AI Needs a Plan
Why the best agent work starts with a brief, not a one-shot prompt.
Writing
A sample of articles focused on AI, design, and systems thinking. Subscribe to Unknown Arts for my entire catalog of 200+ articles.
Turn Your Portfolio Into a Laboratory
Why your site should be a space to build, not just a space to present
How I Rebuilt My Portfolio With Claude Code
Why coding your own site is finally worth the effort and what it actually unlocks
Prototype Code Is Not Production Code (And That's Okay)
Why the most important distinction in vibe coding is the one nobody's talking about
Your Instructions Now Run Like Code
Why your plain-English documentation is more valuable than ever.
Curate Your Context
Your AI is only as good as the context you give it. Learn how curation—not collection—creates the leverage.
The Rhythm of Creative Progress
What endurance training taught me about the cycles of creative growth.
When Work Stopped Being a Place
How we gained flexibility and lost apprenticeship.
Mac Miller & The Hollow Promise of Success
On wealth, work, and why comfort without connection leaves us empty
Be a Skill Surfer
Ride the waves of your curiosity to a more fulfilling career
Default It or Design It
How I learned to stop sweating every UI detail and ship faster
How Vibe Coding Improved My Data Viz Prototypes
Why I skipped Figma and rebuilt my data viz workflow in code instead
10 Heuristics to Simplify Design Decision-Making
How I use industry wisdom to guide my work and avoid the paradox of choice
When Creation Becomes Compulsion
How I mistook output for identity, and what I’m learning now
50 Principles of Unknown Arts
A compass for creative builders navigating the frontier of technology and creativity.
The End of Design Certainty
Why AI forces us to embrace emergence instead of clinging to control and understanding
8 Design Breakthroughs Defining AI's Future
How key interface decisions are shaping the next era of human-computer interaction
Computational Thinking is the New Literacy
Why software engineering still matters in an AI world
Voice In, Interface Out
What Blade Runner understood about AI interfaces decades before ChatGPT
Your Perfectionism is Lying to You
Unpacking the counterintuitive approach that actually drives creative success
3 Models for Framing Software Complexity
Using 37 Signals' visual metaphors to strategically approach software projects
Surviving the Taste Gap
Learning to coexist with the tension between your taste and skills.
7 Insights for Navigating B2B Design
Key dynamics I wish I had known sooner in my enterprise design career.
24 Things I Know After 10 Years in Tech, I Wish I’d Known in Year 1
Lessons learned and wisdom gained in the tech trenches.
Why You Should *Curate*, Not Create, a Design System
How strategic curation and targeted customization can elevate your design practice
How to Avoid Technical Lock-In for Better Software Design
Making intentional design decisions to keep your options open