home rehab projects - take a little road trip - do nothing and stare at the sky for a week …they all sound equally necessary!

a proper #caturday mood

took a few weeks away from here to decide whether I still wanted a microblogging website in my life conclusion: no but yeah

one of the many things I love about Chicago is that it's the funniest city

Yo #designsky – who’s going to be at Config next week? We could meet under the actual blue sky

I had this piece published a year ago about the time I worked with Prince, and am sharing it again today. It never gets less surreal that I got to do this, or that he's gone. 💜☔ www.pastemagazine.com/music/prince...

Every day working as a designer: obsessively solving twisty puzzles Every day away from work: obsessively thinking about the twisty puzzles you didn’t solve yet

Fare thee well, lil cakes

regular people: you should have onboarding in your app my nonsense brain: