The Head of Engineering when he sees PMs pushing vibe slop to production but also has a mortgage to pay

A few reflections from a whirlwind couple days at @ValioCon - Everyone deeply wants and needs community. The desire to meet, connect, be known was palpable. Conversation spilled over into the hallways and nooks local haunts and deep into the night. - Creativity is universal. I met folks from all over the country and world, as far away as Norway, Kazakhstan, and Singapore just brimming with ideas and twinkles in their eye. We are all so, so similar in ways we often don’t take the time to appreciate. - Leadership has no age requirement. Some of the younger, new ValioCon attendees “just did things” and led breakout demo sessions and conversations. - Mentorship and *sponsorship* has never been more important. It’s clear that our industry, and many others, are still unresolved in how to consistently and reliable offer pathways to emerging talent. We can all be doing more here. - The kids are alright. I’m old enough to say that now but man; the energy and expressiveness on display was inspiring. I’m excited to learn more from these folks and it’s so encouraging to see. And to close, a massive thank you to @drewwilson for continuing to create space and throw an intimate, independent conference like no other 🙏

At @valiocon this morning @brdrck demo'ed literally the most innovative and game-changing vector tool I've ever seen in my entire career. When @OpacityHQ launches with this its going to be huge.

I'm excited to share DialKit 2.0 with you. This release brings several new control types, support for vanilla JS/HTML with no dependencies, and many bug fixes and performance improvements. `npm i dialkit` or learn more at dialkit.dev

A growing part of everyone’s job is cleaning up the AI slop from other people trying to do your job

Everyone's "responses" on Slack lately via all their Claude chiefs of staff.

That's how programming feels nowadays

It doesn't matter you can build faster now. The slop bucket is overflowing. People need to see visible effort, craft and passion in products, otherwise they fade into obscurity almost instantly. Being genuine as a maker is more important than being efficient.

I can't believe over 30k of you willingly follow me on here. I am both honored and horrified. To celebrate, interfacecraft.dev is 30% off for the next 30 hours. Join members from over 114 countries who are committed to growing and designing with uncommon care.

Check out this way you can get a sun tan whenever you want for $1000/hr (which is its only practical application, of course) reflectorbital.com/

Come and join me on.design 👀 (saw @rogie post this) on.design/claim?ref=aubrey

This is still such a goat feature.

Design Mode for Cursor Introducing a new way to design right where you code.

These chopped off loading bars in iOS 26 feel like they deserve a better solution.

the ladder of product value in 1 photo: relevant → functional → desirable → magical

Watching @pablostanley vibecode webgl stuff in real time at @valiocon @posthog. It’s cool to see how other people get in and make with ai.

Day 1 @valiocon (yesterday) was awesome. More fun today. @drewwilson events are 🔥

Just saw (heard) some of @neversitdull's sound design work in @jeremiahjw's @valiocon talk. incredible! The way premium sound design levels a video up is wild.

Great talk on landing pages @valiocon by @robhope this morning.

When you show stakeholders a design / prototype and their snap reaction is "I don't like this," there are only 3 reasons: 1. They disagree with the problem you're trying to solve 2. They disagree with your assumptions on how to best solve the problem 3. They disagree with your specific execution of how to best solve the problem The first thing you need to do is figure out the root cause of the disagreement -- it is #1, #2, or #3? The stakeholder usually can't articulate the reason for you b/c they don't know your intention. All they see is a design they don't like. Make the root cause analysis easier by always stating: 1. What is the user problem? 2. What assumptions are you basing your design on? Disagreement on #1 and #2 is like 60% of design disagreements in my experience.