Yoni Dejene

[Tom Johnson @tomjohndesign]

It’s interesting that, for me, designing often feels like catching a bus.

I wait hours or day, not moving an inch. Just looking at the horizon thinking “I know it’ll come eventually”.

Hours of not liking my ideas, not seeing cohesion, not confident I understand what I’m trying to solve. Just waiting for that bus of inspiration and flow to show up.

And then it shows up.

And I get more done in a few hours than a whole week. Things click. Ideas make sense.

When I was new to this all I’d get frustrated with that waiting. Seemed like a personal shortcoming or gap in ability. But it’s just a matter of waiting for the bus. Waiting for the first idea that takes you further. I think the difference between “creative” and “non-creative” people is just the ability to wait for inspiration or to not be at the mental bus stop at all—ready for it to arrive.

Last night I caught the bus. I’m not saying it was great work, or the right work, but the rest of the week sure was a waiting game.

Hope I catch it again today.

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@shubhastudios Love this direction!

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

Whenever a new design to code tool comes around, people get excited. It’s considered the holy grail of design. You can now design with code. This is the final evolution.

But I don’t agree. It’s only the holy grail if you value output higher than the process of design.

Whenever a designer becomes more of a builder, some idealism and creativity dies. Not because building is bad, but because you start out including constraints earlier in the process than they should.

I’m one that very much thinks design is ultimately what is shipped. But before it shipped, there is a lot of stages that don’t benefit from code or some implementation constraints.

In architecture, a lot of the best work is started with sketches and some of the best architects still draw by hand. People forget that the creative process is not about tools. It’s about forming a vision, and then translating that vision into some form. You can use various tools as part of the process, but designers job is really communicating that vision.

Once you become the architect and the builder, or the designer and the developer, you start making more conservative bets. You gravitate to what you already know is feasible or supported. You make smaller iterations. You stop dreaming something big. This is not design.

Designers, don’t do that. Your job is to imagine the future, and sometimes code and convention gets in the way. Use tools. Understand the domain. Get close to the medium.

But don’t lose your greatest strength ability to dream. Work with engineers to realize those dreams.

Designing in code is just a path to local maxima and ruin.

[Preston @prestonattebery]

The ideal founder fellowship:

- Work in a studio for cash
- Work on your app part-time

No dilution. Money in pocket. Time to build with no pressure

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@athenakan_ @sudowrite is fun (for novels)

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@marcuswood23 Let's gooooo

[Gizem Akdag @gizakdag]

It's just, a little crush.

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@itsyusufahmed This is really cool! Where are you embedding the voice agent?

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@jacksondecampos Really cool! Been looking for something like this.

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@tomjohndesign Honestly same for APIs/devs. I just want to build cool features and have the API give me sane defaults.

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@jorilallo Gotcha. Thanks!

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@jorilallo That's cool! I remember seeing a talk on Youtube about the real-time sync engine you built.

Last q: do you use SSR? The first paint feels much faster than a usual React app.

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@alexmuench Thank you for these! I can't recall when exactly but you tweeted a template/guide on how to do design reviews. If you don't mind, can you share that link again?

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@kwuchu This is an even bigger market! Voice apps don’t need literacy and less barriers overall. I was so hype when WhatsApp announced their business API because you could build with voice notes but they made it too expensive.

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@kwuchu Yes it’s a huge market! Last time I checked Twilio didn’t offer local numbers for Africa so made it expensive if you want users to text back. @Africastalking is doing cool things in this space tho.

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@coIoured_braids This is dope

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@albertdong_ 💛

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@BirukD_abate3 I sent you an email brother

[Yoni Dejene @YoniDejene]

@albertdong_ Lol ikr I actually have 3 Microsoft products I use daily and love