State of Play

I took every dollar I made as a designer and poured it into a show that no one might watch.$4k+ to bring Bernabe to New York. Three hours of sleep filming with Colin and Samir. Casey Neistat in the room. 30 interviews unedited. Revenue at 50%. The voice saying "you're going to wipe out" won't shut up.I'm 38 but feeling brand new. Money is tight. Fulfillment is high. This media project is changing me in ways I don't understand yet.I appreciate all of the support.This is Taste Episode 1 drops

I'm running low on money and just scrapped an entire episode.This week I made an executive decision: postpone the Figma episode. We're getting worse, not better. I launched a UX tools bundle at 5am, kept D&D night sacred, and realized I might just be a Dungeon Master LARPing as a founder (still not ready to accept how accurate that is).This is what it looks like trying to balance play with reality.CHAPTERS:00:00 - Executive decision: We're postponing Figma00:53 - The morning chaos with

Ryo Lu went from Notion's founding designer to cloning himself with AI at Cursor. This is the full conversation.From building anime fansites at 11 to architecting Notion's core systems to creating his own OS in a browser - Ryo reveals why the best designers are actually tool makers in disguise. We dig into creative burnout, why he stopped asking permission, and how AI is turning designers into parallel processors of their own brains.Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)Join 100,000+

This founder set an expiration ate for his company… and then hit $40M ARR.Eric Simons (the builder behind Bolt.new) turned “we’re shutting down” into the world’s largest hackathon. In this episode, we break down Eric’s probability playbook and how I’m applying it on my 60‑day clock to keep State of Play alive beyond October 1st. We talk last bets, 100 swings, hackathons that print customers, and the automations I'm using to help me keep swinging.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:- How an "end date” forces

Ben Huffman built a freelance platform with NO fees. Every investor told him it was the stupidest idea they’d ever heard.Now Contra has 1M users and a $120M run rate.We talk about living in the pain cave (the place your ideas live before anyone believes in them), building mission-driven companies, avoiding the “marketplace commodity problem,” and why community-led growth might be the future of creative work.Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)Join 90,000+ designers for weekly

Ryo Lu built his own operating system. In a browser. For fun.Cursor's Head of Design reveals why he evolved from being a "sponge" (absorbing everyone's input) and started building playgrounds instead. We talk burnout, creative freedom, and why your weird side project might be the most important thing you build.Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)Join 100,000+ designers for weekly insights on creative software and the people shaping it: https://uxtools.coCHAPTERS:00:00 - "I've been

Ben Huffman built a company everyone called stupid. Until more than 1M people were using it.In this episode of State of Play, the Contra's design founder shares how he went from college dropout to building a new path for creative independence.We get real about the pain cave: that brutal, lonely gap between your vision and the world’s doubt, and how to keep going when no one believes in you.If you’re building something and feel like no one gets it, this one’s for you.Get the UX Tools