Code, cocktails, and culture collapse
07/26/25 • Innovation

Code, cocktails, and culture collapse

Code, cocktails, and culture collapse

Hey—it’s Matt.

I’ve been playing catch-up this week after a quick trip down to South Florida.

I shipped Jasin code from 30,000 feet, visited the (rebuilt) Mai-Kai, and even managed a little R&R by the pool.

Now I’m back behind the screen, and this edition’s stacked with links worth your time—from thought-provoking to straight-up useful.

Have a great weekend and enjoy Edition #114.

MOST INTERESTING

The death of partying in the U.S.

Derek Thompson argues that parties aren’t superficial—they’re an indicator of community health. Their decline reflects deeper fractures: economic precarity, technology-mediated atomization, and a retreat from unplanned social life. If that rings alarm bells about rising loneliness or hollowed‑out civic life, read on.

More from Derek Thompson →

TOOLS + RESOURCES

A Short Explainer on MCP for Designers
A visual walkthrough of Model Context Protocol (MCP), breaking down how designers can leverage model-aware workflows to guide LLM behavior with clarity, structure, and modular thinking.

Snappy Notes
A lightweight note-taking app focused on speed and simplicity, allowing users to quickly jot down ideas without distraction or bloat.

Typeverything
A curated collection of bold, character-rich display fonts designed to add personality and visual impact to creative work.

Media Cheat Sheet
A regularly updated reference for ideal image and video dimensions across major platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more.

Type Foundry Directory
A long-needed searchable directory of type foundries around the world, making it easier to discover and support independent font designers.

MARKET SIGNALS

OpenAI to release GPT-5 in August 2025
Axios reports that GPT-5 will launch in August 2025, with OpenAI promising major upgrades in reasoning, memory, and multimodal capabilities—setting the stage for another leap in AI fluency and utility.

Liquid Glass – iA’s Vision for the Next UI Shift
iA explores a paradigm shift in interface design toward “liquid” experiences—transparent, responsive, content-first UIs that dissolve the borders between information and interaction.

DESIGN + CULTURE

The Rise of the Designer-As-Influencer
Elizabeth Goodspeed critiques the shift toward personal branding in design, arguing that performative visibility is crowding out the deeper craft of the work itself.

Andrew Ng on Speed, AI, and Feedback Loops in Startups
In this YC AI Startup School talk, Andrew Ng emphasizes how AI supercharges iteration speed, enabling startups to outlearn and outmaneuver slower incumbents through faster feedback and decision-making cycles.

CLOSING THOUGHT

I’m shipping more updates to Jasin and working on two new internal apps—more on those soon. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you’re building.

Reply anytime. I’m always curious.

Cheers,

Matt Downey
digitalnative.news • 𝕏 • Threads

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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.
  • 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.