Making progress? Or just “stuff”?
Last weekend, I sunk hours into over-engineering an avatar builder for Jasin. Pure catnip for the designer in me-custom inputs, slick UI, endless little decisions that felt important. But after hitting a few stubborn bugs, I paused long enough to ask myself the obvious question: Who’s actually going to use this?
Spoiler: Nobody.
It’s a common trap-when personal passion masquerades as product validation. It feels like progress because you’re busy, engaged, and “shipping.” But it’s often just motion without traction. A feature no one touches doesn’t add value-it just adds weight.
In today’s world, building is easier than ever. Deciding what to build and why-that’s the hard part. Most of the time, a few quick customer calls, a rough prototype, or a ruthless two-week usage check will tell you more than weeks of building ever will.
– Matt (@mattdowney)
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MOST INTERESTING
The scratch-my-own-itch trap
Jason Cohen explains why “I built it for myself” sounds better in theory sometimes. Founders love this origin story, but it often skips the hard part-finding out if anyone else needs the thing you’re buuilding. [Jason Cohen]
OpenAI’s $3b move to own dev workflows
OpenAI wants to buy Codeium (now Windsurf) for $3B. The real play? Locking in early dominance on how developers work with AI. If this goes through, they won’t just win the tooling war-they’ll set the rules. [CNBC]
Notion Mail is clean, calm… And half-broken
Notion’s new email app filters like a to-do list and feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s early and glitchy-but the smart tags, summaries, and focused UI hint at a future where email doesn’t suck. [The Verge]
TOP RESOURCES
Monaspace helps your eyes, not just your code
GitHub Next and Lettermatic built a type family that softens monospaced fonts. It adjusts spacing dynamically, so your IDE looks less like a ransom note. Tiny fix, massive daily impact. [Monaspace]
That guide to UI design
Lambrian’s UI guide is brutally honest, weirdly fun, and sharper than most paid courses. It ditches the theory and walks you through real UI choices-what works, what doesn’t, and why your app might suck. Definitely one to bookmark. [That Guide to UI Design]
Design history, told by the people who made it
The People’s Graphic Design Archive is a messy, beautiful, crowd-sourced time machine. Oral histories, process docs, weird stuff from the 90s-it’s all in there. Less museum, more mixtape. [People’s Graphic Design Archive]
What’s TRENDING
Figma’s data says creative teams are thriving
41% more satisfaction, 97% remote, and finally some respect for design orgs. Figma’s report proves smart management and lightweight AI aren’t perks-they’re baseline. Happy teams build better products. [Figma Blog]
OpenAI’s agent playbook
Their new 32-page guide is less hype, more how-to. It maps out real deployment workflows: when to use agents, how to chain tools, and where human judgment still wins. Less like a whitepaper, more like ops notes from the future. [OpenAI Guide]
The next AI moat? Memory that actually remembers.
Jeff Morris Jr. breaks down OpenAI’s new memory feature-and why it changes the game. Persistent context means less prompting, better outputs, and a bond that’s hard to replicate. Stanford data shows a 62% bump in long-haul tasks. [Jeff Morris Jr.]
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