Eric E. Anderson ☕️

My thoughts on the recent topic of design tools, human creativity and automating it all with agents

I’ve been working on our next case study and as a challenge to myself I was like what if….it wasn’t digital at all? So I’ve been painstakingly designing a book. @soren_iverson called me a freak for the craft. And I think that’s appropriate. There is so much in this little 8.5x5.5 book. Hand embossed stickers from 80+ years ago. Vellum sheets of city blueprints from William Penn. Scans of type from 1891. Posters. Enamel pins. Etc. I’ll never financially recover but at least I’m going down swinging.

We've decided to sunset Arc on December 22, 2026. That's not an easy sentence to write. We spent years building Arc and celebrating each and every release along the way: we have so much pride and love for what we made alongside the Arc community. Our priority is to deliver best-in-class security for our members. Keeping a browser secure takes constant, dedicated work that is only increasing in the age of AI. Dia was built from the ground up to meet today’s security standards, so that's where our engineering and security teams will focus moving forward. We've worked to make switching to @diabrowser as easy as possible for Arc members. Here's how: · Your passwords, bookmarks, extensions and history come over to Dia seamlessly. · Spaces, Folders, and Tab Groups are in Dia and import over with your data intact. · Dia now surpasses Arc benchmarks in stability, speed, and security. · The browser features you use in Arc are free in Dia, and the AI is optional. Thank you for using Arc, for pushing us to make it better, and for building alongside us. The team that made Arc is the same team behind Dia, and some of our most ambitious work is just ahead. We'd love for you to be there with us when it lands.

An animation performance tip: Animate `transform` instead of layout properties like `width`, `height` or `left` when possible. Layout properties trigger layout on every frame, so animations can stutter when the main thread is busy. `transform` skips layout and stays smooth.

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We discovered a sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices. We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work. At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated. We take protecting our technology, data, and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance. Our security program is designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation states, and this case is an example of how AI can help address these sophisticated security threats.

The Base 2027 BMW 3 Series Is Surprisingly Good-Looking. Read more: bit.ly/4xXNnZk

The one hill I will die on. If you want to be a product designer, don't get a graphic design degree. Get an industrial design degree. Shared roots, but they have fundamentally different outcomes.

I've worked with brilliant designers in my life and Astra/Opus outshine them 10x when it comes to not only design aesthetics, but remarkably creative UX solutions, in 1/1000th of the time. If we were being doomerish about it, Astra and latest Opus mark the death of designers the way models in 2025 ended coding.

How to Ask for Help If you're a junior designer, I want to share a few things that will help you ask for help more effectively, be it wanting a portfolio review, introductions, advice, or anything really. 1. Be direct. Most of the people you want help from are busy people. It is *greatly* preferred when you are upfront and direct about what you want. There are only so many hours in the day, and I'd rather know exactly what you want and how I can help. 2. Be specific There are very few people in the world who ever want to 'catch up' or 'get their brain picked' when you don't know someone and it's ambiguous what they want. If you want feedback on your portfolio, ask for that. If you want ideas on how to reposition yourself, ask for that. If you aren't specific, you'll either get no response, or get generic response. My general feedback on every portfolio will always be: show your work upfront; remove half the words then remove more again, and spend 10x the time refining the work shown vs the design of the portfolio itself. 3. Be concise Everyone is busy, so be respectful of their time and be as concise as possible with your ask. 4. Follow up If you don't hear back from someone, the most likely answer is they either missed your message or forgot. Platforms like X have, somehow still, terrible DM's that always seem to be buggy, so just follow up respectfully. I don't find it annoying; rather I appreciate the persistence and reminder. 5. Follow through If someone takes the time to help you, and gives you advice or suggestions, you should follow through on them. I love hearing about how things went or the updates someone made, but I'd guess less than 3% of the time I hear back from someone. Want to know an easy way to start to build a relationship? Follow through. Those who follow up I am more likely to want to continue helping and building into. So what does this look like in practice? Instead of "Here's my portfolio, let me know if you have thoughts!" say "I'm updating my portfolio as I look for a full time role at a startup. Would you mind letting me know 1) if this would pass your first 5 second screen, and 2) do you think the work examples I have selected seem credible to an early stage founder?" Instead of "I'd love to meet if you're ever down", say "I have a few first round interviews coming up in a few weeks. Would you be open to doing a 30m practice portfolio presentation with me? I'll show up at any time that works for you this week or next." I have generally found our industry is full of people who want to help others, so I hope this is helps you better ask for help!

No, I won’t check out your portfolio. Here’s why. Anytime you ask someone to do something, it’s a pitch. In a pitch, say what’s in it for the other person. What’s in it for me to check out your portfolio? Why would I spend my time, energy, and attention—all of which I value highly—on that as opposed to anywhere else? If there’s nothing in it for me, then you’re asking for charity. If you’re asking for charity, then ask for charity. Make it clear. I like doing favors sometimes and being charitable sometimes. But I can’t tell if that’s what you’re asking for, and I won’t assume it. Even if I agreed to it, you haven’t even given me any criteria. Is there something specific you want help with? Something to improve? Something you’re stuck on? Some job it’s not doing? General questions get general answers. Specific questions get specific answers. Since I don’t know what you want help with and there doesn’t seem to be much incentive for me, it’s a pass. Here are some examples of pitches I would consider more (even if I’d still say no): “Dan, would you be willing to do me a favor and review my portfolio to help me land a design job working on a U.S.-based team for a fintech startup?” “Dan, can you please review my portfolio to see if the UI design work feels closer to junior or senior caliber? I’ll make a donation to your favorite non-profit as a token of thanks.” “Dan, would you mind looking at my portfolio to see if I’m the kind of person you’d hire? I know you value your time, attention, and energy, so I’d gladly take any feedback you can provide after looking for even 30 seconds.” @odeniransulaimo, wanna pitch again? I’m open to you trying again if you’d like. But even better: pitch someone who’s in a closer position to help you get what you want. If you want a job at a sports betting startup, pitch a hiring manager at a sports betting startup to check out your portfolio. Even if they won’t hire you for THEIR startup, their feedback would be way more relevant to getting a job at a sports betting startup than my feedback would be, since I’ve never worked at a sport betting startup. In short, when you pitch, make it about them and make it as easy as possible for them to give you what you want.