Shedra.ron

The Last Manual Transmission A 75% drop. By the numbers alone, it looks like a disaster. But this chart is also a declaration that an era is ending. In 2022, when Adobe offered $20 billion to acquire Figma, everyone called it insane. Regulators blocked the deal. Figma went public on its own, and now the market won't even give it one-sixth of that valuation. But look at the timing differently, and the story changes. Figma's founders and early investors may be remembered as the people who tried to find the exit at the very peak of "the era when humans moved pixels by hand." Regulators stepped in to prevent monopoly, but in doing so, they saved Adobe from buying the last ticket to the steam locomotive age at the highest possible price. Figma was undeniably a revolution. It was the first to truly realize the concept of "designing together," transforming the era of passing files back and forth into one of real-time collaboration. But that revolution had a premise: humans still did the drawing. Figma was the most elegantly engineered manual transmission sports car ever built. The feel of shifting gears, the timing of the clutch, the thrill of your heartbeat syncing with the engine. Then suddenly, a car with no steering wheel and no pedals appeared. A car where you just say where you want to go. Debating the timing of a manual gear shift is no longer a skill—it's a hobby. What's more chilling is Adobe. An empire of creative tools built over 40 years. Knowing how to use Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects became a profession in itself, a barrier to entry. In truth, Adobe's moat was never its features—it was complexity itself. Understanding layers, using masks, memorizing shortcuts. That arduous learning curve was the job security. Now that wall is crumbling. "Change the background to a beach." "Remove that person from the video." The process evaporates; only the output remains. Forty years of fortress walls, collapsing like sandcastles before a single prompt. This chart isn't about Figma's failure. It's an obituary for an era. Adobe tried to buy that era but couldn't, and the bigger problem is that Adobe itself is fading along with it. They call it the democratization of creativity. A beautiful phrase. But for some, democratization means the fall of a dynasty, and in a world where anyone can be king, the crown weighs less than a feather. The hours memorizing shortcuts, the nights practicing the pen tool, the dawns wrestling with timelines. All those years of honing craft are losing their light before a simple phrase: "Just say it." This chart is asking all of us: Is the skill you've spent your life perfecting just another manual transmission headed for the museum?

Stablecoins, real usage, global scale. A collaboration with one of the most-used blockchains is coming. Stay tuned.

This has been said a thousand times before, but allow me to add my own voice: the era of humans writing code is over. Disturbing for those of us who identify as SWEs, but no less true. That's not to say SWEs don't have work to do, but writing syntax directly is not it.

My game is for HIDDEN OBJECT FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM! My game is for HIDDEN OBJECT FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM! My game is for HIDDEN OBJECT FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM! My game is for HIDDEN OBJECT FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM!

GM, Adventurers! Fresh week, fresh grind. What quest are you tackling today?

Tomorrow.