UXD Academy

The college for career switchers looking to make 6 figures in tech designing, producing, and developing digital products...with or without a degree.

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

Here's how it works:

Open any LinkedIn job posting → click "Translate This Job"

The page lights up. Hover over any highlighted phrase, and it tells you exactly what they're hiding.

Just a few seconds to see what 3 rounds of interviews won't tell you.

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

Nadella just described the moat. He didn’t say who builds it for everyone else.

Own the learning loop or get commoditized. True. But that’s an enterprise sentence.

The lean teams and small businesses he’s not talking about need the same thing, and nobody’s handing it to them.

So we built a closed loop: we build the AI systems, we train who runs them next.

The expertise stays inside the company. Swap the model, keep the veteran.

A frontier ecosystem doesn’t happen at the top. It happens when everyone owns their loop.

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@FalcoAgustin So far so good!

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

"Vibe coded my portfolio in a weekend" is a lie.

Our founder just deployed a PS2-themed portfolio. Case studies are game cases. A PS2 controller drives nav. Disc transitions between pages.

5 weeks. 2M+ tokens on this build. No dev team.

What no one's showing you 👇

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

If you can vibe-code a full product end-to-end in a weekend, you were already a multi-year dev.

Anyone telling you otherwise is selling a course.

The real moat: design judgment + iteration loop.

Want to actually learn it? UXD Academy.

https://t.co/RhgoHZGRGL

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

The actual stack:

• Next.js 16, React 19, Tailwind 4
• GSAP for the scroll-pinned carousel + 3D game case open/close
• Web Audio API for the synthesized PS2 memory card click
• Claude Code + v0
• GitHub → Vercel + Vercel Blob

Most days were re-prompting, screenshotting bugs, describing video to one model so another could understand it.

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@LinusEkenstam https://t.co/qe2hu6eZV6

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@MeekMill Join our free academy to learn how to use AI build AI Agents and apps https://t.co/66TpNIt16y

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@MeekMill We’re working on AI Education and workforce development with senators in Los Angeles. Would love to bring AI to the youth in Philly!

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

Drop the most BS phrase you've ever seen in a job posting.

I'll translate every single one.

👇

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

"You'll wear many hats!"

Translation: We didn't staff this team properly. You'll do 3 jobs for 1 salary. Your role will be unclear. Nobody will know who's responsible for what.

And when something falls through the cracks, it'll somehow be your fault.

🟠 They're not offering variety. They're offering chaos.

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

"Unlimited PTO"

Sounds amazing. It isn't.

Unlimited PTO means NO PTO. No accrual. No benchmark. No culture that actually supports taking it.

Studies show employees with unlimited PTO take LESS time off than those with traditional policies.

🟡 Always ask: "How many days did your team actually take last year?"

Silence is your answer.

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

"Something has changed."

Translation: We made a deliberate decision to cut labor costs. AI gave us the narrative cover.

Jack Dorsey wrote this laying off 4,000 people at Block.

Sam Altman calls it “AI washing”, where firms “attribute job cuts to AI when those layoffs were already planned.”

CAP.

🔴 See “AI transformation,” “smaller flatter teams,” or “building for the next era” in a job posting?

Plain n’ Simple decodes it.

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@SymoneBeez They can cut that down a bit when this launches next month 👀

https://t.co/EDqzHwb2mP

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@neet_sol Cut that number down a bit spotting the ones that are bullsh*t…

https://t.co/EDqzHwb2mP

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@ReddCinema Bunch of bullsh*t. We made a tool for that tho 👀

https://t.co/qe2hu6eZV6

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@upshine3 You ain't lyin. We built Plain n' Simple: Bullsh*t Job Detector because of it 👀

https://t.co/EDqzHwb2mP

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

4,000 people at Block learned today that “raising the performance bar” meant AI took their seat. If you’re now job hunting, Plain n’ Simple translates corporate job posting language into what they’re actually saying. No more surprises.

[jack @jack]

we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company.

####

today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i'll be straight about what's happening, why, and what it means for everyone.

first off, if you're one of the people affected, you'll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if you’re outside the U.S. you’ll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you're being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay.

we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly.

i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures.

a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we've pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we've built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers.

we're not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i'll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold.

to those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that's a fact that i'll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward.

to those staying…i made this decision, and i'll own it. what i'm asking of you is to build with me. we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we're going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that's what i'm focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow.

jack

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@jack @blocks Jack just told 4,000 people they were replaced by “intelligence tools.” Before those folks apply to their next job, they deserve to know what the posting actually means. We built something for exactly this moment ⬇️

https://t.co/EDqzHwb2mP

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

Really appreciate this article. This market is brutal. That’s why we created Plain n’ Simple: Bullsh*t Job Detector. We’d love your feedback on our tool we are launching in a few weeks to make sure we are creating something valuable for people on the hunt!

https://t.co/BcuGhMwRzj

[UXD Academy @uxdacademy]

@Adam_Karpiak https://t.co/EDqzHwb2mP