Meant to last

My oldest son turned seven this year.

He shares a birthday week with his Grandpa, so this we decided to go to Disneyworld all together. Days at Disney are easily five to ten miles of walking, hours of standing, and brutal Florida sun. Not easy on a seven-year-old's legs so after only a few hours I decided to pick him up onto my shoulders. It only took 5 seconds before I realized that the toddler I had in my head was now a 60-pound 7 year old. For sure, I can still carry the kid, but it wasn’t gonna last long for either of us… He was gangly and heavy, and I was “too tall and wobbly”.

After I put him down, I realized that it might have been the last time he rides on my shoulders.

I'm not gonna lie, writing that makes me feel some feels. What used to be an every day kinda thing was dissolving into a memory.

Parenthood is full of last times and first times. The last bedtime story. The first bike ride without help. They’re growing up.

So do we.

I see a future filled with “Sorry kid, my knees hurt,” or “Dad, stop, you’re embarrassing me.” Change is inevitable, in life and work.

A time of lasts

After our trip, I realized I was looking for other “last things” in my life. There's always the dramatic like seeing your children grow up, but I realized that there was also a lot fading away in my work life.

Our jobs are changing. I don’t have to tell you that. You know.

AI is changing everything. Our workflows. Our industry. Our tools. Things we did only a year ago are now totally antiquated.

Now, before I go further, no, this is not a cringy "what raising kids taught me about SaaS products" type post. We’re not on LinkedIn. These things are connected, just bear with me.

It started to hit me that the tools that I use on a daily basis are no longer going to be the same. That means my work won’t be the same. That means I won’t be the same. Expertise that I thought would last years or decades now seems like it may only last months.

Much of my career has been around design tools. I’m always reading, testing, trying and pontificating about them.

Heck, I've written for Figma, Webflow, and Framer, collaborated with other aspiring design tools, talked to many founders in this space.

So forgive me if I'll wax philosophical about how I'm giving away part of myself when I see the way I use a design tools changing. When I see my work process ending. When I see part of myself ending.

Will our work last?

When's the last time my job will be the same as what it is now?

In three years, will I look back and realize that the work that I do has no relation to the work that I'm doing now?

Will there be a last time that I design a user flow?

Will there be a last time I’ll name a layer?

Will I stop needing to make a design system?

When’s the last time I’ll buy stock photography? I'm not gonna lie, this has probably already happened. I don't know why I would ever reach for stock photography when I have a tool like MidJourney, Visual Electric, GPT image gen, etc. (Good riddance Shutterstock).

Are we done asking if designers should code?

Will there be a last time that I make a rectangle?

When will be the last time I’ll even open a design tool?

Right now everything is shifting. It’s not only about learning new tools but also unlearning current workflows. Some workflows that felt foundational are now totally useless. I can’t be the only one oscillating back and forth between existential dread and unbelievable excitement.

We’re all standing on shifting sand.

A time of firsts

But it's not only a time of ending. Like parenting, there’s also countless first times.

First steps.

First words.

First day of school.

The design industry is in a time of firsts. I’m doing things for the first time.

I still remember the first time I used GPT and Claude to generate components in Framer. It blew my mind. I’d seen other people make things with AI, but that one felt like something totally new. It was suddenly real.

I had new powers. The ceiling of my own capabilities was blown wide open.

But now, only months later, even that is out-of-date. I can do the entire flow of creating custom components without leaving Framer at all. Soon, that will be out of date too.

First the first time, I'm seeing ways of making many of my ideas become reality. Ideas used to be relegated to a forgotten notepad are now possible to build in a weekend, a few hours, or maybe just over lunch break.

Even this article was helped dramatically with AI. I dictated the rough idea with Willow, then I had Claude summarize it, clean it, dig deeper. With good dictation, I can get ideas down quickly instead of losing the train of thought.

It’s crazy that with tools like Willow… even typing feels like it’s out of date.

How soon until I can control my entire computer with my voice? If my keyboard is a relic, is my mouse next? My screen?

You and I are in a new age of firsts. You can actually build an idea by yourself. The tools are there. I've built multiple micro apps for my own day-to-day use, for work and for fun.

I’m building an app that lets me visualize cost of living on a heat map from one zip code to the next. (still trying to figure this one out)

I’m building another to keep tabs on Bitcoin prices, but in a multiplayer environment. It’s fun to see how many people are watching the Bitcoin price together. Made it just for fun in an afternoon.

→ https://bitcoinwatch.vercel.app/

I've built utilities for dithering, done complex prototypes for node-based UIs, and been able to create things that I never would have thought I could create before.

I’m currently using Veo 3 to direct and create a live action commercial for Basedash. Staging, characters, scenes, script, I’m making all of it. Before AI tools would have been totally, and I mean totally, unattainable for me.

This is the first time someone who can't code, direct, or have the budget for something can build. Tools like v0, Bolt, Loveable and Figma Make allow anyone to build their ideas. You can buy a domain and actually make a side project without a developer. There’s nothing holding you back.

Are they perfect?

No. Sometimes they’re terrible!

But this is the worst they’ll ever be. And those bad outputs are huge opportunities for people with taste and talent to make something amazing from even those terrible outputs.

The time of firsts is here for you and me.

I have no idea what's next for us, or what's next for our industry. No one can predict the next five months, let alone five years. But we can equip ourselves for this time of lasts and this time of firsts. To find ways to make things or find ways to work that last through it. To ride the change and to grow ourselves.

So we have to ask: what deserves to last?

What deserves to last?

Not everything should be automated. Not everything should be handed off to AI. Things that are human are worth keeping. Connections and community are worth pursuing. Authenticity and character are worth admiration. At the end of the day we’re not just clicking keyboards, we’re building things for people.

We can let go of the old, but be purposeful about what we can carry forward. That comes by deciding what we build, who we build it with, the problems we solve, the connections we form along the way.

It comes by knowing that what we make matters much more than how we make it.

Recommended tools for the future

Here’s some of my favorite tools for this next wave:

Flora Fauna / Visual Electric - Better ways to create assets with AI, both with a Figma style canvas.

v0 / Lovable / Bolt - Some differences, but all about the same. Test them all out to find the right one for you.

Framer - Great websites fast, and their level of AI integration is spot on.

Subframe - A tool to watch and try out. Taking a new AI first approach to design and design systems.

Spline / Rive / Unicorn Studio - 3D, interactive, and WebGL are a differentiation. Learn these tools to make your sites and projects stand out from all of the AI slop.

Willow - The fastest way to dictate your voice on a Mac