Here it is readers, Edition 150! A big-feeling round number to land on, especially after a recent stretch of quiet. Some bigger personal news worth its own edition another time.
A couple of small format changes to mark the milestone. First, you're reading this at a new address: I've packed up and moved First Thing Monday off Substack, and giving Beehiiv a run. Let me know what you think.
Second, If you've been quietly wondering "what is this weird photograph, Ben?" at the top of every edition for the last few years, these are all taken by me. From this edition on, they live at the bottom.
I’m grateful that you chose to subscribe to my sporadic little newsletter! Thanks as always for reading.
Ok, onto to the links!
What I’ve been reading lately
What happens when everyone can do mockups and prototypes? Turns out, Mockups Were Never the Hard Part.
The Boring Internet - The internet you grew up on isn’t dying. A commercial veneer glued on top of it is.
The Handoff Is Dead. The Future of Design and Development. An eye-opening account from my old colleague and friend Brad Wrage, about how features are being shipped at Cash App.
IC work is the new career flex - this new piece from Elena Verna really resonates with me. And why I’m less inclined to get back into people management.
Intent by Discovery: Designing the AI User Experience - I found this piece by Jakob Nielsen quite interesting, even if the ai-generated imagery within it is TOTAL CRINGE. [Insert vomit emoji]
More nuggets of wisdom from Karri Saarinen in his latest piece: Output isn’t design.
I love this story about how Mike Carson bought the Friendster URL and is bringing it back, in a new form.
And finally, Defense Against Dishonest Charts is an amazing interactive article and guide to spotting dishonest data visualization.
Closing frame
Until next time,
Ben