If it’s difficult for others to make money from you, chances are, it’s difficult for you to make money from others as well.

If your focus is always on “how much money I lost” rather than “what value I gained,” you gradually develop a scarcity mindset.

And when you try to provide value to others, that way of thinking can work against you. If paying money is viewed primarily as a loss, then why would anyone be willing to pay for the value you offer?

If you struggle to buy the value that others provide, you will often struggle to believe that your own value is worth buying too.

“Research in early 2026 shows that approximately 1 in 3 (roughly 26% to 36.8%) of community-developed Claude Skills contain at least one security flaw or risk pattern.”

“You either learn AI or get left behind.”

“AI will only get better from here.”

“Learn AI before AI replaces you.”

All of those statements make sense, and they’re great at capturing attention.

However, they’re also the kind of content that drives AI fatigue for many people.

Question: Does anyone know why I tried to access Claude Code today via Terminal, but it said “zsh: permission denied: claude”?

Don’t know why this happened in the first place.

“When you live with a scarcity mindset, the people around you tend to feel like takers.

When you live with an exchange mindset, the people around you tend to feel like transactions.

When you live with an abundance mindset, the people around you tend to feel like sources of support.”

— Jin Peng

In 3 days, May 29, Ayon and I will be hosting a workshop on how designers can practically use Claude Code in their day-to-day workflows.

Most online resources about Claude Code are taught from an engineer’s perspective. There’s also no shortage of information online, but reading about Claude Code is very different from actually using it yourself in a guided, hands-on workshop setting—which is still surprisingly rare.

This workshop is created to help bridge that gap.

We’ll go step by step with live demo covering:

• Using MCP workflows with Claude Code

• Going from Figma designs to working prototypes

• Creating better AI outputs with claude.md and reusable skills

• Rapid iteration and prototyping with AI assistance

• Learning terminal basics for designers

• And more

The session is hands-on, practical, and beginner-friendly for product designers who are new to Claude Code.

🗓 May 29, 2026

⏰ 5–7 PM EDT

If you’ve been curious about how AI-native design workflows actually work in practice, this workshop would be helpful with a lot of tips and tricks.

👉 Sign up here: https://maven.com/xinran/claudecodefordesigners

(The workshop will be recorded, but we recommend joining live to get the most out of it—ask personal questions, follow along step by step, and get help debugging issues in real time.)

How long do you all sleep?

It’s hard to remember the last time I slept more than 7 hours straight :(

According to sports business reporter Darren Rovell, two courtside tickets for a potential Game 3 at The Garden in the NBA Finals have been sold on StubHub for a staggering $279,804.

This week’s post is out!

Sharing insights from a popular talk that I hosted.

Someone mentioned in the zoom chat that she “almost cried” because of the value.

“When you feel anxious about your thoughts, return to your breath.

Thoughts are like clouds.

The breath is like the wind.

When the wind blows, the clouds drift away.”

Some people say parents are children’s best teachers.

But children are their parents’ best teachers too.

Children already have many precious qualities. In some ways, they are already complete in themselves.

As they grow up, they start adapting to social norms (earning good grades, getting a good job, making more money, etc.), and it’s easy to subconsciously lose many of the qualities they once had.

Day 2:

Birds chirping, a cool gentle breeze, the sound of the street sweeper, construction noise, and a car starting up.

Grateful that my older child, who’s wearing a yellow dress today, has grown up to be thoughtful and mature, while still keeping her curious, exploratory, joyful spirit.

When our children watch how we face the highs and lows of life, they get to learn how to face the highs and lows of their own lives.

That is probably the most precious gift we can give them.

“logic and meaning. because ai does not have a body and a concept of the real world and experiences it actually doesn't understand context. it apes context and relationality.“

“AI generated prototypes lead to way less debate and critique.

But when one hasn’t built the thing from scratch, one has a harder time judging the issues with a design and even catching things that are utterly non-sensical.”

“There's no absolute definition of “the best” solution.

The best is relative to your constraints.

Without a time limit, there's always a better version.

The ultimate meal might be a ten course dinner. 

But when you're hungry and in a hurry, a hot dog is perfect.”

— Ryan Singer

Starting a 28-day gratitude challenge. Every day, I’ll spend just one minute with my eyes closed, thinking of one thing I’m grateful for. Today is Day 1.

During this one minute today, I felt the warmth of the sunlight. I heard children playing outside, the sound of a helicopter in the sky, the noise from a construction site, the siren of an ambulance passing by, and my own soft breathing.

Grateful to be alive.

Back then, there was no AI.

Those days moved slowly, unhurriedly.

As if I had a lot of time to spend, to waste, enough to draw stroke by stroke.

It’s fascinating that many entrepreneurs dislike marketing the most, yet it’s what they have to spend most of their time on.

Hard to find a balance: marketing, learning, writing, teaching, hosting talks, replying to messages, attending school events, resting, planning for vacation, scheduling medical visit, and spending time with family.

We only hear what we want to hear.

“Never argue with stupid people.

They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

Question: Do you write SEO description for every Substack newsletter?

Have you found it helpful in terms of discovablity?

“If you fear to be criticized, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”

— Elbert Hubbard

Self-reflecting the feelings when I earn money:

• What did I feel? I feel happy and excited. But at times, I also feel anxious about whether I can deliver work that is good enough to meet or even exceed my clients’ expectations. I worry a lot about what might happen if I fail to meet those expectations — will people be disappointed? Leave negative reviews? Tell others that I’m not good enough? Will I end up losing future clients?

• Why did I have these feelings? It comes from a lack of confidence and dissatisfaction with myself. I tend to focus on and magnify my shortcomings. I don’t allow myself to do things imperfectly, and I hope to gain recognition and approval from every client.

• What are the mindsets that I can improve? Over time, as I’ve worked with more clients and gone through repeated cycles of “self-torment,” my mindset has gradually improved. I’ve started focusing more on the value I can bring to them instead of constantly focusing on myself. If my value isn’t enough yet, I can make up for it through action and effort. I should treat myself with kindness instead of getting trapped in internal struggles. Internal struggles doesn’t really benefit me or anyone else.

Some learnings after leaving corporate last year to start my business:

1. Entrepreneurship is like a mirror. It reveals a person’s deepest fears, obsessions, sense of scarcity, and inner strength.

2. “Everyone is already whole within themselves.” We do not become complete because we gain something; we are already complete to begin with. It’s just that anxiety, desire, comparison, and fear gradually cloud the heart. The confidence, ease, and purity we had as children were not things we later “learned” — they were always there. Growing up simply pulled us away through too many external voices.

3. The sounds of birds, the fragrance of flowers, quiet meditation, and physical exercise can help us return inward, bringing the body, emotions, thoughts, and energy back into alignment.

4. Money is only a byproduct — a natural flow that comes when a person enters a state of inner wholeness.

5. “Faith, aspiration, and action”. Without inner belief and genuine aspiration, it is difficult for a person to sustain action.

6. Entrepreneurship is first and foremost about cultivating yourself: your body, emotions, thoughts, and energy. If your inner state is chaotic, even making money in the short term will create deep tension and unease.

7. Think of how much effort it takes for a person to become a person. The fact that we are able to be born into this world is already incredibly precious, so it’s not worth endlessly struggling over trivial matters.

8. First adjust your inner state, then deal with external matters.

9. Maintain a regular routine, exercise, meditate, and leave yourself a little “quiet time” every day. Don’t scroll on your phone or consume information — simply sit quietly, feel yourself, and reconnect with your inner world.

10. Everything in the universe has its own rhythm. When people go against natural order, they easily fall into inner conflict and imbalance.

11. Many truths cannot be understood before the right moment arrives. Even if they are placed right in front of someone, they may neither see nor understand them. Only after experiencing lows, setbacks, pain, and loss do people truly awaken, begin to realize, and take action.

12. Human desire is endless. Constantly chasing external achievements and money cannot bring lasting happiness; instead, it often leads to emptiness and numbness.

-

1. 创业像一面镜子。它能照见一个人内心最深处的恐惧、执念、匮乏、与力量。

2. “人人本自具足。” 我们并不是因为拥有了什么，才变得完整；而是本来就完整。只是后来被焦虑、欲望、比较、恐惧一层层蒙住了心。小时候的自信、松弛、纯粹，其实并不是后来“学会”的，而是本来就有的。只是长大以后，被太多外界声音拉走了。

3. 鸟语花香、安静冥想、运动锻炼，能帮我们重新回到内在，让身体、情绪、思维、能量重新同频。

4. 钱只是一种附属品，是人在进入“本自具足”状态后的自然流动。

5. “信、愿、行” 三个维度从高到低。如果一个人没有内在相信， 没有真正的愿力，就很难持续行动。

6. 创业首先是修自己：身体、情绪、思维、能量。如果自己的状态是混乱的，即使短期赚到钱，也会产生巨大的拉扯和不安。

7. 一个人要付出多少努力才能成为一个人。我们能够出生来到这个世界如此珍贵，所以更不值得在琐碎事情上反复拉扯。


8. 先调整自己的状态，再处理事情。

9. 规律作息、运动、冥想、每天给自己留一点“安静时间”。不刷手机，不输入信息，只是安静感受自己，重新连接内心。


10. 万事万物都有自己的节律。人若违背规律，就容易陷入内耗与失衡。

11. 很多道理时机不到。就算放在眼前也看不见听不懂，只有经历低谷、挫折、痛苦与失去后，人才会真正被唤醒，开始体悟并行动。

12. 人的欲望是无止境的。不断追逐外在成就与金钱，并不能带来持续快乐，反而容易陷入空虚与麻木。

You can make people feel extra valued if you’re willing to take the time to ask one more question beyond “How are you?” or “Hope you’re doing well.”

I’ve hosted many talks over the years.

The most common question is, “Can I get the recording?”

The second most common question is, “Can I get the presentation slides?”

The third most common question is, “Which tools do you use?”

The fourth most common question is, “Can you share your prompts?”

In some ways, a lack of confidence makes you less helpful to others.

Because you spend a good amount of energy worrying about being judged — energy that could otherwise be used to provide value to others.

“When the time hasn’t come, even if opportunities appear, you won’t see them or understand them.

But when you hit rock bottom, through setbacks and suffering, fate begins to awaken you.

If pain cannot awaken you, fate will use even greater pain.

If greater pain still cannot awaken you, it will use loss.

If loss cannot awaken you, it will use even greater loss.

Only when one is awakened can one truly realize.

And only then begin to take action.”

“Human desire is endless.

And once you fall into the black hole of desire, happiness can never truly be attained.”

— Jin Peng

“When you point a finger at someone else, three fingers are pointing back at yourself.

Be gentle with the world, and be forgiving with yourself.”

My 6-year-old asked my wife, “Is thick hair better or thin hair better?”

My wife said, “They’re both good. Whatever you have is best. Do you like yourself?”

My kid said, “Yes. I like my black hair. I like that I’m very smart.”

Then she added, “I have to thank you for giving me these genes.”

I was watching a recording of one of the talks I host, and my 6-year-old was playing with her friend in the living room.

I heard her say to her friend, “He’s just talking about AI…”

Poster Design: ChatGPT

Forgot who said this, but I’ve always remembered it.

“If someone else decides what time you go to work every morning, you’re not truly rich.”

Jotting down some of my recent learnings about sales calls:

• I often add extra explanations or “softening” language beyond the core script. But I’ve realized that this discomfort with being too direct actually comes from a lack of confidence. That’s something I need to work on.

• Pain points and desires need to be explored deeply based on the client’s responses. Every sentence a client says can be followed up on with genuine curiosity, instead of mechanically pushing through questions like checking boxes. If the initial discovery only stays on the surface and never reaches the core, the rest of the process becomes hard to move forward effectively because no truly valuable information was uncovered.

• The factors that influence closing a deal, from highest level to lowest level, are: identity, state, process, and script.

• The core of a sales call is not selling a product, but uncovering the essence behind the surface: what the client truly wants, how the problem was formed, and what happens if it remains unresolved. That intention should always guide the conversation. When this is done well, trust naturally follows.

“The worst outcome of entrepreneurship is not making a lot of money, but gaining a completely new version of yourself.”

My kid shared with the other kids in her theater class:

“My school is closed tomorrow! It’s Report Writing Day.”

One kid asked, “What is Report Writing Day?”

My kid said, “Just a day when teachers write about how good we are.”

“Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about 😔”

— Elon Musk

Got a question recently about how to improve taste.

The question was about design, but it reminded me that the same applies to art, cuisine, clothing, and many other fields.

My advice is usually to immerse yourself in a wide variety of high-quality work. See it, experience it, feel it, and even listen to how people with great taste describe it.

Over time, you’ll realize that you’ve developed your own taste.

It may not be the same as others, and it may even change over time, but that’s the point.

Super excited about the talk series next week.

Excited enough that I’ve had to step away from my desk to calm myself down before getting back to it.

I invited design leaders I’ve known for years, people who can both talk the talk and walk the walk when it comes to AI.

It’s going to be a great series.

Really excited about a bunch of events that I’ll announce soon!

If you don’t like being told what to do, you might be meant to work for yourself.

Received an email from someone’s AI agent today.

Maybe I should build an AI agent to talk to their AI agent.

One of the worst trade-offs is wasting energy on people who don’t care about you, leaving less for those who do.

Words & phrases I learned from 10+ years in corporate:

• Circle back

• Index

• Lean in

• Bandwidth

• Leverage

• Sync

• Put it on the back burner

• Put a pin in it

• Take it offline

• Cannibalize

• Fire drill

• High-level

• Synergy

• Wheelhouse

• Rockstar

• Low-hanging fruit

• Pick your brain really quick

• Hit the ground running

• Table this discussion

• Touch base

• Get the ball rolling

• On the same page

• Dogfood

• Unpack

• Get buy-in

• Bullish

• Find middle ground

• On my radar

• Runway

• Level set

Fun fact: I even had a Google Sheet for studying them over five years ago. Whenever I heard a phrase multiple times, I would Google its meaning and note it down.

“Balance your material desires, and you will find happiness.

The empty space is not meant to be filled; it is precisely because it exists that our hearts can become calm and at ease.”

— Shunmyo Masuno

Fun site: https://pushmatrix.github.io/tearable/

“此心安处是吾乡。”

“Wherever my heart finds peace, there is my home.”

Written by Shi Su, a thousand years ago.

There’s someone we get to live with for our entire lives.

That person is ourselves.

So listen to yourself, believe in yourself, care for yourself, and love yourself.

Design by committee is one of the main causes of mediocre designs.

When I worked at an architecture firm, I witnessed how a great design created by a junior designer gradually became mediocre after endless rounds of revisions from his manager, his manager’s manager, and the client.

When I started Design with AI over two years ago, there was a ton of skepticism about whether AI could be used in product design beyond generating images in Midjourney or asking questions with ChatGPT.

But if we look at today’s landscape, this is no longer a question anymore. Almost all product designers are learning to leverage AI in their workflows.

A lesson learned is that we don’t always have to be in the majority to get started with something.

A few effective ways to increase stress:

• Check emails right before bed

• Check world news right after waking up

• Keep 20+ tabs open in the browser

• Save important tasks for the last minute

• Check Substack stats every day

“There's no way to fail if you're making what you love."

— Brian Chesky

“Media companies are in cool right now.

But back when I started the Hustle in 2015, people laughed at me for doing a newsletter.

There was popular media CEO and VC who is a good guy of course who I really admired (and still admire today).

But one time I met with him, and he told me a newsletter would never make more than $2 million a year.

The year we sold, we did $12 million the previous year in revenue and I think could have gotten to ~18m that year, and we definitely had a path to get to $100 million in revenue eventually.

I'm just calling out this one guy, but there were tons of people who told me that, and it made sense at the time.

When things were going poorly, I felt they were right!

If you’re building a business, you have to be able to take advice from people more successful than you.

But trust your gut because they aren’t always right.”

— Sam Parr

Monday feels different when I’m pursuing my own dream.

How many of us have spent more time planning for the future than living in the present?

“If we get into the habit of constantly judging others, it becomes easy to miss the most important thing: evaluating ourselves.

The energy we could have spent on ourselves is instead squandered on others. What a pity.”

— Kevin Tsai

”Keep your mind anchored to one task, and devote yourself fully.

Do not let a new thought arise before the current task is finished.

Do only one thing at a time.

Complete it, then move on to the next.”

— Shunmyo Masuno

About 6 years ago, I read some books that had a dramatic influence on me and shaped what I’ve done over the years: publishing books, writing newsletters, teaching courses, and eventually leaving corporate.

They are:

• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

• Awaken the Giant Within

• The Millionaire Fastlane

• The Boron Letters

• Expert Secrets

• Gang Fit

Many precious moments in life are not, cannot, and don’t have to be captured in photos or text.

“You don’t need permission to rewrite your life.”

If it’s hard for others to sell you things, it will be hard for you to sell things to others as well.

I’ve written 1300+ Substack notes and this is the first one.

Ajartic Engineering: Walking around with the laptop slightly ajar to keep the agents running.

Sharing my thoughts on writing a newsletter.

My wife told me that I’ve had these issues for a long time:

Poor time management, trouble prioritizing, low stress tolerance, not knowing how to rest, getting stuck on trivial matters, easily draining my mental energy, lacking long-term vision, and not having a systematic approach.

Full-time corporate environment is like an incubator. The structure, comfort, processes had hidden those problems for me.

But entrepreneurship is different.

It threw me into the ocean, exposing, and 10x amplifying the problems I already had.

The first year is very tough, but it’s also inevitable.

All the struggles I’ve been through are an inevitable part of real personal growth.

“When your mind carries too much, you can’t move fast.

Try setting a few things down.

Travel lighter.”

“Developing taste is an exercise in vulnerability:

It requires you to trust your instincts and preferences, even when they don’t align with current trends or the tastes of your peers.

Because while having taste is cool, taste itself reflects a certain type of uncool earnestness – a commitment to one’s own obsessions and quirks.

Find your taste; everyone else will catch up eventually.

Though, maybe not AI.”

— Elizabeth Goodspeed

Last night before sleep.

Kid: I like the old babysitter more…

(We recently changed our babysitter.)

Wife: Why?

Kid: Because she has a beautiful sticker on her water bottle.

Ok, my review of Claude Design is out!

Check it out.

I’ll take a break, go to the gym, and eat some dim sum.

Excited about my newsletter on Claude Design today.

It cost me a ton of tokens, a bag of almonds, a small bag of pistachios, and 10-20 macadamia nuts.

Stay tuned!

“Most people make logical, reasonable choices for 40 years and still end up with a life they don't like.

At some point, making an unreasonable choice is the only reasonable thing to do.”

— Justin Welsh

We often overestimate the costs we can see, and underestimate the costs we can’t.

”Even if you don’t believe in yourself yet, you should believe in those who believe in you.”

Hmm… saw this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tmsq-Gvx6g

Question on Claude Code: Do you still run /init?

I had dinner with a product designer friend.

He hold me AI has made him more productive, but leadership’s expectations have grown even faster, so he ends up doing much more work.

Tomorrow will be a special day.

A day I’ve been looking forward to.

A day with possible surprise, excitement, imagination, and reflection.

Yes, my Claude Design’s tokens will be finally reset tomorrow.

I went on vacation after the previous cohort and saw these notes when I came back.

"I was so intimidated by AI tools and even the thought of how AI was going to change our field terrified me. After taking this course I have fully embraced how to effectively leverage AI in a way that lets me be the driver."

"Great way to separate signal from noise and avoid AI fatigue. I feel very well equipped to use AI in my workflow and I'm already seeing the benefits."

"I'm feeling very inspired instead of overwhelmed about all the AI tools and this new way of living and working with AI. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is figuring out their new AI workflow!"

"I learned a lot in the class that I was immediately able to apply to something I was working on for my job."

"The additional guest talks and 1:1s were super valuable, and the students' projects fire your motivation."

"I'm quite impressed with how the course completely demystified these new ways of working with AI tools and gave me confidence to give more of them a try."

And more... It's hard not to feel grateful seeing them.

Many cohorts in, I still pour part of my soul into every one.

No two cohorts are the same. There's always new content, guest talk, and workshop shaped around what designers are navigating now.

Especially with all the "designers are cooked" content out there, I want to show, through real AI-powered case studies, that design thinking and intention still lead.

If anything, they matter more in the age of AI, not less.

The next cohort of AI for Product Designers starts in 4 days: https://maven.com/xinran/ai-for-product-designers

I’m going to get a haircut now.

I have hard feelings when I see all those “designers are cooked” content.

Because many designers I know are very thoughtful people, and they’re now being confronted with this stressful idea that their work is becoming obsolete.

What makes it harder is seeing that this notion reinforced by leadership, setting expectations that AI can handle much of designers’ work, while at the same time expecting designers to do even more with AI.

In the corporate world, you can go far by consistently showing up, saying you can do something, and delivering on what you said.

Not-so-fun fact:

I spent the whole day yesterday doing marketing.

Drafted and sent several emails and a LinkedIn post.

I really enjoy the heads-down work building and learning, but marketing is an essential part of entrepreneurship.

My eyes lit up when I saw this initiative.

For people who are interested, Lai Jing is a knowledgable, thoughtful designer who cares deeply about the learning experience.

This is gonna be a great one.

“If you have a white collar profession, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be spending 10% of your income on AI right now.”

— Daniel Vassallo

A few weeks ago at a Maven event, I told someone something that surprised him:

Although I write a lot about design with AI, ironically, I use AI at a minimum when it comes to writing.

The trade-off is real. It takes me much longer to write. But for the most part, I'm willing to bear it, for some reasons:

1. I see writing as a handcraft.

If you were making a clay pot, would you let AI do 90% of the work for you? If you were doing a watercolor painting, would you hand off 90% of it? For me, the answer is no. Writing a newsletter feels the same way. It's like a personal handcraft to me. I know it takes time, it's not perfect, there's a lot of back and forth. But that's exactly what makes it special.

2. Imperfection has its place.

AI has a tendency to chase perfection, and that constant pursuit of maximum efficiency and output is exactly what makes us feel tired and fatigued. Writing needs some imperfection, because it's a way to express ourselves, and self-expression doesn't really have a metric for efficiency and output. Sometimes the imperfect, genuine content is what resonates with people most.

3. AI doesn't really have empathy.

I wrote a note a while back about why I find AI-written tutorials hard to read. Yes, you can prompt AI to "write more like a human" or to be empathetic to readers or feed it more references. But AI still isn't human. There are many nuances in human emotion that are hard for AI to capture.

4. Writing helps us think.

If I outsource writing to AI, I lose the chance to reflect. It's like building muscles, if I always ask AI to do the job, I would slowly lose the muscle of thinking. And that's part of the essence of being human that I don't want to outsource.

“We swim in a world where knowledge is power and competence is currency, especially among achievement-oriented, terminally online, hustler types.

The layman’s dream is to be sogood at something that you will make boatloads of money and get oceans of affection.

People will admire and want to be you, or curse you because they aren’t. The pulsing heart of this dream is winning.

And it’s the smart, hardworking, hungry folks who seem to win. Not the idiots.

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people and not once has anyone said, “You know what, I’m really an idiot.”

We’ve learned to launder weakness into strength.

I’m slow because I’m thoughtful.

I’m abrasive because I’m truth-seeking.

Idiocy doesn’t get the same treatment.

But let us look at it, let us really sit with this question:

What’s wrong with being an idiot?”

AI draws patterns from the average, while real innovation often comes from breaking it.

It didn’t take me long exploring Claude Design before I hit the usage limit and had to wait for a week.

When I look at all those AI updates, advancements, and articles discussing them, I sometimes have to think that many people in the world are far from being able to afford the pro plans or tokens for these AI tools.

Kid: “Mom, why daddy has gray hairs?”

Wife: “Different reasons. For example, when daddy is under a lot of pressure.”

Kid: “Did he come back from space?”

One of the quiet pains of being abroad for so many years is missing the gradual passing of elders.

There are some small moments I still can’t forget.

They’ve all passed now, and I’m writing down some as a way to remember them.

1/

During my teenage years, I once had a fight with my mom over something trivial. I stormed out in anger. I wasn’t even really going anywhere.

But my grandma grabbed me and refused to let me leave. I pulled with all my strength, but she just kept holding on, smiling.

I eventually gave up and didn’t leave, still surprised that such a small, frail woman could have that much strength.

2/

My grandpa was stubborn and had a strong temper his whole life, but in his later years his health declined quickly, which was hard to watch.

He could barely walk and spent most of his days lying in bed, resting with his eyes closed, not wanting to be disturbed.

My family put a bell by his side so he could ring it if he needed anything.

One time, years ago when I visited home from abroad, I heard the bell and went into his room. He motioned for me to come closer, then closer again.

I leaned in, wondering what it was.

In a weak voice, he told me my cousin had gotten into grad school. I was about to say something reassuring, but he waved his hand, telling me to go out.

Then he closed his eyes again, with a look of relief at the corner of his mouth.

The last time I went back, my grandpa had already been gone for years, but I still made sure to tell my cousin this story in person.

I sounded calm when I said it, but really it was something I had been carrying with me for years.

Entrepreneurship is the ultimate form of personal development.

I’ve spent over $4k inviting guest speakers and teaching assistants for my course.

Initially, I hadn’t considered this.

However, my perspective shifted when I started focusing on how to provide as much value as possible to my students—seeing them as customers, instead of focusing on myself.

And I’m glad it worked well.

“AI didn’t kill design, it just exposed how shallow a lot of it was.

Real design lives in decisions, tradeoffs, and systems that hold up under pressure.”

— Sai Maniganahalli

No one answered it, so I flew to Italy to buy one.

Based on my (likely inaccurate or biased) testing, it was not as effective as Sensodyne.

There are many people with great ideas and skills, but fewer who are willing to take risks, take action, and keep on taking action.

While technology brings convenience and innovation, it also brings fatigue and stress.

Well, it happened.

Claude Opus 4.7 is INSANE!

Better reasoning. Better thinking.

The best part?

It scores higher on benchmarks you didn’t know existed yesterday.

But honestly?

This is what makes all the difference.

In today’s world, models keep updating.

What remains unchanged is the steady increase in token usage.

See you in 2 months for Claude Opus 4.8.

I'm excited to be teaching a new hands-on workshop on Maven.

In just two hours, we'll build a simple design system from scratch in Cursor together, step by step, and generate designs from it.

You'll walk away with a proven workflow you can use right away and grow based on your needs — from turning a Figma file into reusable UI components in Cursor, to building a "sandbox" design system that mirrors an existing design system for on-brand prototypes.

👉 Check out the workshop here: https://lnkd.in/gprZaHAF

👉 Check out everything I offer on Maven here: https://maven.com/xinran

I dread course reviews, so after finishing my last cohort, I didn’t even check the email notifications and went straight on vacation.

When I returned, I was surprised to see unanimously great reviews: https://maven.com/xinran/ai-for-product-designers

When I tell people that I’ve taught 18 cohorts in total, what I don’t share is that they are 18 rounds of me fighting imposter syndrome and self-criticism, and trying to do better the next time.

The new post of this week is out!

It is a guest post by Kshitij on his experiments and thought process.

Check it out.

“The fairest thing in this world is that no one can stop you from learning, and continuously improving yourself.”

I was born in the 80s.

I realized that even the youngest people who were born in the 80s are already 36 years old.

Often, when I look at people who were born in the 2000s, it makes me feel old.

But on the other hand, I also feel lucky to have grown up in an era that caught the start of the digital age, while still having most of my childhood with minimal digital influence.

I had a lot of time to be bored (in a healthy way) and was part of a period with so many great movies and music from the 80s and 90s.

Found this old note that is related to your series.

There is never a moment when you are completely ready.

Real opportunities hit you right in the face when you’re scrambling, rushing, and feeling unsure of yourself.

Growth comes fastest when you face it head-on:

Feeling the fear, but choosing to be brave anyway.

No matter whether you write quickly or slowly, whether you have many subscribers or few, or whether the growth is high or low, the most important thing is whether writing brings you joy.

Just watched Lazy Sunday.

All those years of studying in schools, trying to be a good student, and working in companies trying to be a good employee have reinforced a mindset in me:

I need to aim very clearly, considering many scenarios, making sure the direction, timing, and conditions are right before taking a shot.

However, my entrepreneurial journey has forced me to flip that mindset.

It has taught me, often in a very uncomfortable way, that I need to take the shot first and then aim. Two reasons:

1. There is never a time when I feel fully ready. And by the time I finally feel ready, I already miss the opportunity or the timing.

2. No matter how much I plan or research, everything is still version 0 until someone actually pays for it. Only then does it begin to evolve into v1, v2, and beyond.

Studying SEO, AEO, GEO to level up my CEO game.

Revisiting the notes I took 6 years ago and reflecting them today (on a Friday night…):

-

Some things in life are straightforward. You put in the work, you get the result.

Getting a degree, learning to drive, passing an exam. That's the predictable world.

But most of business and creative work doesn't operate that way. It's messy, random, and most people fail.

Not because they're bad at it, but because luck plays a bigger role than anyone wants to admit.

And when someone does win, winning tends to snowball.

-

So it’s important to not treat your ideas like they're your baby. Think of them more like experiments.

Don't go all-in on one thing hoping it's "the successful one." Instead, make a lot of experiments. Go for things that are more likely to work, even if the payoff is smaller.

And once you get a win, it opens doors to bigger wins.

Just like how VCs think. They don't bet on one film or one startup. They place many bets, knowing most will fail, but the ones that hit will more than make up for it.

-

One trap is survivorship bias.

That's when people look at someone successful and reverse-engineer "rules" from their story. "Just follow your passion." "Just keep showing up."

It sounds great, but it ignores all the people who did the exact same thing and got nowhere.

What worked for one person in a random environment doesn't mean it'll work for you.

-

Instead, think in probabilities. You can't know for sure what'll work, but you can get a feel for what's more or less likely.

And before you chase the big win, protect your downside first. Think like a prepper. Make sure you can survive before you try to thrive.

-

Finally, luck isn't just something that happens to you. You can actually set yourself up for it.

Stack your skills, knowledge, connections, and savings in interesting combinations. Stay curious. Put yourself out there so people know what you can do.

That's how opportunities start finding you instead of the other way around.

We’re in an era where it’s considered cool to publicly show that you’re keeping up to date and optimistic about AI, while it feels vulnerable to admit a lack of skill or skepticism toward it.

Reposting what Trevor Nielson posted on LinkedIn:

“Nobody tells you this when you get into design.

The actual work of opening the software and making the thing?

That's maybe 20% of the job.

The other 80%:

- Managing expectations with people who all want something different

- Having challenging conversations

- Compromising on your strong opinions

- Dropping your pride when you're wrong

- Knowing when to praise and when to push back

- Speaking up even when it slows the whole team down

No tool eliminates any of that.”

10 years ago, I was considering signing up for a bootcamp to transition from architecture into UX. That was a fantastic time to break into the field—10x easier than today.

But the bootcamp cost $3,000, and I didn’t want to pay for it. Instead, I waited four years before switching careers.

Looking back, I thought $3,000 for two months was too expensive. What I didn’t realize was that four years of my time was far more costly.

So a hard life lesson I learned is when paying for something, I should also consider the value of the time it saves me.

Money can be re-earned, but time cannot.

People discover AI speeds up their work → early adopters boost the potential online → leadership sees what AI can do and raises expectations → everyone ends up doing more work because of AI.

This feels like the trap of AI on productivity.

A small win today.

My kid kissed me 7 times.

4 on the left cheek.

3 on the right.

Then she said something.

But I was in a happy state that I didn’t hear what she said.

Many people focus on learning how to prune the branches, but what’s above the ground is only the surface and often short-term.

What truly determines the growth of the tree lies in the depth and health of its roots.

“A pattern I've noticed in stuck people:

They're always busy. They never stop moving. They have 47 tabs open and a notebook-sized to-do list. But if you ask them what they accomplished this week that actually matters, their mind goes blank.

Busyness isn't a badge of honor.”

— Dan Koe

Had a Substack Live with .

I talked about everything from a money perspective, such as why I chose to publish a book, why I chose to launch a course, low-ticket offerings, high-ticket offerings, meeting financial needs, etc.

But one thing I didn’t mention is that behind all those choices is something that goes beyond money.

Because there are many easier ways to make money and many ways to make more money than spending all those time and effort to write a book and teach live courses.

That is an idealistic drive to make a positive, lasting impact on people’s lives and that gives me a deep sense of fulfillment.

I personally made breakthroughs via certain books (The 4-Hour Workweek, The Millionaire Fastlane, and many others) and courses (small bets, etc, that gave me tons of inspirations), and naturally those were the first things that came to my mind when I thought of influencing others.

I didn’t enjoy marketing and sales, and I felt that people who are really into them don’t treat others genuinely—they just see them as numbers to make money.

But I’ve come to realize that I need to really learn marketing and sales. The fact that I didn’t enjoy them shows that I was judging them based on my own limiting beliefs.

Had a chat with someone who attended the same architecture school with me many(x2) years ago.

He mentioned some friends of him who also pivoted from architecture to tech and shared their websites:

• https://moeamaya.com/

• https://wasai.co/

• https://www.dimensions.com/element/4-way-intersection

Sharing here so I can remember too.

What is something that you believe but over 95% of people don't believe?

I think that is something increasingly important in this age of AI, content, and insights.

Thanks for inviting me to write about something I don’t often share online, but that means a great deal to me:

How I made my first dollar online.

8x my income in 12 years.

It might be a lot, or not impressive, in many people’s eyes.

But I’m sharing this for those who need it:

A lot can change over time, even if things are not great today.

We can think more clearly and figure things out through writing, rather than waiting to write until we already think clearly and figure things out.

I spent weeks planning our Europe trip — researching, reading guides, booking tickets — hoping to create something memorable for our kids.

But once we were there, I realized that for young children, none of it was any more fun than a game of tag at the park downstairs.

I took a lot of photos on our vacation, then spent just as long deleting the not-so-great ones to save space, then still leaving many photos I rarely revisit on the cloud backup.

Our relationship with our children is actually a relationship with the child within ourselves.

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”

— David Whyte

Some people hope to access information at no cost.

But truly transforming the way you think rarely comes for free.

My quick (and probably biased) impressions on Italy from the recent trip:

• I noticed a lot of navy blue raincoats, and at least 10x more men wearing ties than you’d typically see in the U.S., though still much fewer than in Japan.

• Pizza and pasta were better than in NYC, though not quite the 2x level that I had expected—more like 1.3x. That said, the ingredients felt noticeably fresher. I ate quite a lot, yet didn’t experience the same heaviness or discomfort I usually would after eating that much pizza in New York.

• My previous visit to Italy, almost 20 years ago, left a particularly strong impression: a man sitting next to me on a train spoke with me in Italian for 30 minutes. I remembered and talked about that experience often. This time, however, I didn’t have any similar encounters—people felt a lot less outwardly engaging in that way. And there were more tourists nowadays.

• Mineral water costs about 1/3 of what it does in NYC.

• Extra virgin olive oil is about 1/4 the price of what you’d pay in NYC.

• Milk is about 1/2 the price, and tastes significantly better.

• Dining at restaurants is very roughly 2/3 the cost of NYC. I also prefer the system there, with seat fee per person or service fee, rather than the tipping culture in the U.S.

• It’s common to walk up to the register to pay for the restaurant bill.

• Bidets are very commonly seen in hotels and homes.

• Strangers in NYC like talking to kids much more than people in Europe do.

Got back from vacation and here’s my new post.

Pencil is one of the most intriguing AI design tools I've come across this year.

It's exploring new territory in what a new-era AI design tool could look like and that alone makes it worth a closer look.

Watching the paid subscriber count feels like tracking the S&P 500.

It rises, falls, rises, falls, rises, falls, then rises.

In the end, the only thing we can truly control is our peace of mind.

“Showing up scared is still showing up.”

I was wondering today what skills may be the hardest for AI to replace.

• Parenting a child

• Performing certain surgeries

• Comforting someone in their dark moment

What can you come up with?

So, are designers cooked or not because of these AI tool updates?

Regardless of those attention-grabbing titles online, advancements in AI make it even more important for product designers to communicate that design is more than just creating good-looking screens.

“You don’t have a character first and then act.

You act repeatedly, and those actions form your character.

Confidence is the same. Confidence is not a personality trait. It is a trained habit.”

Alright, the newsletter of this week is out!

It is a detailed walkthrough on the major updates of Stitch two days ago.

Finally, I get to catch the wave while it’s still fresh :)

Seeing more and more tweets and video titles like these:

• This is INSANE.

• This blew my mind.

• It is over.

• You are cooked.

• This changed everything.

• This should be illegal.

• I wish I knew this earlier.

Excited about my newsletter tomorrow.

This week, I’ve seen at least 4 or 5 social media posts that include below:

• It’s over. Designers are cooked.

• Designers are not cooked.

• Are designers cooked?

“We have become a civilization based on work—not even ‘productive work’ but work as an end and meaning in itself.”

— David Graeber

Is AI making us smarter or dumber?

10+ years ago, I taught Photoshop to architects.

Today, I teach Claude Code to product designers.

A lot can change in a decade.

Gary V is on Substack too?!

We’ve been busy learning new AI tools that help us design faster, but sometimes we need to take a pause and ask ourselves why we’re doing it in the first place.

• Who the user is?

• What they truly need?

• What problems we’re actually trying to solve?

And that information does not only come from AI summaries based on a lot of text (which are prone to bias).

Real understanding often comes from observing people, watching their behaviors, and sensing their emotions.

A fun observation/question:

Sometimes, at some places, like pizza places, fish markets, bagel shops, the staff would often call me “boss”.

Such as “Hi boss!” “Here you go, boss.” “Thank you, boss.”

It’s fun to hear and feels good too.

Have you experienced similar things?

Curious if that’s more of a cultural thing that some people use it more often?

On my last day at my corporate job where I worked for four years, I shut down the laptop and packed it up to return.

In that moment, I realized that no matter how much I gave to my projects and files and how attached I felt, none of them belonged to me.

No road existed to begin with.

Paths are made by walking.

“To truly live in your own life is the greatest happiness.”

— Jiahao Yu

AI is pushing us to live more like humans, so we’re less easily replaced.

Some phrases just feel AI-written:

• The best part?

• And honestly?

• This is what makes all the difference.

• In today’s world…

What are the common ones that you have read?

It’s hard to stay our old selves and expect new results.

To avoid criticism, I often post someone else’s hot take that resonates with me without adding my own opinion.

But I’m trying to change that.

"There is only one way to avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."

— Aristotle

(Haha, found another old post of mine on LinkedIn. Back in the days, I like to write those Twitter-style posts there. Anyway, I still think the content is relevant today in this world where a lot of emphasis is placed on skills and AI fluency.)

Some important traits of a product designer coincide with the traits of a good person:

• Humble

• Generous

• Open-minded

Why?

• Being humble leads to active listening.

• Being generous leads to building trust.

• Being open-minded leads to continuous learning.

They are instrumental to a career that puts users first at its core.

It’s almost impossible for a product designer with a big ego to create a real user-centered design.

If you don’t like something, there are 3 options:

1. Complain

2. Change

3. Accept

If you always choose to complain, you could have taken more action to change.

If you always choose to accept, you have more power than you think to change.

One-liner posts can be controversial because they’re easy for writers to post, but readers don’t have the context.

At the end of the day, you have to be willing, or simply not care, to be misunderstood or judged.

If you’re easily affected, then that’s your own problem, not theirs.

I have a special talent for realizing I forgot to mention things right after I hit publish, no matter how many times I checked beforehand.

Just updated.

Instead of saying “No!”, ask what they can do instead.

Something I learned from parenting.