Latest / The Feed & The Thread / The Feed & The Thread - September 13, 2026

Transcript

The Feed & The Thread - September 13, 2026 · The Feed & The Thread

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  People hate AI food photos because human judgment is gone.
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  So it's not the tech, it's the lack of taste. Exactly, and
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  we're breaking down why that friction matters for your login
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  flows too.
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  Welcome to The Feed and The Thread, brought to you by
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  Chicago Camps. Leadership By Design is on Thursday and
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  Friday, September 17 and 18 and tickets are available now! And
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  while you're at it, get caught up on UX fundamentals with five
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  minute UX at five em UX dot com. The Feed & The Thread is
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  available online at feed and thread dot com to submit your
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  feeds, or download our app for all the feeds and threads
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  delivered right to your pocket.
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  We build gates to keep things safe, and we build filters to
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  keep things good. But when those systems run on automation
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  instead of judgment, we lose the very things they were meant to
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  protect. Slava Polonski at UX Design.cc makes this case in
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  "The real reason everyone hates the viral AI food slop images".
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  He argues that our revulsion toward AI food images isn't
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  about the technology itself, but about the loss of professional
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  human judgment. Food photography has always been staged and
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  edited, but AI has democratized that process by making
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  generation cheap and effortless. The core issue is what he calls
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  the AI Taste Stack, which highlights what we lose when the
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  cost of creation drops to zero. We lose the curated decision-
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  making process that determines what's worth making in the first
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  place. The problem isn't that AI produces bad images, it's that
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  it removes the friction that usually signals quality.
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  Zeeshan Khalid reflects on thirteen years of design
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  experience in "How authentication friction
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  frustrates users — and how to stop it", also at UX Design.cc.
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  He highlights a persistent failure in enterprise software
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  where designers create excessive friction during user
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  authentication. He recounts a specific case where a polished
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  ERP launch was immediately undermined by support tickets
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  regarding forgotten user IDs and overly complex security
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  questions. Designers often forget the user's perspective,
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  turning the gateway to their product into a digital obstacle
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  course rather than a seamless entry point. Khalid emphasizes
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  that this friction is a cardinal sin that frustrates users right
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  at the start. We need to stop treating security as a barrier
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  and start treating it as part of the experience. Other articles
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  today from UX Design.cc on the history of data logos, the
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  origins of software, and the dynamics of villains and heroes.
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  Designers are asking the same hard question today. Who decides
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  what's safe, and who decides what's good. Over on
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  r/UXResearch, a student with a background in computational math
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  is asking if quantitative research is insulated from the
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  broader job slump. The question reveals a deeper anxiety about
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  whether data skills protect you from market shifts. It matters
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  because we often assume rigor is a shield, but the market doesn't
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  always reward complexity. It rewards clarity. In
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  r/UI_Design, a solo developer is struggling with custom icons for
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  a productivity app. They feel their current set looks horrible
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  despite trying to match themes. This is a reminder that
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  automation doesn't fix taste. You can generate a thousand
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  icons, but you still need a human eye to judge which one
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  feels right. Another designer in r/UI_Design is worried about
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  AI taking over their primary career. They're looking for a
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  side hustle that automation can't touch, like content
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  creation. The fear is real. But building a side career based on
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  what AI can't do is a moving target. The safer bet is usually
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  doubling down on human connection. A junior designer
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  posted a To-Do list interface that feels weird and text-heavy.
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  They're unsure if the layout is broken. This highlights a common
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  pain point. When we rely on templates, we lose the judgment
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  needed to spot clutter. The design feels off because it
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  lacks hierarchy, not because the components are wrong. Finally,
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  in r/ProductDesign, someone wants a tool to automatically
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  translate iOS mockups into Android designs. They want to
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  skip the manual adaptation process. This desire for
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  efficiency is understandable. But when we automate the
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  translation, we risk losing the platform-specific nuances that
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  make an app feel native. We build systems to save time, but
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  we lose the judgment that makes the work good.
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  Chicago Camps is hosting Leadership By Design on Thursday
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  & Friday, September 17 & 18. It's an online event, so you can
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  join from anywhere in the world! Tickets are free, thanks to the
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  generosity of the community! If it's within your budget, you can
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  purchase a general admission ticket for only twenty six
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  dollars - with limited early bird tickets at only fifteen
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  dollars. Get tickets now at Chicago Camps dot org.
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  Slava Polonski argues that our revulsion toward AI food images
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  isn't about the technology, but about the loss of professional
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  human judgment. He calls it the AI Taste Stack, noting that when
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  creation costs drop to zero, we lose the curated decision-making
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  process that signals quality. That framing feels slightly off
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  because it assumes the market values curation over speed. The
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  r/UXResearch discussion shows students worrying that
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  quantitative rigor is their shield, but the market actually
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  rewards clarity. If AI provides clarity instantly, the friction
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  of curation might just look like inefficiency to a product
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  manager. But efficiency without judgment creates a hollow
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  product. Zeeshan Khalid points out that enterprise software
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  fails when designers remove authentication friction without
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  considering the human cost. We build gates to keep things safe
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  and filters to keep things good. When automation replaces that
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  judgment, we lose the very things those systems were meant
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  to protect. I see the risk, but I think we're conflating safety
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  with taste. The desire to auto- translate iOS mockups to Android
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  shows people want to skip manual adaptation. That's not laziness.
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  It's a rational response to a workflow that prioritizes output
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  volume over platform nuance. The problem isn't the tool. It's
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  that we haven't defined what native feel means in a generated
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  world. So the standard itself is evaporating. If we automate
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  the translation, we lose the platform-specific nuances. We
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  need a new metric for quality that isn't just about how fast
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  we can ship, but how well the system understands context.
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  Exactly. We need to stop treating judgment as a luxury
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  good that only seniors can afford. We have to bake that
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  decision-making logic directly into the design systems
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  themselves. If your system can't explain why a choice was
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  made, it's not a system. It's just a wish. And until we teach
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  machines to argue for their design decisions, the human
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  editor remains the only thing standing between a product and
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  pure noise.
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  That's The Feed and The Thread for today. We'll catch you next
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  time!