Victoria

Last week I watched a company demo an agent that could control your computer - genuinely powerful. The problem: UI was a sexualized anime girlfriend. I sat there thinking: why? Tech people are building the future, but they're also defining the aesthetics of it. And most of them shouldn't be. (Sorry) All I heard at that event was metrics. Faster. Cheaper. More tokens. Look, it can generate dance videos now. Okay, but what does that actually unlock? What becomes possible that wasn't before? I remember when I first used Framer and realized I could build a website without code. When Spline let me embed 3D in the browser. When I made my first voice agent with Vapi. Those moments felt like magic because someone approached the tech from a creative lens. They weren't selling specs. They werent abusing your brain chemistry. They were showing you what you could make. Now? It's just performance for the sake of performance. People used to get hyped about the iPhone. The MacBook. Not because of gigahertz or RAM. Because of what it felt like to use them. Somewhere along the way we stopped asking what this tech should mean and started just asking what it can do. Creatives are watching from the sidelines while the aesthetic of the future gets decided by people optimizing for metrics. Maybe that's the wake-up call. We should roll up our sleeves. Stop watching. Build something that actually means something instead of just adding to the pile of AI slop. Because if we don't define what it's like, someone else will. And based on what I saw last week, I really don't want that.

@ahmeddzeeshan Pretty cool idea

@Wellgraf People fail to understand how important and complicated design is. It doesn’t just get “generated”, it’s a complex collection of thought, research and iteration

I might be irritating some AI-loving bros now, but seeing AI tools like Google Stitch talk about "generating screens" should be a clear signal that they’re approaching product in completely the wrong way. Yes, screens are what we ship but they’re not what we design fundamentally. Thinking in screens locks thinking into static outputs instead of dynamic experiences. Products aren’t a collection of screens, they’re flows, decisions, timing, behavior, and emotion over time. Want to see 3 examples of what I mean? No one wants a budget "screen” We want to feel in control of our money No one wants a habit tracker "screen” We want to become more consistent No one wants a to-do list "screen” We want to feel on top of our lives When the "next generation tools" are still centered around screens, it’s not innovation, it’s just accelerating the wrong abstraction

@TimSweeneyEpic It’s definitely surprising especially because it’s what you’d imagine shortcuts is supposed to do. But maybe that’s the reason

What’s worse is that Apple blocks competing stores, so what would just be a ludicrously bad store stocking decision in a competitive market is instead an outright blockade against an entire app category of for a billion users.

Apple needs to bring back Steve Wozniak to fix these idiotic missteps. It’s not only a terrible move against developers, it’s a move against kids learning to make apps and therefore a move against the future of Apple’s own platform.

@BrettFromDJ Great article! Recently I’ve been speaking to so many people outside the tech bubble. More people need to do that.

@Yuchenj_UW @founders_cafe

Guys, SF is a magical city. Today, a beautiful Wednesday, I had a 4:30pm meeting with a friend at a café… it was closed. We walked 10 blocks, every café was closed. Finally found Blue Bottle, it closed at 5:30. Can some YC company please build what SF people actually want?

Such a nice message ♥️

@juliomagoga @founders_cafe Im sure alot of people can, not everyone obviously. Or maybe just haven't found the time yet? What do you think

@V4Victoria__ @founders_cafe Could you assume everyone in SF would know how to install openclaw by themselves

I wonder what the turn out would be for SF? Might do this @founders_cafe. Would people come?

@asharoraa its so bizarre

SF is a place where men start women-only communities

@realbasilchatha without it we just get ai slop

@V4Victoria__ Agreed! Taste is the last frontier

@chris_j_paxton I wonder if people would care as much if it was a huge humanoid

Robot Olaf walking the gtc floor

Is it bad if I send a @meetgranola link when I get home and my partner asks how my day was?

The companies that understand this will build the next century

Which products make you feel like you belong to a club you never officially joined?

@AWD1gram Literally thought it was April Fool’s day and I just forgot

John who??? Did I end up in an alternative timeline overnight!??

@1Aakib @oykun How do you make it better?

@oykun Just faster i make it better

designers, be honest. has ai actually made your work better? or just faster? or ...?

@kdesign08 @oykun What do you typically input? And how much time does it take you to give it enough context?

@oykun it has made exploration easier and faster but the output is as good as my input! learning scaleable design processes and frameworks is still very valuable

I would tell the front desk person I had a meeting scheduled and they would let me up. I wonder if they knew I didn’t.

A year ago I was showing up to startups offices uninvited, pitching Stash with samples from my customers. Just happy to be there.