What's Actually Still Mine? // What Survives E05
Show notes
Cursor handed me a good idea and I killed it anyway. In episode five, I take inventory of what’s actually still mine: judgment, taste, time, and the space to ask if it’s good for people. Then I get to the part I didn’t want to say out loud.
If judgment is what’s left of the design job, how much of the work is actually still yours?
Last episode, I landed on a line that sounded pretty good: the identity was never in the pixel pushing, it was in the deciding. But that’s easy to say when you’re standing in the wreckage of everything else. So in this episode, I actually check. I start with a story about a mobile action bar, a clever idea from Cursor, and why I said no when it tried to bring that idea to desktop. It wasn’t a bad idea. It just needed to live somewhere else.
From there, I walk through what’s still on my list and test whether it holds up. That includes judgment, taste (with a less precious definition than the one you usually hear), and the hours I’ve gained now that work can run while I’m in meetings. I also take on Michelle’s question from LinkedIn, because my original answer was a bit of a dodge. If shipping keeps getting cheaper, who’s still willing to slow down and ask whether the thing is good for the people using it?
Then there’s the part that’s harder to say. The inventory holds up better for some designers than others, and it leads to a much colder question that sets up the back half of the season. So if you’ve been wondering what’s still yours, give this one a listen and then go take your own inventory.
Topics:
• 00:00 - The good idea I killed
• 01:00 - Welcome and this episode’s sponsor
• 02:25 - Season recap
• 03:00 - Cursor’s mobile action bar
• 03:35 - Why it didn’t work on desktop
• 04:20 - Moving the idea to the design system
• 05:35 - Taste and social capital
• 08:05 - Work that runs during meetings
• 08:55 - Where the recovered hours go
• 11:05 - Michelle’s question: outputs vs. outcomes
• 12:15 - The pressure to ship faster
• 14:10 - Keeping the space to ask
• 14:25 - The full inventory
• 15:05 - Why losing the tool felt like losing my identity
• 16:00 - The uncomfortable truth about production work
• 17:50 - Will the market keep paying for judgment?
• 18:30 - Wrap-up
—
Thanks for listening!
We hope you dug today’s episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, why don’t you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton.
If you haven’t already, sign up for our email list. We won’t spam you. Pinky swear.
• Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show
• Support the show on Patreon
• Check out show transcripts
• Check out our website
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify
• Subscribe on YouTube