I build with the world's best creatives in music, fashion, and film. CVO @Hit_Boy | Before: other things @ Lovable, On Deck, InVision
Dublin, Ireland
Joined January 2014
- Tweets20.6K
- Following876
- Followers3.4K
- Likes19.2K
Pinned Tweet
Vibecoded a little too hard, ended up demoing on stage with @Hit_Boy at @BloombergLive in SF. You can literally just do things.
+ became an accidental photographer
Yes let me pay the host 300$ cleaning fee and then scrub the place myself. I’m not crashing on your couch as a guest, I’m paying you for a service
its just bonkers the new policy @airbnb is trying to put in place. Putting the dishes in the dishwasher, taking out the trash, pulling the sheets off the bed....they are just standard things any normal person would do when staying at a house. Why wouldn't a host be allowed to say that?
Earlier today a fellow Lithuanian reminded me that people back home have been preparing for war for the past twelve years. He didn't mean since 2022, when the tanks rolled towards Kyiv, but since 2014, when Russia sent its "little green men" into Crimea and the West after a few polite sanctions essentially looked away. Moscow understood that message perfectly, and so did we.
You see, Eastern Europeans have heard this kind of cynicism before and we know exactly where it leads. In 1940, while the world was busy elsewhere, the Baltic states were swallowed whole. In 1956 it was Budapest, and in 1968 it was Prague, and each time the conclusion in the West was that it was a sad affair but ultimately not its business. Then, in January 1991, months after Lithuania had declared its independence, Soviet tanks rolled into Vilnius, and fourteen unarmed people were killed defending a television tower, while much of the world, distracted by the Gulf War, kept its distance. We survived only because ordinary people stood their ground and because the empire was already collapsing under its own weight.
So when you write that "no lessons will be learned," I'd suggest that the lesson has been there all along, written in the history of every nation on Russia's border. Indifference is never neutral, because Moscow has always read it as permission. Ukrainians, unlike us in 1991, have no collapsing empire to rely on, which is precisely why they are fighting and precisely why they deserve better than to be turned into a punchline about mansions in Sussex.
You call it a circus. Those of us from Eastern Europe recognise it as history repeating itself, and we would very much prefer that this time the rest of the world paid attention.
This time next year, Zelensky will be safely ensconced at a country mansion somewhere in Sussex. There he will be feted and visited by the likes of Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer, Sunak, Obama, Hillary Clinton, von der Leyen, Sean Penn, William and Kate, and Tony Blair et al.
His memoir, ghost written, will see him embark on a promotional tour of the chat show and podcast circuit, during which he will be curated as the man who stood up to Putin and was betrayed by Trump. Lucrative Hollywood offers for the rights will follow.
As part of this hagiographic carnival, Zelensky will be given an honorary knighthood by King Charles, accompanied by the usual trumpets and banquet.
Meanwhile, back in Ukraine, investigators will uncover corruption under his premiership on an industrial scale. These findings will be summarily dismissed as a in the West as a fabrication, cooked up in the Kremlin.
For the ordinary Ukrainian, left to pick up the pieces, heartrending stories of men being kidnapped from their families by Zelensky's conscription press gangs --- never to be seen again -- will be commonplace.
These stories will be joined by accounts of war pensions denied, compensation payments for the loved ones of fallen soldiers declined, and as will details of widespread torture and abuse within the ranks.
No lessons will be learned -- just as none were learned from previous failed military adventures in Afganisation, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc.
The circus will move on to the next, confirming that though the faces change, the game remains the same.
you'd think the @Revolut comms team would be showing us a masterclass today. one post hours ago is wild behaviour
i've been on enough panels to know the audience usually learns more in the queue for coffee afterwards than from anything said on stage.
so why do we keep building events around the stage?
a unique story can make you care about something you had absolutely no reason to care about.
i think we underestimate how powerful that is.
fun to be playing a small part in the Gamma launch around this idea.
Everyone is sick of generic AI, including us.
Gamma was the first AI presentation platform to reach real scale. But now that AI tools are everywhere, everything looks the same.
Earlier this summer, we came to an uncomfortable conclusion: without a step change in visual variety, Gamma’s output would look and feel too similar to all the other AI tools. The entire point of a presentation is to help someone "get" your idea, to see it as unique and do something with it.
We started over. Today we're shipping Gamma 5, the biggest product overhaul in our company's history.
We rebuilt Gamma to create presentations that actually look like you and your brand. Your teams can design anything they dream up, following your brand's aesthetic or something entirely new, with every frontier and image model under the hood. And the same goes for your docs, social assets, and graphics.
We revamped our agent, design tools, editing, import, export, connectors, and more.
Get your ideas out there.
i’m fascinated by how often companies ask young people what’s culturally relevant and then get nervous when the answer doesn’t look like something the company would normally do.
that is, presumably, why you asked them?
hosting dope dinners for dope brands is an increasing % of what i do. had to do something fun with that
weirdly, some of the biggest opportunities in my life have come from being very casual about the ask and very serious about the follow-through
There’s some genuinely good advice buried in here about specificity, relevance and respecting people’s time.
But you can teach someone how to make a better ask without making them feel small for asking. Also ironic that designers preach empathy and accessibility, then approach a very ordinary human interaction with seemingly none of either.
No, I won’t check out your portfolio.
Here’s why.
Anytime you ask someone to do something, it’s a pitch. In a pitch, say what’s in it for the other person.
What’s in it for me to check out your portfolio? Why would I spend my time, energy, and attention—all of which I value highly—on that as opposed to anywhere else?
If there’s nothing in it for me, then you’re asking for charity.
If you’re asking for charity, then ask for charity. Make it clear. I like doing favors sometimes and being charitable sometimes. But I can’t tell if that’s what you’re asking for, and I won’t assume it.
Even if I agreed to it, you haven’t even given me any criteria. Is there something specific you want help with? Something to improve? Something you’re stuck on? Some job it’s not doing?
General questions get general answers. Specific questions get specific answers.
Since I don’t know what you want help with and there doesn’t seem to be much incentive for me, it’s a pass.
Here are some examples of pitches I would consider more (even if I’d still say no):
“Dan, would you be willing to do me a favor and review my portfolio to help me land a design job working on a U.S.-based team for a fintech startup?”
“Dan, can you please review my portfolio to see if the UI design work feels closer to junior or senior caliber? I’ll make a donation to your favorite non-profit as a token of thanks.”
“Dan, would you mind looking at my portfolio to see if I’m the kind of person you’d hire? I know you value your time, attention, and energy, so I’d gladly take any feedback you can provide after looking for even 30 seconds.”
@odeniransulaimo, wanna pitch again? I’m open to you trying again if you’d like.
But even better: pitch someone who’s in a closer position to help you get what you want. If you want a job at a sports betting startup, pitch a hiring manager at a sports betting startup to check out your portfolio. Even if they won’t hire you for THEIR startup, their feedback would be way more relevant to getting a job at a sports betting startup than my feedback would be, since I’ve never worked at a sport betting startup.
In short, when you pitch, make it about them and make it as easy as possible for them to give you what you want.
How is this a real thing we’re reading but the majority of the world hasn’t even a clue.
Be curious and play. Your mind, and your career, will thank you. Love this @IniAbiodun @tomscottv
Mindaugas retweeted
Looking for side projects to feature! Pls tag myself or @tomscottv in your cool ones. Tysm
What are the best side projects you've seen? I am writing an article with @IniAbiodun on her thoughts and approaches to side projects, and thought it would be cool to feature a few others.
The kids will be alright
