◆Hot Take08:30
Why Designers Should Code (But Not To Ship It)
Max argues the point of designers and PMs writing code isn't to land it in production — it's that coding forces you to interrogate the medium you're designing with. He'd rather have a designer who deeply understands how an agent loop works than one who can tweak UI details but doesn't grasp the underlying material.
- The value of coding is that it forces you to consider the medium, not to deploy
- Understanding agent loops matters more than tweaking traditional software
- Coding harnesses are becoming like the operating systems of the '90s
- The goal is to master the material, not become a cog in the delivery mechanism
“I actually don't care at all whether designers write code that lands in production.”
“the reason why is to to become a master of the material, not a sort of cog in the delivery mechanism for the idea.”
#design#coding#product#ai
◆Hot Take11:00
Agency Matters More Than Skills in the AI Era
With AI putting skills at everyone's fingertips, Max says the real differentiator is agency — the belief that the world around you is malleable and can be changed. He observes agency is not evenly distributed, and the people who understand the world is malleable will thrive while those who cling to fixed role definitions will struggle.
- AI removes the 'skill issue' excuse, so agency becomes the thing that matters
- Agency is not evenly distributed in the world
- People who see the world as malleable will do great
- Those who cling to rigid role definitions will have a much harder time
“the thing that matters is agency and I don't think agency is very evenly distributed in the world”
“cultivate agency I think that's the that's the thing”
#agency#ai#career#mindset
◆Hot Take24:00
The SaaS Apocalypse Is Greatly Exaggerated
Against the narrative that everyone will build their own tools and abandon SaaS, Max argues most people don't actually want to maintain the full software stack. Software is like a garden that needs tending, and the 'as a service' part you pay for is the maintenance and specialists thinking hard about the problem. He expects tools to become more general, but still delivered as a service.
- Most people don't want to maintain the full stack of software
- The 'as a service' value is maintenance plus specialists solving a problem
- He tried rebuilding Notion in a weekend and concluded people don't want that
- Tools will trend toward general-purpose (like the '90s), but still as a service
“So I think to some degree the SAS apocalypse is greatly exaggerated.”
“Software is like a garden. you need to tend to it and the the the thing you pay for in the as a service is…”
#saas#product#software#hot-take
◆Hot Take32:30
Society Isn't Capped by Intelligence
Max pushes back on the labs' assumption that people always want the frontier model. Using a retina display analogy — once you can't see the pixels, you don't need them smaller — he argues cognitive tasks may saturate at 'good enough,' after which speed, cost, and running locally matter more. He's far more interested in an 'exoskeleton' than a god in a box.
- The labs assume people always want the smartest, frontier model
- Retina analogy: past a threshold of intelligence, you want speed and modality instead
- Once models are 'good enough,' you optimize for local, cheaper, faster
- Society is largely not capped by intelligence
“the analogy I like to give is a retina display, which is after I can't see the pixels, I can't see the pixels. I don't…”
“I think society is largely not capped by intelligence.”
#ai#models#hot-take#future
◆Hot Take36:00
Token Spend Is the New Lines of Code
Max warns against turning token spend into a metric to boast about, comparing it directly to bragging about lines of code written in a day. He doesn't care how many tokens someone spends — it's not a useful metric — though he has some sympathy for why a company at Meta's scale might use a leaderboard to push people to change how they work.
- Making token spend a bragging metric mirrors boasting about lines of code
- The largest software projects don't have that many millions of lines of code
- Token spend is not a useful metric
- He has sympathy for leaderboards only as a nudge to change entrenched behavior
“I think there's a real danger in sort of making the token spend the the metric to like boast about, which is the same as…”
“it's not a metric that's useful.”
#ai#metrics#management#hot-take
◆Hot Take1:07:30
We Already Have UBI — It's Called Knowledge Work
Max's half-joking, half-serious hot take on universal basic income: we already have it, and it's called knowledge work. He argues what we actually need to live and be content is far less than the hierarchy of jobs we've built, and that humans will keep inventing reasons why they absolutely must stay in the loop around agents.
- We already have UBI in the form of knowledge work
- What we actually need to be content is a lot less than we've built
- He doesn't exclude his own job from this framing
- Humans keep inventing reasons they must insert themselves into the loop
“we already have universal basic income. It's called knowledge work.”
#ubi#ai#work#hot-take
◆Hot Take1:11:00
Small Group Theory: Sometimes It's Good to Be Exclusive
Max's contrarian view is that inclusivity isn't always all that great — he believes in 'small group theory,' that the world is run by group chats of eight people or fewer. Applied to product, chasing 8 billion users could upset the top 500 million who want different things. Being okay with being exclusive and building a really good product for a specific in-group can be a winning strategy.
- Contrarian take: inclusivity isn't always all that great
- Small group theory: the world is run by group chats of eight people or fewer
- Chasing every user can upset the top of the class who want different things
- TBPN's tiny-but-influential audience is cited as proof exclusivity can win
“I very much believe in small group theory like I think the world is run by group chats of eight people or fewer”
“I think that inclusivity isn't always all that great”
#contrarian#product#strategy#audience