Can old rivals finally fix social?
Hey, it’s Matt.
Back in the Web 2.0 days, Digg was my first real taste of online community: AJAX-powered upvotes, instant internet culture, and a web that felt genuinely alive. It brought the entire internet to my doorstep. Now, it’s staging a comeback—and nostalgia aside, the stakes are high.
Even with Kevin Rose partnering with Alexis Ohanian—Reddit’s co-founder, longtime rival, and fellow pioneer in online communities—the question remains: can Digg fix what’s broken in consumer social? Moderation is still Reddit’s Achilles’ heel, and while Digg is returning with big promises (probably bolstered by some AI moderation magic), catching lightning in a bottle twice (maybe even three times by now?) is really, really hard.
The Diggnation geek in me is rooting for a win—I’ll be curious to see if they’ve cracked the code this time around.
Here’s what you can expect in this week’s edition:
- Cursorful drops a slick browser extension that makes buttery screen recordings that rival Screen Studio
- Emil Kowalski argues “taste,” not tech skills, is the ultimate differentiator
- How some designers are ditching Figma and heading straight to the browser
- ShaderGPT makes captivating GLSL visuals stupidly simple
- And more…
Enjoy issue #97—see you next week!
— Matt (@mattdowney)
P.S. If this was forwarded to you, you can sign up here.
Most interesting
Eventbrite unveils a new look
BUCK, the creative agency behind the recent rebrand for Eventbrite, delivers a vibrant, personality-packed refresh. (BUCK)
Llms: the bizarre new age of computing
Phillip Carter argues that LLMs are not just fancy algorithms but entirely new computing frameworks. This perspective challenges existing tech paradigms, suggesting a fresh lens for software development. (Phillip Carter)
Reflections on turning 40
Paul Miller’s cerebral wander through turning 40. He questions societal norms and advocates for risk-taking in career and life. (Paul Miller)
Top resources
Shadergpt: bending light with a few lines of code
ShaderGPT creates artistic visuals with AI-generated shaders, providing a new way to produce unique, animated graphics for the web. (ShaderGPT)
Screen recordings you’ll actually want to watch
Cursorful lets you effortlessly film your screen using buttery pans and crisp zooms—all straight from your browser for free. (Cursorful)
Developing taste
Now that building functional software is ubiquitous (thanks, AI), intuitive design and aesthetic instinct is more important than ever. (Emil Kowalski)
What’s trending
Ditching design apps for browser bliss
Veteran designer Tyler Sticka writes about bypassing Figma and other design tools—going directly into the browser to design with HTML and CSS. (Cloud Four)
Finding humanity in Machine speech
Sesame’s transformers convert audio into discrete tokens to leap over the “uncanny valley” of voice synthesis, crafting shockingly lifelike speech. Seriously, this stuff is wild. (Sesame)
Vibe coding: meme or revolution?
Vibe coding, a playful concept birthed by Andrej Karpathy, captures imaginations as indie hackers embrace AI-driven code madness. (Alex P)
My stack
These are the tools that help me run my business every day. I happily pay for each of them—they’re worth every penny. I hope you find them useful, too.
- Beehiiv → How I send this newsletter every week. 10/10 would recommend.
- Brain.fm → How I kickstart my productivity and find flow-state.
- Figma → How I quickly go from idea to design to product.
- Mercury → The best business banking I’ve ever used.
- Screen Studio → How I record engaging videos.
- Typefully → How I post content to my socials.
- Kick → My bookkeeping on auto-pilot.
And that’s a wrap!
Thanks for reading today’s issue. If you have any ideas for what you’d like me to cover in future issues, just hit reply and let me know.
And if you found today’s newsletter useful, please share it with your friends!
Matt Downey
Founder, Digital Native
@mattdowney