David Simpson

Founder of the Design Education Platform @JoinDesigned and Associate Director @KesselRunAF. Formerly @HubSpot, @Assembla, @Datto, @Epicio, @Kyruus, @kaymbu.

[David Simpson @simpson]

Calling all engineers! If you are looking for a side project, please consider volunteering to help https://t.co/tEWFMkFfJd. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity building a global design education platform. #node #react #nextjs #hasura #GraphQL #AWS #Cloudflare #PostgreSQL

[Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey]

It is time for the United States Postal Service to ban junk mail.

Unsolicited spam calls are already prohibited by the FCC. Emails are heavily regulated by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Junk mail is the majority of mail, 100 million trees per year. Enough!

[David Simpson @simpson]

Not being able to share Google Tasks across a paid Google Workspace is a fireable offense. Sorry not sorry to the Product Manager of that product, you need to be replaced

[nick @thecsguy]

@KobeissiLetter using ‘ai competition’ as a layoff excuse while alexa still struggles to set a simple timer is a legendary level of corporate gaslighting

[JD Vance @JDVance]

A while ago, probably in 2017, I appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox show to talk about God knows what. Afterwards a name I barely knew sent me a DM on twitter and told me I did a great job. It was Charlie Kirk, and that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today.

Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind. Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving American politics away from the globalism that had dominated for our entire lives. When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right--as he usually was--he was generous. With Charlie, the attitude was never, "I told you so." But: "welcome."

Charlie was one of the first people I called when I thought about running for senate in early 2021. I was interested but skeptical there was a pathway. We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well. He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr. "Like his dad, he's misunderstood. He's extremely smart, and very much on our wavelength." Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too.

Long before I ever committed (even in my mind) to running, Charlie had me speak to his donors at a TPUSA event. He walked me around the room and introduced me. He gave me honest feedback on my remarks. He had no reason to do this, no expectation that I'd go anywhere. I was polling, at that point, well below 5 percent. He did it because we were friends, and because he was a good man.

When I became the VP nominee--something Charlie advocated for both in public and private--Charlie was there for me. I was so glad to be part of the president's team, but candidly surprised by the effect it had on our family. Our kids, especially our oldest, struggled with the attention and the constant presence of the protective detail. I felt this acute sense of guilt, that I had conscripted my kids into this life without getting their permission. And Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers. Some of our most successful events were organized not by the campaign, but by TPUSA. He wasn't just a thinker, he was a doer, turning big ideas into bigger events with thousands of activists. And after every event, he would give me a big hug, tell me he was praying for me, and ask me what he could do. "You focus on Wisconsin," he'd tell me. "Arizona is in the bag." And it was.

Charlie genuinely believed in and loved Jesus Christ. He had a profound faith. We used to argue about Catholicism and Protestantism and who was right about minor doctrinal questions. Because he loved God, he wanted to understand him.

Someone else pointed out that Charlie died doing what he loved: discussing ideas. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions. If it was a friendly crowd, and a progressive asked a question to jeers from the audience, he'd encourage his fans to calm down and let everyone speak. He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas.

Charlie had an uncanny ability to know when to push the envelope and when to be more conventional. I've seen people attack him for years for being wrong on this or that issue publicly, never realizing that privately he was working to broaden the scope of acceptable debate.

He was a great family man. I was talking to President Trump in the Oval Office today, and he said, "I know he was a very good friend of yours." I nodded silently, and President Trump observed that Charlie really loved his family. The president was right. Charlie was so proud of Erika and the two kids. He was so happy to be a father. And he felt such gratitude for having found a woman of God with whom he could build a family.

Charlie Kirk was a true friend. The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him. I am on more than a few group chats with Charlie and people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, bust each other's chops, and mourn the loss of loved ones. We talk about politics and policy and sports and life. These group chats include people at the very highest level of our government. They trusted him, loved him, and knew he'd always have their backs. And because he was a true friend ,you could instinctively trust the people Charlie introduced you to. So much of the success we've had in this administration traces directly to Charlie's ability to organize and convene. He didn't just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.

I was in a meeting in the West Wing when those group chats started lighting up with people telling Charlie they were praying for him. And that's how I learned the news that my friend had been shot. I prayed a lot over the next hour, as first good news and then bad trickled in.

God didn't answer those prayers, and that's OK. He had other plans. And now that Charlie is in heaven, I'll ask him to talk to big man directly on behalf of his family, his friends, and the country he loved so dearly.

You ran a good race, my friend.

We've got it from here.

[David Simpson @simpson]

@elonmusk This is small potatoes, you need to dig into the DOD, check out USAF contracts and see what you find

[David Simpson @simpson]

I really wish Ubiquiti would drop terrible @UPS and switch to someone more reliable to ship their products. @FedEx please call them and get this account

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Congratulations @RobertKennedyJr!

[Lex Fridman @lexfridman]

Podcasts and X were key to this election. In the future, if you want to win, you need to be able to do 2-3 hour long-form podcasts. People don't want cookie-cutter PR-approved sound bites. They want to get to know the real human being. I'll keep doing that with everyone ❤️

[Lex Fridman @lexfridman]

Looks like Trump is going to win, potential landslide. Leading in every swing state.

Let that sink in.

PS: Long-form podcasts FTW. I hope to see politicians from both sides doing 2-3+ hour genuine, human conversations moving forward.

[David Simpson @simpson]

Come on @DICKS my kid is gonna end up losing a digit after looking at the @pawpatrol fishing rods

[David Simpson @simpson]

Did anyone else stop watching Twisters 20 minutes in because it was so bad? Or was that just me

[David Simpson @simpson]

@crunkilton22 @Jerrythekid21 Yelp coming in hot with the mercy ruling

[David Simpson @simpson]

@Jerrythekid21 One new wardrobe needed, everyone knows the rules

[Designed.org @joindesigned]

Meet Leo a mentor from https://t.co/s7Xi1F7myR! #productdesign #userinterface #userexperience #artdirection #webdesign.

https://t.co/Br2IvJSBNC

#mentor #education #mentoring #design #designmentor #designeducation

[Designed.org @joindesigned]

Meet Anshumali a mentor from https://t.co/s7Xi1F7myR! #userexperience #voicedesign #designmanagement #adobe #wireframing.

https://t.co/cTwdITKK3b

#mentor #education #mentoring #design #designmentor #designeducation

[David Simpson @simpson]

I wonder if any Apple macOS engineers who worked on the ability to drag and drop files between tabs get frustrated when you try, it flashes and then goes back to the current tab and think, gosh I should really fix that someday

[David Simpson @simpson]

Does anyone have any good resources they can share on raising pre-seed funding? Bonus points for examples showing how to structure cap table, contract agreements, early stage valuation criteria, etc...

[David Simpson @simpson]

The first season finale of Silo was painful, when is season 2 coming out...

[David Simpson @simpson]

Is @Stellate down? We are getting a strange error message when logging in

[David Simpson @simpson]

@BenjaminOtu2 to the moon 🌙