All my socials are currently being bombarded with ads screaming, “Learn UI/UX with AI in 2 weeks and land a high-paying job!” 😭

And honestly… we need to talk.

Because design isn’t headed in the direction these ads are selling you. AI is changing how we design, sure but it’s also changing what it even means to be a designer.

The job is no longer just about knowing Figma, making pretty screens, or prompting your way through a portfolio.

Design is evolving. Fast.

And if we don’t pause to understand where it’s actually going, we might wake up one day with a shiny AI-generated portfolio… and no idea what to do with it. 🫠

Why Claude Design and Claude Code wont work?

You spend two days building the most insanely beautiful website with buttery-smooth scroll animations, custom visuals, cinematic videos, fancy fonts, the whole shebang.

And sure, you can custom-build everything. Or just ask AI to cook up some decent visuals for you.

But here’s the thing: at some point, it’s just a marketing gimmick.

You’re obsessed with the scroll animation. The motion. The typography. That one transition that took you 6 hours to perfect.

Meanwhile, a normal person looks at it and goes: “Cool. So… this is a website where someone is just selling something?”

I’ve seen people build absolutely incredible websites for… things that are, frankly, not that incredible.

I literally saw a tutorial where someone built a virtual praying temple.

You click on the temple gate. An input box appears. You type something like:

“I’m having a bad day. My cat hates me.”

And AI gives you a spiritual little response.

The creator was going ALL IN on the animations, interactions, visuals, motion—the whole production.

And I’m sitting here thinking:

If hell comes, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to pray into a virtual temple. 😭

We need to stop confusing “This looks amazing” with “This needs to exist.”

Because AI has made it ridiculously easy to build beautiful things.

The harder—and much more important—question now is:

Should we build this at all?

How are we losing purpose?

We keep building shit without asking whether it actually needs to exist—because apparently, if there’s hype around it, we MUST build it.

Guys, we don’t need an app for every fucking thing.

There are probably 10,000 apps teaching me how to breathe.
Inhale. Exhale. Download Premium to continue breathing. 😭

This is what overbuilding digital products looks like.

And god forbid we talk about putting a premium subscription on everything.

I work with clients where I hear their revenue-generation ideas and genuinely have to sit there for a second.

One of the wildest ones? An expense-management app that helps you… manage your expenses.

But apparently, you only get the full utility of managing your expenses if you pay for Premium.

Do you see the irony?

“Here’s an app to help you control your spending. Also, please spend money on our app.”

We’ve become so obsessed with monetisation, AI, features, and “building something cool” that we sometimes forget the most basic product question:

Does this actually solve a problem—or are we just adding another icon to someone’s home screen?

Where can we focus?

I genuinely feel the next big boom in design is going to be social innovation.

Creativity needs to escape the app screen.

We’ve spent years designing better checkouts, prettier dashboards, smoother onboarding flows and 17 different ways to order coffee. Maybe it’s time we looked up and designed for what’s actually happening around us.

I’m sure many first-world countries are already exploring this space. But in developing countries? Not nearly enough.

And that’s where frugal innovation + design can become incredibly powerful.

Because innovation doesn’t always mean throwing more money, more technology and more AI at a problem.

Right now, companies are pouring ridiculous amounts of money into AI infrastructure and tools. Models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic can be incredibly powerful, but the cost of adopting and scaling AI can also be a serious barrier, especially for smaller businesses.

Maybe the answer isn’t always more technology.

Maybe it’s smarter technology. Cheaper technology. More accessible technology.

We need designers who can look at a problem and think:

“How do I solve this with ₹500 instead of ₹5 lakh?”

“How do I design this for someone with a 5-year-old phone?”

“What if there’s no internet?”

“What if the user doesn’t know what an app is?”

That, to me, is where the really exciting design problems are.

Because the future of design shouldn’t just be about making digital products better.

It should be about making people’s lives better—with whatever we have.

Whats going to feel tacky in the coming years?

A website with the most insane visuals, buttery-smooth animations, cinematic transitions… to sell a potato. 🥔

And honestly? At this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised.

We’ve reached a stage where the website has become more impressive than the thing it’s actually selling.

Also, if I hear one more person say, “I design AI products for B2B and SaaS companies,” I might actually lose it. 😭

There is an entire world of problems happening outside dashboards, enterprise software and AI wrappers.

I promise you, the world needs more than another beautifully animated SaaS landing page.

What can boom more?

Frugal innovation, design for social innovation, and consumerism—these aren’t going anywhere. There’s a whole world of problems that don’t need another AI-powered dashboard, they need frugal, thoughtful, human-centred design.

I think the future is going to be interesting precisely because these two worlds can coexist:

Design that makes us want more.
And design that helps us need less.

Both are going to need designers.

“Here’s why I would never move back to India.”

A guy shares his daily life in Ireland and how he cycles back from work through the most breathtaking views, calm and crowdless roads, and a cool sea breeze in what seems to be a very regular, peaceful evening. He mentions how all of this would not be possible in India, ever. Fair point.

I got so moved by this reel that I immediately opened my laptop and started applying to jobs in places that had the aforementioned keywords: good views, peaceful life, fewer people, better air. I looked through the procedures for getting a visa, better opportunities, more money, etc.

Then, about a week and a half later, I came across a video of a girl doing her house tour in Mumbai.

A small 2BHK apartment in Mumbai, with the cutest girly-pop stuff around. I followed some of her other videos and saw how she shares her daily journey of working a corporate job, playing padel with her friends on the weekends, a quick pasta reel with stuff she instantly bought on Blinkit, a little H&M and Zara haul, quick weekend getaways to Goa, and a little Holi reel with friends and family.

I mean, Blinkit won’t be available in Ireland. Maybe Mumbai doesn’t sound so bad.

I brazenly started looking for apartments in Mumbai. And the horror of looking for a place there shook me to my core.

In between this “I wannabe that” phase, I was talking to my sister about her marriage anniversary. They have been married for a couple of years, and she mentioned how they were planning to not do anything fancy this year. She told me how they had already done fancy things over the years, and this year they just wanted to keep it low-key and spend time with each other. Just some dinner at a good place, followed by ice cream and a movie date night! So cute.

This made me think how stability is such a priceless thing. No drama. No chaos. Just two people feeling comfortable and at home with each other.

Now while my heart was so full of this thought that afternoon, I sat down to binge-watch something nice and...

I started watching Offcampus!

You see where I am going with this?

I mean, stability what? The sparks between Garret and Hannah made me feel something. Oh, the fun of being in college! The sparks? The crushes? The drama? The hustle? The hope? Breathing love in the air? Being with all my friends 24x7?

Ah, the adrenaline of it all!

For someone who just ended college, I sure as hell missed it a lot.

I know your 20s are supposed to be confusing, but should they be this confusing? I know I get swayed easily, but this age is just hard. It’s hard to figure out what you want in life and what’s best for you.

When I was studying abroad, I missed home so much. I missed festivals, holidays, family, friends. Fuck, I missed Uber being so cheap. I missed ordering stuff online and getting it delivered in 10 mins.

Now, when I am here, I miss the air, the sunset, the roads, my college friends, the vibe, a lot of things from there.

Someone who has a stable relationship would definitely miss “the spark”—the eyes locking across the room, the first time he holds your hand, the first time you kiss, the magnetic effect, the exhilarating chemistry.

But someone who has just been doing casual relationships would miss the stability. The honest conversations, movie dates, celebrating things, the cuddling, the comfort.

Someone who is living and travelling in a van is probably looking for a comfortable living room to come back to and relax in. Someone who bought a house is probably thinking living in a van would be so cool.

A corporate guy who lives and works his ass off in India now probably misses the breathtaking views of Europe. But another (Indian-origin) guy who works/studies in Europe misses coming home for Diwali.

I am not trying to tell you that you should stop comparing. I don’t believe in that crap either. We are humans after all, and I think it’s nice to have a lil something to aim for.

What I am trying to say is, let’s take life 3 months at a time. Just think: wherever you are now, and whatever you are doing now, if you had to change that in order to achieve something, and you start putting in the work today, you will be much, much closer to achieving it in the next 3 months.

You want to get fitter? Work out for three months and see the results. You want to start a coffee shop? Start researching now, and in the next 3 months you will have a practical roadmap ready. You want to get over someone? Give yourself time and heal for 3 months.

What I am trying to say is, we are never going to stop complaining or comparing. But if that’s something we really want to achieve, let’s build a roadmap over 3 months and keep putting in the work. And in the next 6 months, either you would have achieved what you wanted, or you would be very close to it.

At least that’s what I’m trying to do instead of comparing my life to every goddamn reel and ruining my afternoons.

I hate couples who are just pulling each other into the sinkhole. Or they are just too comfortable at the moment and never push each other to achieve something in life. I don’t like it when people lose themselves in relationships. Give up on their dreams for the sake of their partners. No offence, I am not judging anyone who does it. You do you. But I don’t think it’s fair when people forget their individuality when they get into a relationship

I also understand that after a certain time and age it gets difficult to be anywhere without your partner because you are so dependant on each other for a lot of things, especially when you have children. In that situation, it’s definitely tricky and a lot of tough decisions come into play.

But I am sorry, when I see 20 y/o’s giving up that job, or not moving to another country for their boyfriends, it’s just dumb. It’s so important to live your life on your own.

If my partner wants to cross 7 oceans and go achieve his dream, I will support it no matter what. Because I understand what it’s like to have that fire to fulfil your dreams. And if the roles were reversed I would expect the same.

So, girl if you’re giving up that dream to just stay close to a boy, please don’t do that to yourself. Go live a little. Life is too short.

Everything in that sentence is so horrifying and shocking that it took me sometime to just absorb it. But it’s true. In 1939 Lina Medina lived in a tiny village in Peru and her parents noticed that her belly was growing abnormally. First they thought it was a tumour. They took her to the hospital the doctors were shocked to see that she was pregnant!

Imagine! A 5 year old.

Now let me tell you, Lina did give birth through caesarean, she and baby Gerald were perfectly healthy. A lot of things were mentioned in the article, about how her parents told her initially that Gerald was her brother. How she found out later etc.

But.

I think we are all thinking the same thing.

Lina was raped as a child. But how did she even conceive?

“Doctors weren’t sure what caused it. They say sexual abuse can trigger early sexual development. But it can also be caused by malfunction of the pituitary, McCune-Albright syndrome, adrenal malfunction, head or spine injuries and a whole long list of other possible causes.” - Taken from the article: World’s Youngest Mother Had A Baby At 5 And Doesn’t Want To Talk About It

It’s 2026 today. Close to 100 years later, can we say this doesn’t happen now?

No!

I don’t even want to read the stats of how much this happens, because it’s a lot. Because I see it in the paper everyday, hear it from podcasts, see it on social media. Unfortunately, a lot more than I even imagined. And I don’t know but this has sort of stopped surprising me. Because it happens so much.

Every time I come across a news like that, I just try and skip it because I know if I read about it, I will feel sick to my stomach. I feel bad saying this but it is how it is. It makes my heart race so fast, just thinking of small children having to go through something like that.

But thats the truth right. It’s sad enough that things like that happen to women. But it’s so horrifying on a different level when I hear something like that happening to a child.

Honestly, a lot of women that I have spoken to have gone through at least some kind of molestation even before they turned 14. Including myself.

Honestly, I never spoke about it because it took me sometime to connect the dots and realise that something like that had actually happened to me. ( I realised it when I was 15)

I think I was about 10 y/o and I was travelling with my family from Agra to Jaipur. It was an overnight journey and we were travelling in an AC compartment in Indian Railways (ugh). I was sleeping in the middle seat. My mom was sleeping on the lower seat and dad was just a compartment away. Now, I dont remember a lot of things in my day-to-day life, but somehow I will always remember this incident.

This is sometime around midnight. Everyone is asleep. I must be sleeping like a manic who is transported into another dimension. I felt a hand on top of the sheets that I had nestled in and my dad had tucked me in very nicely. I must have been still very half asleep. I felt the hands coming up. I thought it must be my mom trying to tuck me in again. And I must have transported again to the sleepy dimension. I could feel the sheets being lifted up and then the hand inside my sweatshirt. I was 10 and still very half asleep. The next thing I knew, the man grabbed my chest and gripped it so forcefully that I woke up in pain.

Again. I was 10.

I woke up half asleep not realising what just had happened and I clearly remember I started crying very slowly because it hurt so bad. The man ran away in like 5 secs. I called my mom who was sleeping right beneath me and she woke up jolted. I didn’t know what had happened, I was so dumb, I said I think there was a ghost. My mom basically pacified me and tucked me in again. But I couldn’t sleep anymore. Obviously not. Sometime later, that man walked past our compartment again. Looking at me. I couldn’t see him because it was too dark but I could figure out the silhouette. Imagine the audacity.

It’s been 15 years since that incident and I am just not able to forget it. Idk, it just stays with you. I realised what had actually happened when I hit puberty. Imagine what else could have happened had I not woken up or if my parents were not nearby.

When I think of all those children going through so much worse, I can imagine how adversly it would impact them as adults.

As someone who is a total baby person, I have always loved kids. I have two little nieces and all I can think of is, swear to god, if someone even looks at them with an evil eye, I will rip those eyes off. And be very proud of it.

I don’t know—this is just one of my stories. God forbid, but I have friends who went through far worse as children. When my mother shared some of her own experiences with me, I was shocked to my core.

The more I hear, the more I realize how disturbingly common these experiences are. It’s heartbreaking, deeply unsettling, and honestly just sick.

I hope the world can be a better place.

Instead of appreciating what we have, why do we strive to go after something that is just so uncertain. Be it a job. Or a person. Or a feeling. The question is why?

Probably an imagination in our heads? A delulu idea? Stubbornness?

I will be honest. I got offered a job position recently. A good position with good money. They asked me to move to the city that I was IN, before I moved to Singapore. I have some old friends, some family and a lot of familiarity in this city.

But somehow I am just not satisfied with this job. Or the city. Not anymore. I want something different, something more. God knows why. (Maybe I am an evil greedy person)

A little over two years ago, I met someone (in the same city bdw), who was interested in me. Good for me, I was not interested in him then. He tried his best to sweep me off by my feet. And he was successful. Lol. But when I reciprocated my interest in him, he stepped back. Suddenly. Just like that. Without any valid reason. And I spent a lot of time trying to understand why. Trying to convince myself and him and this can probably work out. Mistaking his mixed signals, half-hearted efforts for love. I don’t even know why.

I have so many people in my life who love me and I am so blessed for that. I don’t know why was I even trying to convince this man to love me the way I wanted. Again, chasing something that is completely out of my hands.

Now when I think about it, I am happy how this person is not a part of my life anymore because I know I would not have been happy with him either. I just don’t understand why was this not as clear to me then as much as it is now.

At what age do we learn that chasing something that is completely out of our hands is useless. Waste of time.

I was (maybe still am) not very interested in this job. Because I had an idea of a different life. A different job. A different city. And so I have been constantly obsessed with applying to jobs anywhere possible rather than making peace with the offer I still have. Thinking I could beat the universe.

Well, I don’t see that happening.

And to be honest, I havent fully accepted my fate too. But I will. Maybe it’s a redirection in some form. Who knows I might enjoy this job more than I think? Or maybe this is just the first step to get somewhere even bigger. Or better.

The point is, dont give up on your dreams. But also don’t chase dreams that don’t add value in your life. And definitely learn to let go. Let go of whatever is not meant for you.

I am still learning. If you have a shortcut, feel free to tell me too.

Anyway, as soon I booked the ticket and got the email confirmation I felt a weird sense of numbness in my heart. Not pain. But the exact moment of numbness you feel before you realise you have been hurt and in the next 3 secs there will be a lot of pain.

A shit ton of memories overwhelmed my brain in the next 10 secs. Flashbacks of happy times, sad times, tough times and magical times went on and on in my mind like a music video. All the little stories of my life that took place in this beautiful country came rushing back to me. Oh, how much Singapore shaped me.

It feels like yesterday when I was preparing my documents for visa, all excited about studying in a different country. In the blink of an eye, its almost coming to an end.

I don’t even know how to summarise this timeline.

I fell in love. Fell out of love. And then felt loved in the most magical way again. Underestimated myself. Gained confidence. Became a better version of me in so many ways. Came alone. Made loads of friends from all parts of the world. Cried in the street in the middle of night. Laughed with the best people over the dinner table. Worked hard in class. Worked harder on myself. Spent days alone missing my family back home. But also learnt to enjoy my own company. Ended things with people who drained me. Found people who loved me and saved me.

I might sound like Carrie Bradshaw writing about nyc. Lol

The funniest thing when I write about this is, I actually hated moving there for a really long period of time. I was so not used to the life Singapore had to offer. I never did things on my own, like going a grocery store to buy a fruit to keep myself healthy? Wuuuutttt!

But now, I miss that. I miss taking a walk down to Fairprice to buy groceries. The Singapore version of me fell in love with cycling during sunset at Marina Bay on the weekends instead of clubbing till 2AM. (I highly recommend doing this atleast once in your life)

I miss walking to the bus stop with music in my ears and taking the bus for my everyday travel.

I have lived all my life in India and on very rare occasions have I taken a cab by myself after 12am to come home. Probably when I had a late night flight or something. For the first time in my life, I walked back from the bus stop at 1AM and did not feel scared at all. The freedom of taking a walk that late at night was something I had never experienced in my entire life. The fact that I know that even if go out to busiest of places, I will not be robbed or mugged. Even if I leave my bag at the bus stop, there are high chances nobody will even touch it. I miss that freedom.

As much as I love India, I have never felt safe there. There are a lot of angles to it, let’s just talk about clothes now. I have grown up in a small city where people stare at you in a certain way even if you are wearing a modest dress. I dont want to go into the details of safety issues here. Thats a whole different conversation. My point is no matter what I wear, where I wear and what time I wear, I have never felt uncomfortable in Singapore. I cannot emphasise this enough, how important this to a woman. This was a freedom that was very new to me

I dont want to go on and on about prasing singapore because you have other articles for that. So basically yeah, I fell in love with the simplicity of Singapore. Most people talk about how fast and advanced it is, but it’s actually very simple and easy going.

I regret taking it for granted. I wish I had taken one more bicycle ride with my friends. I wish I had spend some more time watching the sunset by the ocean. I wish I had said bye to the guy in uni who sold me coffee everyday or to the aunty in the canteen where I ate lunch everyday.

People dont talk about it often, but Singapore is the perfect place to fall in love. It’s so pretty and perfect. Damn if I ever get proposed even by stranger during a sunset in East Coast Park, I might just unknowingly fumble and say yes. Everywhere you look it feels like a scene from a love story.

I am surprised how comfortable I became spending time with myself. Taking long walks instead of complaining about it. Knowing and accepting different cultures while sharing my own.

People usually talk about how there is a certain change in your pov towards life after living in a certain place. Its true! If I were reading this right now, I would not buy this shit too. But it’s really true. What started as a very rough journey, slowly moulded me into a better version of myself.

Thats all the yapping for now.

A bed that’s always neat and crisp and smells of camphor (I love it). A bedside table that has a small lamp, a beautiful book, and a section for my night creams. A massive cupboard that can carry the burden of all my clothes and bags and still has space left for some more. A full-length mirror with a snake plant by its side and a sticker that says “shut up, you look good” somewhere on the top.

A workstation that came straight out of a Pinterest board with the perfect smallest details. An easel with a canvas and all my paints and brushes. A shelf specially dedicated to my stationery, from sketch pens to crayons, soft pastels, a glue gun, and whatnot. Art is always welcome in my home.

A kitchen that makes me hum a song while I make myself a cup of coffee as the sun goes down. Or maybe record a reel while I make some fancy Greek salad.

A worship space that makes me feel calm and grows my faith in the divine power.

Dozens of small lamps with accents of warm light all around the house.

A space that always feels warm and inviting. A home where my friends and family are always welcome.

A place where I can come back after a tiring day of work. A place where I can dance in my living room as Spotify shuffle does its magic. A place that always smells nice as you enter through the door. A home that instantly connects you to the kind of feeling you get when you touch freshly washed, crisp clothes, or when you drink a glass of water after waking up from an amazing nap, or spend some time watching the sunset on your couch with a hot beverage on a chilly day.

The home I want to build will be beautiful. The home I want to build will be so full of me.

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Recently, I was having a conversation with my best friend about something very controversially important. You see, a year ago, I moved out of the country for my master's, and I promised my best friend that exactly a year later, I would get a job and be back in India in no time. It would be perfect, quick, easy, and smooth, and she wouldn’t even notice I was gone. And honestly, this past year while I was living in a different country, all I could think about was how much I missed home and wanted to get back. I had it all in my mind, the perfect job, the perfect rented apartment close to her place, the perfect coffee shop we could go to on weekends, our perfectly synced gym schedule. And to my surprise, it’s been a month since my final semester ended, and I had a job offer in the very same city as hers, very close to her place, decent money, blah blah.

But I told her I would deny the offer. And we had a very long discussion about it. I felt so bad letting her down. But I couldn't do it because I had the “ick”.

And that's why I am here writing this piece. If you already know, an “ick” is a feeling when you hear or see something and it makes you go ughhhhhh. It makes your body shudder, and the thought of it makes you want to throw up and run away as fast as you can. That's how I feel about the so-called “hustling” work culture these days.

The job interview was so smooth, and I impressed the interviewer pretty well that I got an offer within 30 minutes. We negotiated the salary by evening, and it was locked that I would join their team in a month. Now here’s how the next part went. The interviewer said, “I'll share some decks with you on the projects we are working on now so that you are well aware of our work when you join.” Cool. Okay, he is trying to help me understand the projects better. Nice. Later that day, he added me to two WhatsApp groups about the projects they were working on and texted me saying, “I am adding you to 2 groups so that you are well aware of our clientele and team.” Fair enough. He wants me to know the team better before I join.

The next day, I was out running some errands, and he called me and said, “Hey Ishani, are you free for a quick call?” I said, “Sure.” “There are some calls at 2 PM today. I want you to be a part of them and just be a silent spectator. This is so that you know how the work is done. I would want you to attend these calls on a regular basis so that you know where the project is headed” Umm, okay, maybe he is being a great mentor and wants me to absorb everything from the beginning so that there is no scope for doubt later. I came back home and attended a call for 45 minutes about things I completely didn't understand. I was not even needed on that call.

Later that day, I got an offer letter that said the office timings were 9 AM–6 PM, from Monday to Saturday. 54 hours a week?! That’s when the “ick” started kicking in. This was full “Startup Bro” behaviour. The toxic work culture where you’re expected to do overtime. Where you’re expected to attend calls on Sunday. When you have to stay up late doing the work without any appreciation because apparently that’s the bare minimum in the industry now. Btw, this is not entirely me saying this, I validated it through Glassdoor reviews too.

Why is this even considered a good skill? Someone who doesn't know how to balance work and life is clearly failing in one part. You can be a damn good employee, but you'll end up being a bad father who misses his kid's PTA, or a bad daughter who can't visit her ageing parents, or a bad boyfriend who has no time or personal space for his girlfriend.

Anyway, when I calculated everything, I realised if I took that job, it would be like committing suicide. I am someone who really prioritises work-life balance. I can work 9–5 for 5 days a week, but I really want to do my own thing on weekends. I want at least some flexibility in my work so that I can visit my family during important holidays. And I am not apologetic for wanting these things. This is the very least a company can do for its employees.

Because it’s really important to have your own identity outside of work. You need to work on your own thing too. Something that gives you that state of flow. Be it a design project, pottery classes, a cooking channel on YT, or golf. Because the hard work that you put in for an organisation remains with the organisation when you leave, but the hard work that you put in for yourself stays with you.

I completely get now why Gen Z doesn't want to overwork, or why people become content creators, travel, cook, dance, or do whatever keeps them happy. Employees in France leave their laptops at the office so that work doesn't follow them home, and I get it. It's so, so important to live your life to the fullest and make time for the things that make you happy.

Anyway, I declined the offer today, and I feel like it’s the right decision because I prioritise my mental and physical well-being. I don’t have any other offers at the moment. Maybe that’s why this is a tough one, because you all know how messed up the job market is right now. But it’s okay. I would rather take 2 more months and work on my personal projects than spend my Sundays working on someone else’s projects.

I still feel bad about letting my best friend down. But as I said, I had an ick, and I had to do something about it. People say follow your heart. I say follow your ick.

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I used to think it was stupid to pay and listen to music when I subscribed to Spotify. It’s been about 2 years since I have subscribed to it and it’s not bad. Honestly it’s not the most life changing decision ever but it’s okay. Good to have. I am sure there was a point in everyone’s lives when having a Netflix account was a big thing. We shared passwords with our loved ones etc etc.. Then came Amazon prime, Apple TV, Jio Hotstar and what not. And honestly now I am done with this subscription scam!

Everyone on Substack obviously knows about Medium! You really need to pay $5/month to read a 2 min article that you may or may not agree to which may or may not have been written by AI ? Come on! Thats so useless. 99% of the articles are members only.

Now everyone talks of AI as if it’s the most life changing thing they have seen since birth. Dont get me wrong, I am not an anti-AI person but I have my own strong opinions about it. Firstly, we have AI powered everything. Starting from an AI powered banana to an AI powered UFO. Do we really understand what AI powered means? Do we understand that AI simply cant “power” your product if you dont know what to with it. On top of it, brands keep increasing the premium cost of the “AI powered” features.

Curious me wanted to explore it too. Recently, I used an AI powered tool/platform to apply to jobs automatically. All I had to do was upload my resume, answer a few questions and the AI would scan available jobs on the internet that were suitable for me and apply on my behalf. The result? The job roles that it found were 15-30 days old. The cover letter it wrote felt childishly formal, as if it was a letter being written to an army personnel by a 10 y/o. And it gave the wrong portfolio link in all the applications that required it. And obviously some applications that ask you “Are you a human” were automatically blocked. I took a month’s subscription for that BS?! That was unacceptable.

People talk about how Claude Design is the most life changing design tool that they have seen. I know it’s quite powerful. But have you seen the subscription cost? You’re saying I need to write a bunch of prompts, upload multiple assets to get 4 screens that I obviously need to edit later, all because it’s AI powered? I might as well do it for free in Google Stitch or Figma community.

These days even LinkedIn is garbage if you dont have a premium. Recruiters simply filter through premium applications. I mean LinkedIn is the only place you can expect mercy because it helps you get a job. But guess what, you gotta pay first to get hired!

Anything and everything that people say is “awesome and useful” is premium. You know what I think is premium? Platforms that dont charge so much from people for bare minimum features. You get the bare minimum work done for free. And you support people via community and promote non-premium features too. That is a premium experience for me in this era.

Seriously subscription- based business models need to do better. I am not paying for another subscription! Might as well go and live in the woods!

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Life feels paused. Or maybe I am just not used to doing life when I wake up and I don’t have anything purposeful to do. If you are someone who is in their twenties, completed their masters, and is waiting to get a job, you get me. But somehow, nothing feels right. I mean technically, if you do get a job, you can afford to live the life you want, right? Travel to beautiful places, get coffee with your friends in ridiculously expensive cafes over the weekends, dress up to make yourself feel good. But somehow, that also doesn’t quite fit right into the definition of “doing life the right way.”

I worked for two years before I started my masters program, and somehow I did all those things with my adult money. Now, I keep questioning myself: do I want to do that for the rest of my life? Corporate slavery? Sometimes I feel like I want to leave everything, all my academic degrees, and move to a small countryside in Europe and do my own pottery and sell it. This sounds Pinterest-y, but that doesn’t pay bills.

I am starting to realise life is maybe not paused, but it’s just in my mind. But when I think of doing pottery now or going back to my canvases to paint something, my mind instantly starts thinking that I should probably learn a new skill that AI can’t replace at the moment and maybe apply to 10 more jobs on LinkedIn. This is such a confusing age. And once I have spent all my energy applying to jobs, fixing and customising resumes, and texting 20 people on LinkedIn, doomscrolling feels like an easier option to chill rather than painting or pottery. Day jobs make life so dull that one has to motivate oneself 2x just to make life feel normal and happy.

Well, to anyone else also going through the same, we’re in this together.

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