Dave O'Callaghan

Freelance Designer Prev @lynqai @vidiQ @buffer. Sharing simple actionable advice on finding demand and building great products.

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

@dejvdesign 👋 portfolio: https://t.co/rCt5anOI2J

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

This is what happens when you focus on output without quality input

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

We keep hearing about 10x or 100x productivity gains in engineering and knowledge work.

But outside the model labs, I haven’t seen the corresponding 10-100x revenue growth across the market or increase in quality.

So where is the productivity going?

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

We keep hearing about 10x or 100x productivity gains in engineering and knowledge work.

But outside the model labs, I haven’t seen the corresponding 10-100x revenue growth across the market or increase in quality.

So where is the productivity going?

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

https://t.co/GJKYsvPZye

[Austen Allred @Austen]

The simplest mental model you can develop for AI:

AI is giving the fast movers the advantage.

If little companies move faster they can compete with big companies using AI.

[Marc Hemeon @hemeon]

Ohhhhh. Excited to explore!

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

@InvertTheWing …

[tobi lutke @tobi]

QMD 🫡

[Ryan Singer @rjs]

The most important jump in a design problem is getting from “problem” to “outcome.”

A problem alone doesn’t tell you when you’re done. An outcome alone doesn’t tell you where to start.

A good frame — problem to outcome — is a vector.

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

@jamesm @guerriero_se I was exactly the same last week. I watched this video (well 40 mins of it on 1.5x) and that showed me enough to get started https://t.co/OBrbFUHocE

Now I’m making all sorts of stuff, it’s mental how good Cursor is. Sped up my design flow so much!

[Jack Doherty @jelliotdoherty]

Building a "sidecar mode" for Toss - if you already use Granola, Fathom, Otter, etc. for meeting notes, Toss can sit on top and handle the automation piece.

Keep your note-taker, let Toss do the follow-ups: create the tickets, send the Slack messages, update your CRM.

Would you use this?

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

@MrCracknell And @LastWordOnSpurs

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

@MrCracknell This is why I follow you

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

@thespursweb @WilliamHill What a shit post. Fans like you are the issue with spurs

[Jason Fried @jasonfried]

Many people like using the end of the year to reflect back on the past 12 months. For whatever reason that's always felt foreign to me. All that's done. The effort's behind. I put it all out there already and experienced it fully in the moment. No need to revisit, no replays necessary,

For me, the end of the year is all about the potential of the next one. Reflecting ahead, rather than behind, is what energizes me. 2026 is an open book, 2025 is closed.

[Jack Doherty @jelliotdoherty]

looking for 5 beta testers for Toss

it's a meeting tool that catches what you commit to on calls and turns them into one-click actions — Linear issues, Slack messages, calendar events, Cursor prompts

ideal if you:
- have 3+ meetings/week
- use Linear, Slack, or Cursor
- hate forgetting follow-ups

DM me or reply if interested

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

@helloitsolly I’d see this as an opportunity to create a positive experience that could lead to them recommending you to others.

Think it’s short sighted not to refund.

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

Been playing around with Toss for a little while and I honestly don't know what I'd do without it now. Would defo recommend having a play

[Jack Doherty @jelliotdoherty]

said I'd schedule a follow-up and create two Linear issues on a call.

Toss caught it and let me do both in one click.

Building this for myself but thinking about opening it up

[Dave O'Callaghan @OCallaghanDavid]

‘Bad’ products succeed because they meet the demand better than ‘good’ products.

[Ryo Lu @ryolu_]

the old way of scaling teams is dead:

we used to hire specialists – designers, engineers, PMs – each in their lane, scaling by adding more people. but when Cursor can take you from idea to code in minutes, execution isn't the bottleneck anymore. taste and judgment are.

what matters now: people who can see the full stack, move between layers, but specialize deeply in something AI can't replicate yet. T-shaped but way wider – conversant across domains, expert in one thing.

AI doesn't just make you faster. it ties teams together differently. no more waterfall – designer codes the prototype, engineer extends it, both work in the same medium. the gap between disciplines disappears.

this raises individual ceilings. i'm a designer who built ryOS entirely in Cursor – couldn't have done that before. but i'm not replacing engineers, i'm just removing execution barriers while keeping my design taste and systems thinking.

you're not hiring for roles anymore. you're hiring for breadth + depth, taste, systems thinking, learning velocity. 5 people who can work across code/design/product beat 20 specialists coordinating handoffs.

the new bottlenecks are deeply human: taste, vision, judgment, context. AI explores options, but can't tell you which is right. that's where specialization matters now – in judgment, not execution.

small teams, fluid boundaries, everyone working in the same tools. roles still matter but as overlapping concerns with different depths, not separate silos. tools handle execution, you handle vision.

this is what we're building at Cursor – closing the gap between idea and reality. so your taste becomes the main thing, and teams have more freedom to explore crazy ideas.