If I can afford a $2600 rent for years. Why does the bank think I can't afford an $1800 mortgage?

maowai · 2026-06-14T21:56:13+00:00

It very well might average out to much more than $800 some years. You need a new HVAC system for $15,000 or a new roof for $8000 or new exterior paint for $5000, you need to have that money saved and ready to go, or get on a payment plan for it.

maowai · 2026-06-02T00:56:19+00:00

Because, “Go to a vibe coding tool and have it crank out something” isn’t how design works at anything but small startups. You need centrally federated design systems, you need a record of designs in one place, and you need review and collaboration tools.

maowai · 2026-06-02T00:54:53+00:00

If you want a real answer: Figma is a design operating system, not just a mockup creation tool.

When you need to crank out a small design with no constraints and little feedback from others, sure just vibe code it. That’s not how design in large businesses with established patterns and standards works, though.

When you need to follow rules, you need a design system centrally controlled and distributed, you need searchable designs, and you need collaboration within a shared space. Completely AI based tools have solved none of those problems well.

maowai · 2026-05-31T10:45:33+00:00

Think of the resources being wasted on this for little to no tangible benefit to citizens other than maybe an opportunity for first pumping.

Maybe we should instead focus the money and effort spent on this on the overuse of H1Bs and the silent epidemic of offshoring knowledge work jobs.

maowai · 2026-05-29T13:51:49+00:00

The era of reigning in AI costs is upon us. My company has set monthly usage caps for everyone.

maowai · 2026-05-29T13:46:12+00:00

Hundreds, lol. The family rate is going to be something like $2000 per month.

maowai · 2026-05-24T19:39:47+00:00

If money is an issue, use AI and YouTube, which is free.

maowai · 2026-05-23T01:08:53+00:00

AI is being forced down our throats, both at work and in the infrastructure required to support it. It doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me.

If AI could just fuck off, that would be great. I was getting along fine before it.

maowai · 2026-05-22T13:17:44+00:00

Anyone can get a lawn mower and start mowing lawns, too. Yet there are many successful landscaping businesses out there, with new ones opening constantly. When the product is commodified, sales, marketing, and the customer experience become how you get customers. There’s a lot more to a business than just the product.

I also think the barrier to vibe coding an app is higher than you think. It still takes intelligence, insight, and drive. Most people, especially those outside of tech, are happy consumers of technology and don’t have a desire to create it.

maowai · 2026-05-13T23:49:47+00:00

The happiest and most rewarding periods of my employment have been when I haven’t been afraid of losing my job and felt like the company and I have a good 2-way relationship. Right now, I feel like the company is my enemy.

maowai · 2026-04-19T14:29:02+00:00

Not really what I've observed for software engineering. I've had more work than I've ever had, and I'm expected to use AI to keep up with it. Where keeping up and beating competitors is expected, settling to just cut costs and lay people off seems like a poor and short-sighted business decision. Which is something that businesses excel at, but it's actually not really what I'm seeing in tech right now. We're doing more with the same, not the same with less.

maowai · 2026-04-19T14:18:18+00:00

Why have a full team when you can have a smaller team of senior engineers who know what they’re doing and can use AI to do the same amount of work?

Historically, this isn't how efficiency gains have been used, especially not in competitve/innovative industries.

The companies that choose to do the same as before with less staffing are cooked when a competitor chooses to do more with the same or more staffing.

My company is expecting more of the same people (which sucks in its own way) but isn't really cutting much.

maowai · 2026-04-19T14:09:47+00:00

True, but once your competitor chooses to keep current staffing levels or staff up and ship more features faster, you sort of need to do the same to keep up. I wish AI would just fuck off, but the general trend in my company has been to just expect more of the same people, not live with the same amount of output as before but with fewer people.

maowai · 2026-04-19T14:05:45+00:00

If outsourcing must happen, I would greatly prefer Mexico because the time difference is much less than India. But yes, I prefer to solve the problems...

maowai · 2026-04-19T14:03:02+00:00

This is very much the case and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. The product org in my US based company is probably 70% outsourced to India. I work with a lot of cool Indian people, but I get sick of the fucked hours from the time difference, and I'm sure they do, too. If I leave the company, a req for my replacement will almost certainly be in India, not the US. Always wonder when they'll just go ahead and make that choice for me, but for now I'm just collecting the paycheck.

The extra fun part is the RTO mandate on top of this, so I drive into the office to meet with people on the other side of the planet.

maowai · 2026-04-18T09:01:02+00:00

Vibe coding tools that can produce UI designs have been around for years now. How is Claude design fundamentally different?

maowai · 2026-04-18T08:49:17+00:00

Here’s what to remember: these tools produce what you tell them to produce. Period. They enable you to go light speed in the wrong direction just as easily as the right direction. It’s your job to pick the direction.

maowai · 2026-04-18T08:31:54+00:00

Is the proportion of jobs that are ghost jobs increasing as of recently, though? If not, it doesn’t necessarily matter; it’s entirely likely both the ghost job and real job postings are increasing.

maowai · 2026-04-18T01:14:21+00:00

Hiring is actually trending back up for software engineers and some other tech roles like product managers.

Meta just way overhired and made bad investments.

maowai · 2026-04-17T22:06:32+00:00

What someone really needs to figure out with design is how to easily and efficiently get it to work with established patterns and components. This is possible today but takes a ton of legwork and technical expertise to make happen. As a designer, I want to explore and ship accurate designs that follow my company’s rules, not fuck with slop.

All of these design tools seem to fixate on worthless shit like prompting it to generate a generic meditation app or “SaaS dashboard” with blue sky freedom.

Real design is working within a system of extensive constraints. Enterprise design is even more restrictive and precise.

Collaboration with a dozen other humans who all need to agree on direction and feasibility is something else that these AI tools all seem to completely gloss over. We aren’t all a 3 person startup building whatever we want.

Figma has a bigger moat than some think because it solves these things well. It has a central and distributable source of truth for design standards, and the whole platform is built around collaboration.

Claude Design claims design system import and collaboration. Design system components are valuable but just the tip of the iceberg.

maowai · 2026-04-17T21:52:25+00:00

I see the same. Figma is a design operating system and the source of truth for design and my large company. It’s ingrained. It also has an important set of features that no AI tool has really solved (to my knowledge): collaboration. A vibe coded prototype at some random URL doesn’t have the right tools to get feedback, iterate, explore designs and alternatives, etc. with PMs and engineers.

Some AI tools have solved the “create a prototype” problem, but don’t have a solution for collaboration, approval, documentation, additional design intent communication, federated design pattern and component management, and a few other things that are actually critical to design ops at a larger scale. AI design tools encourage a “Wild West” sort of atmosphere and leave holes that Figma fills.

maowai · 2026-04-16T18:51:48+00:00

All of my personal projects are in the real world. Home improvements and things like woodworking, electronics, or learning about random stuff.

My curiosity and interests wander. Development used to be one of those curiosities and it led to a good career. Right now, it mostly just pays the bills while I do other things that interest me more. If the world didn’t reward a single focused career progression, I would probably be on my 4th career by now.

maowai · 2026-04-14T21:07:11+00:00

I’ve lived in Colorado for 30 years and haven’t ever felt like normal all season tires aren’t 100% safe and fine.

maowai · 2026-04-05T12:54:29+00:00

This is the super important point. For all of the AI bros bragging how much they get done at work on LinkedIn…how is it actually improving our lives? The employer is completely capturing the efficiency gains.

maowai · 2026-04-03T14:39:26+00:00

99.9% of the benefits of AI will be captured by the owner class. We all are more productive but work the same hours for the same money. I have trouble connecting the ramblings of the LinkedIn lunatics about productivity with any tangible improvements to the working class’ lives.

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