Museletter the 123rd

It's funny, but working with AI reminds me a lot of "the good ol' days." You see, what a lot of younger people don't know, and a lot of older people don't remember, is that 50 years ago senior designers didn't do the work—they directed it. They stood behind a production artist and told them what to do.

That was a big promotion: going from "grunt" who did the messy, hard work to "art director" who had the vision and got someone else to realize it.

The magic of AI is that it gives everyone a promotion to be a director, to "look over the shoulder" of the AI tool doing the work and say: "no, I want it more like this…"

Of course, just because you can be a director doesn't mean you're going to be good at it. Here are two ways you can improve:

1. Be self-critical: Never accept the first prompt that you write. Always take a moment to consider if it's good enough, and try editing it a bit before you hit Enter. This is your first opportunity to be a human director, to use your own brain and gut to understand what you're looking to accomplish.
2. Be AI-critical: Never accept the first thing AI gives you. It might look awesome, but push yourself to be petty and find some fault in it; then direct it to be better. This is your second opportunity to understand your own vision better. Don't miss it.

It's only through repeating those two steps—every single time—that you will sharpen your abilities and truly earn that promotion.

Want to learn how to use AI design tools better? Join me at The Design + AI Summit, November 13–14, 2025. Two days of online, in-depth sessions—plus you get access to the videos and handouts for a full year! More at https://creativepro.com/event/design-ai-summit-2025/

Evolutionary Steps

What if we humans could vote on how to evolve next? What would we change? Bigger teeth? Add wings? I mean, really let yourself imagine the possibilities!

Remember that Darwin described evolution with the phrase "survival of the fittest" — but he specifically did not mean "strongest or most ferocious." He meant most adaptable. That is, living things will flourish when they are more able to adapt (to fit in) to their environment.

So when I look around at our environment today, it becomes clear that bigger teeth or wings aren't going to help. What we need more than ever is the ability to collect information, process it critically, and share the parts we find meaningful with others.

This process of learning, filtering, and sharing is truly at the heart of what it means to be human. It's why we developed language, psychology, art, and design. If we could evolve to find better ways of doing these things, I believe we would be far more likely to adapt, survive, and thrive into the next century.

Playing with Words

I get that the word "God" is a problem for a lot of people. Words — being stand-ins, shortcuts for a slew of meanings and connotations — are tricky little devils. Each word can be coopted by our fears and hopes, our understandings and misunderstandings, our memories, good and bad. The word God is the most trigger-y word I know — almost guarantees to cause a reaction in the listener, for better or worse.

Many religious Jews won't even write the word — preferring "G-d" — as a reminder that one cannot ever use language to truly capture the essence of Whatever-We're-Talking-About.

But what if we used an apostrophe instead of a dash? Like, what if we wrote it G'od — that way it sounds more like a gulp, followed by "odd," which I think kind of reflects the concept even better. Or "Go'd" which sounds like an imperative to move, to take action, followed by a 'd — as if we had taken action, are currently taking action, and will be taking action, simultaneously.

That's the fun thing about words: We can play with them in order to explore what we're really trying to point at, to evoke, to mean.

Thank You

I enjoy sharing my musings… and I enjoy hearing yours! Please share this newsletter with a friend, follow me on LinkedIn, and send me feedback. You can always reach me at david@creativepro.com