What I’ve been reading lately 👀

Hi!

How are you? I'm thrilled about the response to my last post, and—perhaps to no one's surprise—I'm once again thinking about redesigning my website 🙃

Since my last newsletter didn't include any links, I thought I'd make this one link-focused instead. Have you read anything spectacular lately? Well, maybe let's lower the bar—send me anything interesting you've come across?

Links

Crossing the uncanny valley of voice - demo
I know—we're all tired of AI tools by now, and it's quite rare that I even bother trying them out. But I have to say that Sesame's voice demo actually blew my mind. It feels extremely natural and snappy, though I can't really make up my mind whether this is good or bad!

The Looking Glass: Our Souls Need Proof of Work
After a long break from reading Julie Zhou's writing, she once again proves why she's one of my favorite design writers.

“Europeans mock Americans for working too hard. Boomers lament Millenials for laziness and entitlement. Republicans fume that the work ethic America was built on is eroding like cliffs against crashing waves of handouts. Democrats believe that too much work is making us sicker and lonelier.

Today, hustling competes with YOLO. The search for spirituality wrestles with the quest for commercial success. Slow down and meditate! Hurry up and embrace AI! Technology will reduce our toil. Technology will kill our spirit.

At the heart of these debate lies the ever-pulsing question: what is the merit of hard work?”

It just works
James perfectly describes why our favorite phrase "It just works" seems like such a low bar, yet surprisingly few products actually achieve this standard. What was the last product you tried that truly "just worked" for you? Like James, I have to praise Granola—I use it for all my calls and absolutely love it.

What’s still here?
I love this from Jason Fried of 37Signals. Especially in this day of constant iteration and AI, what is it that stands the test of time?

“New will always be new. There will always be another new after the previous new. But what made it, what sticks around, what outlasts? What's durable? What's the reason that rare thing is still here?”

Your interview story
If you work in tech, you've likely been through more interviews than those in other industries. This might be a consequence of the past hiring boom—now companies often put candidates through multiple interview rounds. I enjoyed this post from James Buckhouse and his framework for positioning yourself as a 1:1.

“Your goal during an interview is to position yourself as a 1-of-1 candidate who posses a unique combination of skills, traits, and experiences. You are not one of many, you are 1-of-1.

When you present yourself as a 1-of-1, then no one else can compete, because there’s only you. For this to work, however, your 1-of-1 combination must solve their problem and give them something new and show you are a special person that they will want on the team. You must do all three.”

That's all for this week! Did you enjoy this? Hit the thumbs up (or down) below!

Anton

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