Noah Read

Designer, Developer. Product Design at Function Health. Creator of Career Minder.

[Noah Read @noahread]

​Just re-encountered I Might Be Wrong by Radiohead on my way home from work today. What a song!

[Perplexity @perplexity_ai]

Two new ways to bring your health data into Perplexity.

Perplexity now connects to Apple Health on iPhone. Use your sleep, activity, and HRV data in Computer.

Function is now available in Perplexity Health. Add labs and ask about biomarkers, blood draws, or panel results.

[Noah Read @noahread]

@cameronmoll @joshpuckett The push to static mocks seems like a reaction against an earlier push to make design more respectable through UX ritual where design schools downplayed craft/concrete deliverables. If we swing away from static mocks, maybe we find equilibrium or at least discover a new extreme?

[Noah Read @noahread]

I’ve walked into performance reviews distracted, without a clear sense of what I’d done. Put together a 30-min checklist for next time.

https://t.co/62lFJKbNec

[Career Minder @careerminderapp]

Performance review in a few days?

30-minute prep checklist:
• List 5–7 wins with impact
• Check against your goals
• Prepare 2–3 themes
• Write down your questions

Full framework:
https://t.co/883ovMOBF3

[Noah Read @noahread]

It’s self-evaluation season. Put together some examples using the STAR method that show impact.

https://t.co/vsiADtNGM9

[Career Minder @careerminderapp]

Annual review tip: Replace “improved the process” with what you actually did and what changed.

Vague statements don’t get you raises. Specific results do.

https://t.co/dGrmy7XCat

[Noah Read @noahread]

I put together brag sheet examples for engineers, PMs, and designers. What’s worth documenting is pretty different depending on your role.

https://t.co/YMs0MMUnI4

[Career Minder @careerminderapp]

Your brag sheet should answer: What did you do? Why did it matter? Who benefited?

“Improved performance” = forgettable
“Reduced load time from 10s to 400ms, preventing churn of $180K in accounts” = memorable

https://t.co/NdZ3i82IFG

[Career Minder @careerminderapp]

Weak self-eval: “Improved onboarding.”

Better: “Reduced new hire time-to-productivity from 2 weeks to 5 days by automating account provisioning.”

The difference is specifics and numbers.

10 examples: https://t.co/dGrmy7XCat

[Noah Read @noahread]

Wrote up some brag sheet examples for different roles. What’s worth tracking looks different for designers vs engineers vs PMs.

https://t.co/YMs0MMUnI4

[Career Minder @careerminderapp]

Performance review this week? 30-minute prep:

10 min — list your wins with impact
10 min — identify themes, prep examples
5 min — pick questions to ask
5 min — logistics + gather notes

Full checklist: https://t.co/883ovMOBF3

[Noah Read @noahread]

I started writing down a few work wins every Friday. Simple stuff — what I shipped, what I solved, what I learned.

Wrote up the method with a template: https://t.co/HExfJI5Ea2

[Career Minder @careerminderapp]

What goes in a brag sheet depends on your role:

Engineers → problems solved, not code written
PMs → decisions made, outcomes driven
Designers → visual work tied to business results

Examples: https://t.co/NdZ3i82IFG

[Noah Read @noahread]

Wrote up a 30-minute performance review prep checklist. The kind of thing I wish I'd had a few years ago.

https://t.co/62lFJKbNec

[Career Minder @careerminderapp]

Performance reviews would be a lot easier if you wrote down 3 things every Friday:

- What you shipped
- What you solved
- What you learned

10 minutes a week. Template: https://t.co/eu1orptpcQ

[Noah Read @noahread]

Self-evaluations are hard to write well. I put together 10 examples of what strong entries actually look like.

https://t.co/vsiADtNGM9

[Noah Read @noahread]

@DouthatNYT Concerns about de-skilling as we move up further levels of abstraction are captured really well (and in very non-technical terms) by Jonathan Blow comparing progress in software before LLMs to previous historical technology loss. Very “decadence” themed 😉 https://t.co/UUvz7s1BEF

[Noah Read @noahread]

@DouthatNYT I think we are going to see sea-changes in the software industry, but if we could somehow overlay that graph with the same questions being asked to LLMs I think the story might be different. The real risk seems to me more long term, skill erosion and subsequent lack of innovation

[Noah Read @noahread]

@NathanielGivens A colleague of his, Ivan Degregori, described how Shining Path recruited primarily from the social sciences, sociology specifically, and humanities departments because they were such ready targets. This is a recurrent theme, that occasionally has blossomed into violence.

[Noah Read @noahread]

@NathanielGivens I’ve been doing research on the rise of Shining Path in Peru. It was around this same time period (and the 15 years previous) that their leader, a philosophy professor named Abimael Guzman, recruited his fighting force primarily from universities.