The Glass Blower

Hey — sorry, I know you from your writing. Saw your video the other day on AI. I'm still on Standard Notes, actually.

...Yeah? Sorry, do we — have we met?

No no, just recognized you. Sorry, that's weird. I'll leave you alone.

No, you're good. Which video — the one where I had a meltdown about not being able to code anymore?

I've been getting a lot of messages about that one.

Yeah, that one. It hit different. I'm a designer — I wrote this thing about the same problem from a different angle. The historical pattern. How output and comprehension used to move together and now they're splitting. But yours was — you just said it. No framework. Just what it felt like.

What do you mean the same problem from a different angle?

Like — okay, you said you made a hot dog. It works, it's food, but you have no idea what's inside it and you can't sell it because you didn't earn it. I traced that same pattern back to the 1770s. Textile workers. Output per weaver went up 50x and training time collapsed from seven years to days. The lines crossed. Production went up, comprehension went down, and nobody measured the comprehension part because why would you, the cloth was getting made.

Same thing. New substrate.

Huh.

Yeah. Yeah, that's — I mean, that's exactly it. I told Codex "don't die" and it didn't die and now I have a business. But the hot dog thing — you're saying that's not new. That happened before.

It happened before. But last time it took a century. This time it's taking months.

Cool. That's reassuring.

So what'd you do about it? Like, you're a designer, you said the tsunami hasn't hit you yet. What's the plan?

I think it's about people, man. Like, no matter how much we AI the AI, we're still people. An AI won't recommend you for a job. It won't understand what you're trying to get into people's hands. It's bits and bytes in a trenchcoat.

Bits and bytes in a trenchcoat. Okay.

But — I'm a solo founder. That's my whole thing. It's always been just me. And the people thing, yeah, you're right, but I used to earn the relationships through the work. Someone would use Standard Notes and feel the care in it. They'd email me. That's how everything happened. The work was the handshake.

Right.

Now the work is a hot dog. So what's the handshake?

I don't know. But — okay, this is going to sound like a left turn. I used to run this thing. A peer learning program. People figuring out leadership. Different industries, age groups, strangers. They thought they were coming for a course, but it was structured so they acted on the thing. Like, the content was almost the excuse to get people practicing together.

What does that mean, they acted on it?

Like — there's this stat that 80% of first-time managers fail in their first year. Nobody teaches you to manage. They just promote you and hope. And this program didn't teach management either. It put you in a room with strangers and gave you structured ways to practice — holding space for someone, giving honest feedback, telling your story, facilitating a conversation you didn't plan. The room was the teacher.

The room was the teacher.

Yeah. And I think something similar is happening now with AI, but I can't quite place it. Nobody's teaching people how to stay sharp with their tools. They just hand you Codex and hope.

And when you fail it's your fault because the tool was right there.

Exactly.

What happened to those people after? Like, what'd they say about it?

The professional answer is stuff like "I found confidence to apply for a senior role" and "it helped me understand not just how to do what I do but why I do it." One guy talked about "strategic blank space" — the structure gave him room to figure things out that no curriculum would have handed him.

But what I actually witnessed? I think it was people remembering they could trust strangers. That sounds corny but — these are professionals in a big city. Work is isolating. And they showed up every week and held space for each other.

Proud of.

What?

You said the guy said "growth you can be proud of." I just told a hundred thousand people I can't feel proud of anything I make anymore. And this dude got that back from — what, eight strangers in a room?

But that was leadership stuff. Career stuff. Known territory. Is "the tool I depend on is dissolving my sense of self and I can't stop using it" — is that even something you could build a room around? Because it sounds like I need therapy, not a cohort.

I mean — I think even therapy is about being less isolated. There's a human to witness your mess. But it's cathartic, not productive. And I don't think everyone needs a therapist. Like — even when you work with Codex, aren't you thinking through a problem?

Yeah. I guess.

So why are you any different than a glass blower?

What?

A glass blower uses a furnace they didn't build. A pipe they didn't make. They're still a glass blower. Nobody says "you didn't smelt the silica so it's not your vase."

Because I'm not standing over the furnace. I said "make me a vase" and walked away and came back and there was a vase. I didn't feel the heat.

But you knew the shape.

I knew what "deployed and downloadable" meant. I've done it a hundred times. I knew the shape. I just didn't —

When I built Standard Notes, I had users emailing me every day. "This saved me." "This is broken, fix it." That was the heat. Not the code. The people. And now I have a product nobody's talked to me about because I built it in a weekend with a robot.

Maybe it's not about the code. I don't know. Maybe it's more like — nobody's watching.

That sounds stupid.

It doesn't.

So what does the room look like? For this. For — whatever this is.

Not sure, man. Not sure.

That's the best answer anyone's given me in months.

That's a low bar.

No, I'm serious. Everyone has an answer. The "use AI smarter" people. The "go back to basics" people. My comment section is just — answers. And none of them help because they all start from "I already know what your problem is."

Can I read that thing you wrote? The textile workers one. Send it to me.

Yeah, it's — here, I'll just —

"The Sorting Class." Okay.

And if you figure out what the room looks like — the thing we were talking about — let me know. I don't need a course. I don't need a methodology. I just need to not be doing this alone.