Tarak Parekh

Father to 2 awesome kids! Product (BigQuery) @Google. Previously @nutanix, @D2IQ, @Brocade. @BerkeleyHaas, @UCBerkeley @UArizona

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl Lovely pics Pallavi!

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@karpathy This is amazing! How much of the tech verbiage (systemd, vLLM etc) can you skip and still achieve the same outcome?

Its getting closer to English, but is still C-English :)

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl What was the book that got you so hooked?

[Felix Haas @felixhhaas]

The Approval Interface 🔥

There's a new interaction pattern emerging in software, and I don't think we've named it yet.

It started with Pinterest.

When guided search launched, it felt like a small UX trick. You'd type one word, e.g. "living room", and instead of a results page, you'd see suggested refinements. "Cozy." "Minimalist." "Scandinavian." You'd click one, new suggestions appeared, you'd click again. Within a few steps you'd arrived somewhere specific and beautiful without ever typing a second word. One input and everything else was just clicking "next."

I'm watching the same pattern evolve into something much more powerful at the moment.

At Lovable, I see it happen every day. A user types a single prompt, something gets built, and then a suggestion appears for what to do next.

Most users don't ignore it. They click, the AI proposes a next step, the user approves, and this loops. The whole product gets built almost entirely through a sequence of approvals.

It's not unique to Lovable either. Look at Cursor, ChatGPT, Notion AI. The interaction loop keeps compressing. The user's job is less about constructing inputs and more about evaluating outputs. The interface runs slightly ahead of you, and you follow or redirect.

Instead of initiating, we're moving towards approving and I find this super fascinating for a few reasons:

1/ It radically lowers the activation energy to build. Recognition has always been easier than recall. You approve instead of innovate. This is why non-technical people are building complex products these days. Not because AI can code, but because the interface no longer requires them to know what to ask for next. The system does that. They just say yes, and that kinda changes everything.

2/ It makes judgment the core skill. The valuable thing you bring is discernment. Knowing which suggestion is right. Feeling when the AI is heading somewhere subtly wrong. We call it "taste". This is exactly the kind of human capacity that gets more valuable as the interface gets smarter.

3/ We're in the early days of designing for this pattern. Most interfaces still treat suggestions as a secondary feature. But if approving is becoming the primary interaction, the suggestion layer deserves to be the primary design challenge.

4/ Pinterest built a narrowing mechanism. What AI interfaces are building now is a continuation mechanism. The interface doesn't just help you find what you want but helps you build it, one approval at a time.

Looking back, we've spent decades optimizing interfaces for execution. The next decade will be spent optimizing them for anticipation.

And the humans on the other side won't be operators anymore. I am pretty sure we'll call them editors.

Did a larger deep dive on this on my substack - designplusai(dot)com

Also thanks to Andreas Pihlström! Our coffee chat a few weeks ago inspired me to write about this.

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

"4% of GitHub public commits are being authored by Claude Code right now" and this is expected to be close to 20% by the end of 2026 - https://t.co/S0G8mtFeXi.

In 2011, @pmarca quoted - "Software is eating the world". 2026 could become the year where AI will eat software?

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl Basically - to each their own universe! Design yours right

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

RIP James Lovell! Commander of Apollo 13 ❤️

Photo from the rescue of the Apollo 13 spacecraft.

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

Define “Evenly matched”

#Wimbledon

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl 🤗Haven't been much on X lately. Come to CA, and let's have chai again!

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

For some reason, all the large CapEx for AI reminds me of this meme. Latest being $75B (Google for 2025)

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl And to many many more! Best wishes Pallavi!

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl Happy Happy Diwali 🪔 Pallavi!! Hope it was filled with joy and sweets!

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@aishashok14 @shreyas Magical event!

[Sundar Pichai @sundarpichai]

My last meeting with Ratan Tata at Google, we talked about the progress of Waymo and his vision was inspiring to hear. He leaves an extraordinary business and philanthropic legacy and was instrumental in mentoring and developing the modern business leadership in India. He deeply cared about making India better. Deep condolences to his loved ones and Rest in Peace Shri Ratan Tata Ji

[anand mahindra @anandmahindra]

I am unable to accept the absence of Ratan Tata.

India’s economy stands on the cusp of a historic leap forward.
And Ratan’s life and work have had much to do with our being in this position.

Hence, his mentorship and guidance at this point in time would have been invaluable.

With him gone, all we can do is to commit to emulating his example. Because he was a businessman for whom financial wealth and success was most useful when it was put to the service of the global community.

Goodbye and Godspeed, Mr. T
You will not be forgotten.
Because Legends never die…

Om Shanti
🙏🏽

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@ThatDesiGirl Share with your friends and neighbors.. “farm to table, hand churned sunshine!”

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

We have some ways to go..

[Tarak Parekh @tparekh]

@josh_odgers Wow! Congratulations Josh!