Paddy McKee

15+ years building product. Designer at heart. Proud father, Muay Thai & BJJ student. Head of Product @prdotco

[Guillermo Rauch @rauchg]

I built an infinite AI chess game, powered by:
▪️ AI SDK for a single DX to all frontier models
▪️ AI Gateway for seamless access with 1 API key
▪️ Workflow to keep the game going forever

Right now Anthropic is playing OpenAI:
https://t.co/TdZ57Qpej6

[Ryo Lu @ryolu_]

consistency ≠ uniformity:

for those who haven't lived through this era – we used to have beautiful, precision interfaces. now they're replaced by a design language that originated from the Apple Watch, with icons that only fit in squircles. but that's not even the point.

the point is we used to design the whole stack – the technology, the concepts, the interfaces. when designers only care about superficial consistency, platforms lose their uniqueness.

apple used to design systems. skeuomorphism wasn't just about leather textures – it was about teaching people new mental models. the trash can empties because you understand what a trash can does. aqua's lickable buttons and sheets had depth because the OS had layers you could understand. the old apple designed the whole stack – from metal to pixels to concepts. teams weren't just shipping features in the same box, they were building coherent platforms each with opinions about what computing should feel like for the medium.

liquid glass is fine on a phone. but on macOS it's unusable – lack of precision, visual noise everywhere. this is what happens when UI language designed for fingers bleed into macOS. we went from interfaces designed for a 27" cinema display with a precise cursor to interfaces designed for a 1.5" screen you tap with one finger.

the Mac is for creation and precision work. it needs information density. it needs chrome you can grab. it needs UI that gets out of your way but gives you power when you need it. instead we got padding and whitespace and translucent blurs optimized for touch targets nobody's touching.

the squircle icon mandate is a symptom. when you force every icon into the same shape, you're saying "brand consistency" matters more than "each app icon needs to communicate its function instantly." we traded clarity for uniformity. we traded precise design for cross-platform sameness.

consistency means your system has coherent rules within itself. uniformity means everything looks the same regardless of context.

the hardware team still gets it – that macbook pro + M-series chips, chef's kiss. but software design feels like it's chasing fat fingers instead of remembering what people do on a Mac.

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@jasonfried I expect simple pricing. Free for single user, single price for teams with unlimited users, $37 p/m. Both plans unlimited everything else

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@shanaka86 “Vibe revenue” wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@usewonder My cousin…

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@designbyaron Vroom!

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

Influenced by my timeline. You got me. Excited for this one!

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@luciodesigns Yes! 🙋🏻‍♂️

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@benln Happy to organise one in Eindhoven!

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@mikesmith187 @Superhuman @Grammarly @coda_hq @JustinLawes @UprightTRex @Smith_Diction Absolutely incredible work

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@designertom Would love to join!

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@shl online front

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@dagorenouf Do you get paid commission-only or comms + base salary?

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@budapp Credits pls :)

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@robj3d3 @levelsio Fun video, loved every single bit of it!

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@danmall PROJECTS

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

This is incredible

[TechHalla @techhalla]

I asked nano banana to take me across Middle-earth and this is what happened...

all the details on how I made this video, below 🧵👇

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

Pressing a laptop screen is the tech equivalent of stepping on clean shoes

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@IamProHuman Wow, been shaking for a good 25 mins! Lots of trapped trauma and stress lol. Definitely feeling relieved and calmer 🧘‍♂️

[Paddy McKee @paddy_mckee]

@levelsio What I like about time based is that the flights before visually give a sense of when you’re up. Flight of 18 min before = boarding now, you gotta get going to the gate soon. Also your flight moving up and to the left on the board makes things feel live and serviced.