The metric that will define the next decade
Hey—it’s Matt.
Kevin Kelly dropped an article this week about AI’s Trust Quotient. Not how smart AI is or will be, but how much we can rely on it. Different tasks, different trust thresholds.
It’s a fascinating lens that’s only going to matter more as we hand over bigger chunks of our personal and work lives to autonomous systems.
Enjoy issue #121 and have a great weekend!
MOST INTERESTING
Being Good Isn’t Enough
Technical excellence is table stakes now. You can write pristine code, design pixel-perfect interfaces, build bulletproof systems—and still have nothing to show for it. Today, more than ever, visibility beats ability. The winning builders will ship in public and write about the process.
TOOLS + RESOURCES
Everyday UX
Real UX patterns from actual products that include screenshots of how companies are solving interface problems. Definitely one to bookmark.
How to grow on 𝕏: Algorithm Breakdown
𝕏 finally showed us how to win on the platform. Replies > likes. First hour > everything else. Links still get buried, but at least now we have tactical instructions on how to build an audience.
PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS
No, AI Is Not a Bubble
Everyone’s looking for the crash, but this isn’t 2000. AI is already embedded in how we work—from code completion to customer service.
The Micro-SaaS Revolution
The economics finally make sense for one person to solve very specific problems for a very specific group of people/users.
The Trust Quotient (TQ)
We don’t need smarter AI, we need AI we can trust—and different tasks require different trust levels. Your spell-checker? Low stakes. Your medical diagnosis? Different story. TQ could be the most important metric of the AI-age.
CULTURE WATCH
Corpcore: The Aesthetic of Corporate Life
Gen Z has just turned PowerPoint into fashion and office supplies as accessories. Good luck bidding on that retro Microsoft t-shirt on eBay—you’re about to have a lot more competition.
SF Tech Workers Embrace 996
9am to 9pm, six days a week. What started as Chinese tech culture is spreading to SF.
COUNTERPOINT
You Don’t Need Animations
On the web, every millisecond of delay is a potential hit to conversions. That smooth transition you over-engineered could be causing you to lose money/customers/users. Speed almost always beats beauty.
The AI-Native Office Suite
Stop thinking “AI-enhanced Word.” Start thinking “what replaces documents entirely?” The next office suite won’t edit your work—it’ll do your work.
CLOSING THOUGHT
My takeaways from this week’s content: Speed beats beauty. Visibility beats ability. Trust beats intelligence.
Stay sharp, stay building, and I’ll see you next week.
Matt Downey
digitalnative.news • 𝕏 • Threads
P.S. Forward this to a friend who ships faster than they tweet.
P.P.S. If someone sent this to you, join the newsletter (it’s free).
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. 10/10 would recommend.
- Brain.fm → How I kickstart my productivity and find flow-state.
- Mercury → The best business banking I’ve ever used.
- Flow → Voice dictation that’s 4x faster than typing.
- Screen Studio → How I record engaging videos.
- Typefully → How I post content to my socials.
- Kick → My bookkeeping on auto-pilot.