The difference between surviving and thriving

The difference between surviving and thriving often boils down to who kept learning when no one was watching.

Most people sock away money for later—retirement, rainy days, a shot at some peace and quiet when they’re done grinding it out at work. Really, it's just to have greater control how they spend their time. Later.

But very few treat learning the same way.

That’s a shame, because learning new skills isn’t just some noble act of “self-improvement”. It’s not just staying ahead of the robots. It’s a practical, no-nonsense investment in freedom.

Learning new skills is like saving for retirement, only faster.

Freedom’s Not Just a Lifestyle—It’s a Skillset

Every new skill you pick up now—design ops, storytelling, team coaching, prototyping in Framer—is like adding a few more bricks to the runway that gets you more optionality in the future.

Learning buys you the freedom to say no to bad leaders, bad clients or politics-drenched orgs. It lets you walk (not run, not panic-driven sprint) toward work you actually care about.

This isn’t just for junior folks. Senior ICs, design leader, execs; whatever the title, the learning can’t stop. Because the moment it does, the ceiling lowers. Quietly, almost imperceptibly. But it does.

The difference between surviving and thriving often boils down to who kept learning when no one was watching.

Learning isn’t just for career pivots

A career makeover or pivot isn’t the only reason to invest in learning. And yyou don’t even need a formal plan. You just need to treat skill-building like compound interest.

Set aside something.

A few hours a week. A few dollars a month. Whatever works for you.

Read an article that challenges your thinking. Join that weird, intriguing design Slack you’ve been ignoring. Take a stab at that AI tool your team’s been quietly scared of.

Little moves. Small bets. They add up—faster than you think. And unlike money, skills don’t get taxed. No one can take them away. They just keep opening doors.

Build for now, Hedge for later

Here’s the beautiful twist: the stuff you learn now doesn’t just prep you for a future role. It makes you better today.

You start asking sharper questions in critiques. You understand why your PM’s roadmap feels like a jigsaw puzzle. You manage your junior designer with more empathy and precision. You notice patterns—across users, across orgs, across your own damn habits.

Learning, it turns out, is a cheat code for awareness. And awareness? That’s the root of every good decision you’ve ever made.

So, What’s Your Monthly Skill Budget?

Set it. Keep it small if you need to. But guard it like your future depends on it—because, it kind of does.

Whether you’re aiming to lead a team, jump to a new role, or just stay relevant in an industry that moves like quicksand, consistent learning is the only habit that keeps paying you back.

No sabbatical required. No grand career reinvention. Just enough curiosity to keep the gears turning. Just enough commitment to keep growing.

And hey—if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already started.

Design is now about curation

With AI, design is becoming less about creation—and more about curation.

The tools can generate layouts, suggest flows, write copy, even anticipate user behaviors. But they can’t yet understand nuance. They can’t empathize. They can’t sit with the friction of a user’s experience and ask, “Why does this feel off?”

That’s where the designer comes in.

Great design today isn’t about drawing rectangles or reinventing the UI wheel. It’s about deeply understanding user needs, goals, and workflows—and then curating the right experience to meet them. It’s about removing the unnecessary, sanding down the edges, and guiding the AI’s output into something cohesive, intentional, and usable.

AI might build the pieces. But we still define the puzzle.

Designers are no longer just creators.

Designers are curators.

Read, Adapt, but Don’t Copy: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Blind Implementation

Don’t blindly implement what you read in a book

Books, frameworks, and case studies are valuable—they distill years of experience into actionable insights. But context is everything—what worked for one company, team, or industry may completely fail in yours.

🚨 The pitfalls of blindly applying a book’s advice:

Ignoring your unique challenges – A startup can’t implement the same processes as a 10,000-person company. A UX team in fintech faces different constraints than one in gaming.

Forcing a framework that doesn’t fit – Not every team thrives with Agile. Not every company should “Move Fast and Break Things.” Context dictates success.

Overlooking culture and team dynamics – Leadership strategies that work in one environment may backfire in another. A process that fosters collaboration in one team might create bottlenecks in yours.

Wasting time and resources – Implementing a system just because it worked for someone else can lead to overcomplicated workflows, disengaged teams, and solutions that don’t solve your problems.

✅ How to assess if a book’s advice will work for your team:

Is it a one-way or two-way door decision? A irreversible or costly-to-reverse extensive can be thought of as a one-way door. These decisions require deeper scrutiny—restructuring a team or shifting core strategy isn’t easy to undo. Two-way doors (reversible decisions) are safer to experiment with—if a new design critique format or sprint cycle doesn’t work, you can revert.

Does it align with your team’s size, stage, and constraints? A process that works for a company of 10 designers might break when scaled to 100. Instead, look for snippets that can plug into existing processes or ways of working.

Have you pressure-tested it against your company culture? Does the advice assume decision-making power you don’t actually have? Or, will it build a culture that doesn’t align to your business values?

Can you run a small, low-risk experiment? Before overhauling a workflow, try a pilot version with a small team. Gather feedback, iterate, and only then consider scaling. When things do go well, shine the spotlight on that team as a bright-spot in the company. This will help with change management over time.

☠️ But what if you’ve already implemented something, and it didn’t work?

Reversing a bad decision isn’t easy, especially if it’s hurt morale or trust. But there are a few different approaches on how to walk back a bad decision and potentially help minimize the damage without losing your team’s confidence:

1️⃣ Own the mistake—transparently. Acknowledge that the change didn’t have the intended impact. Your team will respect honesty more than defensiveness.

2️⃣ Share the “why” behind the reversal. Explain what you learned. Was it a misalignment with team needs? An unforeseen bottleneck? A cultural mismatch?

3️⃣ Involve your team in the next steps. Instead of dictating the fix, ask for input. What would they keep? What should change? This shifts ownership back to the team and builds a more collaborative, iterative culture.

4️⃣ Rebuild trust through action. Demonstrate that you’re listening. If you say you’ll iterate, follow through. If you promise fewer top-down changes, commit to it and make it so.

5️⃣ Make “experimentation” part of your culture. If your team sees decisions as learning opportunities rather than rigid mandates, they’ll be more open to future changes.

The takeaway:

The best leaders and designers don’t just follow advice; they adapt it for their context.

Read widely. Learn deeply. But always test before you implement—and be willing to course-correct when needed.

What’s a book or framework you’ve had to walk back after realizing it didn’t fit your team?

Escape the Swoop-and-Poop Cycle: How to Manage Up Like a Pro

Is Your Boss a Swoop-and-Pooper? Here’s How to Fix It.

Does your boss fly in, dive deep into an area outside their expertise, challenge your direction, push ill-formed ideas, then disappear—only to repeat the cycle later? Do they constantly ask for updates or bombard you with new ideas when you’re already swamped?

Yeah, we’ve all had these bosses. `It’s frustrating and exhausting. So, how do you deal with it? Pack your bags and pull the ripcord? Maybe—if the entire job (culture, environment, team, the problem you're solving) is toxic. But if the job is otherwise good, quitting over a meddlesome boss may not be the best move.

The Hard Truth: It’s Probably You, Not Them

Two things are likely true:

Your boss is invested in the outcome of your work. It’s tied to their strategy and, ultimately, their success.

Your boss answers to someone—their own boss, the board, shareholders, or other stakeholders.

This means they need to be confident in your ability to deliver on key outcomes and that they can adequately represent the value to their stakeholders. If they’re constantly buzzing in your ear, it signals a lack of confidence in your execution.

Put simply: your boss doesn’t trust you—at least not entirely. That doesn’t mean you’re unqualified, but it does mean there’s a gap in trust, understanding, or communication.

So what do you do?

How to Stop the Swoop-and-Poop

Your goal is to proactively close the trust gap. Here’s how:

1. Identify What’s Missing

What aspect is unclear to your boss? Is it the vision (how your work aligns with company goals)? The execution (confidence that work is progressing well)? The strategy (whether the plan is sound)? Understanding this will help you communicate effectively.

2. Provide a High-Level Plan

If your boss struggles with the big picture, create a high-level plan with clear milestones. Walk them through it and establish a shared understanding. Then, keep it updated as you make progress. This ensures they know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there, and reassures them that you’re on track.

3. Offer Proactive Updates

If they’re micromanaging the execution, it’s because they feel out of the loop. Solve this by regularly sharing structured updates. If your boss is asking for updates, you’re already behind.

• Maintain a running document with weekly or biweekly summaries.

• Include bullet points, key decisions, blockers, and progress highlights.

• Provide links to artifacts (docs, mockups, dashboards) to minimize back-and-forth.

4. Manage Expectations

Set clear expectations for when and how you’ll communicate. If they know they’ll get a detailed update every Friday, they’ll be less likely to swoop in mid-week with random check-ins.

5. Engage Them on Their Terms

Some bosses are high-level thinkers, others love details. Pay attention to how they process information and tailor your updates accordingly. Do they prefer concise summaries? Visual dashboards? Data-heavy reports? Give them what they need in the way they prefer.

6. Make Them Look Good

Remember, your boss has their own pressures. The better you equip them to report up confidently, the less they’ll meddle. Give them the talking points they need to communicate your progress effectively.

The Payoff: Trust and Autonomy

Once your boss sees that you’re proactively managing your work, keeping them informed, and delivering results, they’ll begin to trust you more. Over time, their need to swoop in will decrease, and you’ll gain more autonomy.

If you’ve tried all this and they’re still interfering? Well, then it may be time to consider other options. But in most cases, better communication and proactive transparency can turn a swoop-and-pooper into a supportive, hands-off leader.

Boredom Generates Inspiration

Kyle T Webster, photoshop brush master and children book author talked about his love of boredom at Adobe’s 99U 2019 conference in NYC.

Some of Kyle’s biggest career achievements can be traced back to being bored. Usually bored people means non-productive people. So I was skeptical when I first heard his boredom theory, but he went on to describe three of his crowning achievements all due to boredom. 

His talked touched on a topic I’ve been thinking about for a while, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The best I could come up with was discontent. Kyle‘s premise is that our entire lives have been optimized and our tools have been designed to squeeze the maximum amount of productivity out of the day, or at least something that feels like productivity. 

Our news is written in bite-size chunks of 280 characters or top 10 lists that distills down entire topics and bodies of knowledge into 1,000 characters. When we have 15 seconds of downtime our phones come out and our heads go down—at stop lights, our heads our down. When waiting for our food to be delivered, our heads our down, illuminated by the glow of screens.

This isn’t necessarily bad. I love my iPhone, and I’m not giving it up anytime soon. However, Kyle is making the case for being cognizant of device use in contrast to boredom. Boredom is allowing your mind to wander. To connect dots in unusual ways. As Kyle put it, ‘Boredom is a blank canvas for the mind.’  Let the creativity bubble up through boredom.

Throughout your day, when you find yourself on your phone, either scrolling through Instagram or reading the latest news, ask yourself ‘Is this necessary?’. Sometimes the answer is no, and sometimes you might be better off putting that phone away and relish in your own boredom.

Okay, so?  

Kyle’s message resonated with me instantly. I’ve been thinking about stepping away from technology and finding an industry a bit more tangible. I’m starting to find technology tedious. Companies investing huge amounts of cash into minor things like new ways to re-share a photo of a grumpy cat, or inventing new technology with little to no impact or market, other than it’s ‘cool’. 

But what I started to realize is that I’m essentially burned out. And Kyle paints a great picture of a small way to recharge and refill your creative tank—boredom. Boredom to let my mind wonder and get excited about different and unique ideas. Boredom to let new interests and ideas percolate in my brain, spur creativity, and help me recharge.