Evangelizing UX

https://darmourdesign.com/thoughts
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In the Age of AI, Technical Founders Are Overrated.

Taste Is the New Tech Stack.

For two decades, Silicon Valley worshipped the technical founder, and rightfully so.

Build fast.
Ship product.
Engineer your way to scale.

But here’s the inconvenient truth no one wants to say out loud:

AI has turned the 40-hour work week into 40-minute tasks.

In an era where code is no longer scarce,
by definition, technical skills are no longer special.

The next billion-dollar companies won’t be built by technical founders.
They’ll be built by creatives.

Not the pixel-pushers.
Not “make it pretty” designers.
But creative polymaths,
the ones who have the ability to connect the dots across art, culture, business, and tech.

⸻

In their 2025 investment thesis, Y Combinator just said the quiet part out loud:

Designers are the next wave of founders.

Why?
Because when AI commoditizes code,
taste becomes the last true competitive edge.
• Taste makes a product feel right.
• Taste builds emotional trust.
• Taste creates brands people believe in.

And the best creatives?
They’re not just decorators.
They’re systems thinkers.
World-builders.
Human-first creative strategists.

As AI continues to eat the backend,
the frontend becomes the moat.

Experience.
Vibe.
Belief system.

⸻

Let’s be blunt for a moment:

The future of tech is no longer technical.
It’s experiential.

Look at Apple (under Jobs).
Look at Airbnb.
Look at Figma.

None of them won because of superior tech.
They won because of superior taste.

Their edge wasn’t code.
It was culture.
Story.
Design-led thinking.
Human-first design.

In this new AI era, the best product isn’t the most complex.
It’s the most human.
The one people feel something for.

⸻
This era will bring rise to the creative polymath.

And every tech company that ignores this
is going to struggle.
The world doesn’t need more code.
It needs more taste.
⸻
Stop searching for technical founders.
Start building with polymath creatives.
That’s where the next unicorns will be born.
Dave Landis
Positioning UX in the age of AI
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/strategic-reawakening-ux-ai-world-anubhav-jain-awhcc/?trackingId=gP8b4XdIRSSV6KSaR2PMIQ%3D%3D

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