Influences

People, publications, tools, and ideas that shape how we think about design and technology.


Influences

A living catalog of people, publications, tools, and ideas that shape how I think about design, technology, and building products. Grows over time. Agents reference this for context on what I value and who I pay attention to.


People

NameDomainWhy They MatterWhere to Follow
Simon WillisonAI, Python, open sourcePragmatic AI engineering, builds in publicBlog, Bluesky
Pieter LevelsIndie hacking, AI productsSolo founder shipping profitable products fastBlog, X
Julie ZhuoDesign leadershipFormer VP Design at Facebook, clear design thinkingSubstack
Lenny RachitskyProduct managementBest product/growth newsletter out thereSubstack
Ben ThompsonTech business strategyDeep analysis of tech business modelsStratechery
Andrew NgAI, educationFoundational AI thinking, The Batch newsletterdeeplearning.ai
Justin WelshSolopreneurshipBuilding a one-person business playbookBlog, LinkedIn
Jack ClarkAI policy, researchImport AI — weekly deep dives on AI progressSubstack

Publications & Newsletters

NameDomainFormatFeed
Hacker NewsTech, startupsAggregatorRSS
TechCrunch AIAI, startupsNewsRSS
Ars TechnicaTechNewsRSS
The VergeTech, productNewsRSS
PlatformerTech, businessNewsletterRSS
Product HuntProduct, startupsDaily digestRSS
Latent SpaceAI engineering, agentsPodcast + newsletterRSS
The Rundown AIAI toolsDaily digestRSS
Indie HackersSolopreneurshipCommunity + storiesRSS
A List ApartWeb designEssaysRSS
Smashing MagazineDesign, UX, webArticlesRSS
Nielsen Norman GroupUX researchResearch reportsRSS
Lenny's NewsletterProduct, growthWeeklyRSS
StratecheryTech businessDaily/weeklyRSS
EveryAI, businessEssaysRSS
Dense DiscoveryDesign, techWeekly curatedNewsletter
SidebarDesignDaily 5 linksNewsletter
UX CollectiveDesign, productNewsletterNewsletter
Growth DesignUX case studiesNewsletterNewsletter
TLDR AIAI newsDaily digestNewsletter
The BatchAI roundupWeeklyNewsletter
Ben's BitesAI tools, businessDailyNewsletter
Import AIAI deep divesWeeklyNewsletter
The Pragmatic EngineerSoftware engineeringWeeklyNewsletter
Rock HealthDigital healthReportsRSS
Fierce HealthcareHealthcare industryNewsRSS

Tools & Products I Admire

NameWhy
LinearClean design, developer-friendly, opinionated
Arc BrowserRethinking a stale category with bold UX
ObsidianVault-first, local-first, extensible
ClaudeObviously

Books & Talks

(Add as encountered)


Last updated: 2026-02-24 To add an influence: just tell Claude in any session or Slack message. It gets cataloged here.