Lately, I’ve been reflecting on a familiar feeling: the anxiety of missing out on the AI wave.

Even as someone who stays close to tech, I sometimes wonder — am I falling behind? A recent trip back to China made that feeling stronger. Surrounded by relentless hustle and pressure, it was easy to feel like everyone else was moving faster, grabbing every opportunity, while I was standing still.

But I’ve felt this before. Years ago, after moving to New Zealand and starting from scratch, I watched peers back home building companies, raising funding, making waves. That same FOMO crept in.

What I’ve learned is: this fear never fully goes away. But we can learn to live with it. Real calm doesn’t come from chasing every wave, but from finding one or two things that matter deeply — and doing them well.

Staying well, focused and grounded in a fast-moving world might just be the success that counts.

Goodies for this week

When Life Interrupts Your Projects: Lessons From Balancing Family and Building a Startup

Life doesn’t ask when you’re ready.
Sometimes it just interrupts everything.

I disappeared from YouTube for a month to take care of my dad.
That pause forced me to rethink how I work, how I create, and how I balance two worlds.

In this video, I share five lessons that helped me recalibrate.
Time as a portfolio.
Redefining progress.
Building redundancy in life.
Flexible creative rhythm.
Identity that survives disruption.

If you’re building a career while juggling real life, this might help you think differently.

Building a Website in 15 Minutes with Framer AI

I recently watched FrameSpace’s video “I made a website in 15 minutes (Framer AI Features)”, which introduces two new AI-powered functions in Framer: WireFramer and AI Components. Both features are highly practical, especially for designers who need to move quickly from concept to prototype without leaving the Framer environment.

The WireFramer tool allows users to generate a full wireframe layout from a simple text prompt. What makes it powerful is that everything happens within Framer—no exporting, importing, or switching between tools. Once the wireframe is generated, it can be edited directly: you can replace text, swap images, and adjust layout details until it forms a working prototype. For many small projects or early-stage ideas, this drastically shortens the time from concept to presentation.

The second feature, AI Components, extends this idea into interactivity. It lets users describe a desired component—such as a countdown timer—and the AI automatically builds a functional version of it. In the demo, the creator uploads an image of a clock, asks Framer to turn it into a working timer, and the system produces it within seconds. While it’s likely that the showcased examples were carefully selected and that more complex components still require manual work, the potential is evident: Framer is evolving from a web design tool into an integrated, AI-driven creation platform.

For independent designers and content creators, these tools could reshape how digital products are prototyped and shared. I plan to test these features in real projects to see how well they perform in practice and may later create a tutorial or mini-course to explore their practical impact on design workflows.

Original video:

👉 I made a website in 15 minutes (Framer AI Features) - YouTube (FrameSpace)

Can AI Be Used in Design?

Can AI Be Used in Design? Absolutely. But not in the way where you just toss in a prompt and expect magic. The real power of AI in design is in breaking things down.

Here’s a recent example. I was working on the landing page for JAM and needed to define the typography styles. After discussing with AI, I decided the fonts ( a Chinese and an English font) and the styles. Then I asked ChatGPT to generate a JSON file for those styles. I used a Figma plugin to import that as design tokens and instantly apply the styles in Figma.

With AI, the whole process took maybe 5 minutes. Without it, doing the same manually would’ve taken around 30, so time saved, a lot.

That’s how I see AI in design. It’s a tool - like a knife, scissors, or screwdriver. Use it with precision, stay focused on the task, let it do what it’s good at, and move on.

I Tried Every AI Design Tool — Here’s What I Found

I watched Paavan, a London-based designer, run a fascinating experiment in his video “I tried every AI design tool. Here are the results.” He used the same web design prompt across nearly all major AI website builders to compare how each tool performs. The outcome confirms what many of us might already suspect.

The clear winners are Lovable, V0, and Mocha — all three tools deliver relatively consistent, high-quality outputs. Lovable stands out for its speed and layout intelligence, producing pages that look like they were structured by a human designer. V0 handles component logic well, generating cleaner HTML and hierarchy. Mocha also performs solidly, balancing speed with clarity.

In contrast, other tools such as Google Stitch, Firebase Studio, and Canva fall short — either creating cluttered layouts or visually outdated designs that are far from usable.

Interestingly, Paavan didn’t test Figma or Framer, likely because they’re not full “one-click generation” systems. But the larger takeaway here is clear: no single AI tool is enough. Just like with large language models, designers will increasingly need to combine tools — one for generation, another for refinement — to achieve reliable results.

For designers like us, that’s actually exciting. It means our role is shifting from “using tools” to “orchestrating intelligent workflows.”

Original video:

👉 I tried every AI design tool. Here are the results. - YouTube (Paavan — Designer in London)

When should you start promoting your product?

Here’s the short answer: not at launch, but when it’s ready.

Before you pour time or money into growth, ask yourself:

1. Is the core product stable?

If key features are still buggy or missing, fix that first.

2. Is there early product–market fit?

Not perfect, but are users coming back? Giving feedback? Sharing it? That’s a green light.

3. Do you have real acquisition channels?

Website, socials, YouTube, podcast, newsletter — something that brings people in without always paying for ads.

4. Does onboarding actually work?

Can new users understand your product and reach value quickly? If not, fix the funnel before filling it.

Promotion works when the product’s ready to keep the attention you earn.

Not earlier.

The newsletter is sponsored by JAM

Learning English isn’t about memorising words—it’s about speaking out loud.

JAM is a one-minute speaking practice app: pick a random topic, talk for 60 seconds, and get instant AI feedback on pronunciation, grammar, and fluency. Just one minute a day takes you from “too shy to speak” to “ready to express yourself.”

Special for newsletter readers: claim 1 month free membership (worth $5) and start your 30-day speaking challenge. One minute a day—see how fluent you can become.

👉 Check here to get a free month trial: jamtalk.co

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Earlier this month, I caught up with a friend who’s keen to start an AI-focused business, but still figuring out what exactly to build.

We talked about a bunch of things, some tough questions, some honest advice.

Here are a few points I thought were worth writing down:

⸻

1. If you don’t have a tech background, should you learn to code or find a technical co-founder?

My take: both. It’s not an either-or decision.

• Start by building your own rough demo. Even if it’s held together with no-code tools, AI wrappers, or vibe coding, get something out there. Share it with friends. Post it on social. See if anyone cares enough to ask questions, give feedback, or follow up.

• Then look for a technical co-founder to help with what comes next. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to do everything yourself forever.

There’s a kind of pain worse than failure: knowing exactly what’s wrong with your product but not having the skills to fix it. That’s what happens when you stretch yourself too thin for too long.

⸻

2. Can two people realistically build something meaningful?

I’m a realist. I constantly ask myself: what resources do I have right now?

And based on that, I decide: what’s the most valuable thing I can do with them?

Lately, due to family stuff, I only get 2–3 hours of focused work per day. So I force myself to prioritise brutally: what’s the one thing I can do now that moves the needle?

That’s the rational side.

But there’s an emotional side too. Sometimes I just tell myself: It’s okay if I can’t get everything done. The world won’t end.

⸻

3. What if the idea isn’t flashy — like it’s not AI infra, not consumer, and not “sexy”?

This was a concern my friend voiced:

“What if what I’m building just isn’t cool enough? Will anyone care?”

Here’s my take: If you don’t come from a technical background, your edge is probably domain insight.

That’s your moat.

It’s like The Alchemist, the treasure isn’t in some faraway land, it’s probably under your feet.

You may not build the next-gen AI model, but you can embed AI into the workflows of industries you already understand.

Others don’t know the pain points, you do.

Others can build the tech, but you know where it actually fits.

⸻

4. How do you convince a technical co-founder to work with you?

Start by being honest with yourself:

If your idea is something a developer could just build on their own, why should they work with you?

You need to be able to show what you bring to the table:

• Real user insights or domain knowledge

• The ability to define and shape the product

• You can handle market, content, GTM, and storytelling

• And most importantly, you’re not looking for someone to “build your idea” — you’re looking for a partner

Also, understand how engineers think.

They’re not sales reps or marketers, they’re more like skilled builders.

Think of them like contractors: bricklayers, carpenters, electricians.

They don’t want to hear about “massive TAM” or “category-defining strategy.”

They want to see:

• Clear specs

• Thought-through designs

• Confidence that the project isn’t just fluff

Respect that mindset, and collaboration becomes a lot easier.

⸻

Let me know if any of this resonated, especially if you’re in a similar place. Would love to hear how you’re thinking about AI + indie product building right now.

Goodies for this week

Psychological Design: 7 Tactics to Turn Leads into Customers

This article by Outcrowd Studio is a gem — it reminds us that good design isn’t decoration; it’s psychology in action.

It breaks down seven core principles that help convert attention into action.

Key takeaways:

1. Reduce cognitive load – confusion kills conversion. Keep the page simple, the navigation intuitive, and forms short.

2. Manage attention – focus on one main goal per page. Every design element should either lead toward that goal or disappear.

3. Apply Gestalt principles – proximity, similarity, symmetry, and figure-ground relationships guide the eye naturally.

   For example, symmetrical layouts feel cohesive, but a single asymmetric element nearby becomes a perfect focal point.

4. Humanise your brand – show real people behind it. “Let them peek backstage” — authenticity builds trust.

5. Teach, don’t sell – people love being helped, not pushed. Educate first, and conversion follows.

Ultimately, great psychological design reduces friction, directs attention, and connects emotionally.

It doesn’t shout — it guides.

Original article:

👉 Psychological Design: 7 Tactics to Convert Leads into Customers (Medium)

The Smartest Way to Capitalize on the AI Gold Rush

I recently watched Iman Gadzhi’s video on how to make the most of the AI wave.

It’s not revolutionary, but it hits a key truth: AI isn’t the destination — it’s leverage.

Here are the main takeaways:

1. AI is infrastructure.

   It’s the electricity, not the factory. What matters is what problem you’re solving and what value you’re creating with it.

2. The window won’t stay open forever.

   The current AI advantage is temporary. In a few years, using AI will be as normal as using Google.

   So the best move now is to take what you already know — your craft, your niche — and amplify it with AI.

He also made a solid point about focusing on specific, embedded tools, not general ones.

Don’t chase hype. Find the AI tools that truly speed up your own workflow.

In short, this gold rush isn’t about who digs faster — it’s about who digs smarter.

AI is leverage, not luck.

Original video:

👉 The SMARTEST Way to Capitalize on the AI Gold Rush - YouTube (Iman Gadzhi)

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Lately, I’ve been thinking, maybe as we get older, we finally realise the mind needs care and training, not just rest.
We hear this in our twenties, but it really sinks in later.
That “inner child” in us does need looking after.

This came up after I saw some harsh comments on social media.
I’ve been doing content for years and can handle it, but some words still sting.

While walking yesterday, I had a good chat with ChatGPT and started to understand myself better.
So I made a “Feedback Gallery” in Notion.

It has three parts:

1. Action, feedback I can use to improve

2. Energy, both praise and criticism. I save the positive ones for when I feel low, and only glance at the negative when needed

3. Inspiration, ideas or comments that spark creativity

I’ve tried this before, but lost the habit when switching tools.
This time, I’m bringing it back, especially the “Energy” part.
When I’m doubting myself, reading kind words really helps.

As a designer and creator, it’s easy to wonder,
“Is my work good enough, does it matter?”
In those moments, this little jar becomes a quiet reminder,
yes, it does.

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It’s Time to Strengthen My Mental Capacity

I’ve decided to start intentionally taking care of my mental capacity.

We all understand the importance of physical health. If your body breaks down, your energy follows, and energy itself is a kind of capability.

But what I mean by mental capacity isn’t just willpower or some kind of motivational talk.
It’s not the same as intelligence or logic, either.

In the AI era, skills like analysis, memory, and even decision-making aren’t rare anymore.
AI can often do those faster and better than us.

What can’t be replaced is your ability to
know which thoughts are worth following,
decide what really matters,
stay curious and go deeper when others stop at the surface,
and see the essence of a situation through the noise.

That’s what I call mental capacity — the ability to stay calm, focused, and clear in a world full of distractions.

We may no longer be “knowledge workers” in the traditional sense.
Knowledge is cheap now. Search engines and AI can pull it up in seconds.

The real challenge is whether you can make sense of all that noise,
whether you can direct your attention, manage your thoughts, and stay steady without being swept away by everything around you.

That’s what we need more of,
not more information,
not faster responses,
but a mind that sees clearly, acts with intention, and stays grounded.

In this age, being smart is no longer enough.
What’s rare, and truly powerful, is having mental capacity.

Where Do Hairstylists Keep Their Portfolios?

The other day I got a haircut and chatted with the stylist — or “Tony老师” as we say in China. He told me people in their industry often switch jobs, and I asked, “Do you have an app to find jobs or manage clients?”

He said, “Not really, but we all use Dianping’s pro version.”

Turns out, Dianping (like Yelp) has a “professional mode” for service workers like hairstylists and massage therapists.
It shows their reviews, ratings, and work history — and the data follows the person, not the salon.
So when they move jobs, their record moves with them.

In short, their Dianping profile is their portfolio.

After the haircut, he asked me to leave a review.
He even helped: took my phone, used voice input to say, “Nice cut, great service,” added a photo, and done.
Smooth, practiced, and effective.

That’s a real-world testimonial system.
We product people can learn a lot from it.

An Investor’s Take on Small Projects, and What It Made Me Think About

A few days ago, I joined an event as a guest speaker about building products.

The first speaker was an investor who shared what she looks for in small, independent projects. Her points really made me think.

Here’s what she said investors like to see:

1. A working product demo, even if it’s early

2. Some value validation, a little revenue helps

3. A full-time team, not just one person

4. At least six months of operation

When I heard this, I thought, maybe our product JAM actually checks all those boxes.

It might be a good time to think about raising funds.

But I kept wondering, why did she highlight “six months”?

Later I realised it’s about retention.

Getting lots of users at launch looks great,

but if 90 percent leave the next month, it’s not sustainable.

A product with steady retention, like losing only 30 percent, is much more solid and safer to invest in.

That got me thinking more seriously about JAM and growth.

If you’re building something too,

are you planning to raise money?

How do you think about timing?

A Reminder to Look Up from the Internet

Spending too much time online, it’s easy to forget to check in with the real world. Social platforms, especially places like Twitter, often distort reality: magnifying fringe opinions until they feel like universal truths.

Take this comment I saw recently:
“Surely no one goes to photo studios for ID photos anymore? AI headshots are so realistic now.”

That’s a classic example of being disconnected from how things actually work offline. It’s a projection from a small bubble, not a reflection of the broader world.

So here’s a gentle reminder: step outside, pay attention to the real world. It’s often very different from what your feed is telling you.

Code ≠ Software

Writing code is not the same as building software.
Just like sketching a design by hand is not the same as launching a real product.

A quick self-reminder: once it gets down to pushing pixels, there’s still a lot of detailed work to be done.

The Amazing Art of the Video Game Marquee

I came across a wonderful post by Dan Sinker titled “The Amazing Art of the Video Game Marquee.” He visited an arcade museum in Chicago that houses more than 800 playable machines — the largest collection in the world. For just $25, visitors can play all day, surrounded by the glowing nostalgia of 1980s arcade culture.

But the real story isn’t about the games themselves; it’s about the artwork that crowned them. In the pre-Internet era, every arcade cabinet had a backlit marquee — a single static image that had to grab your attention from across a noisy room. With no trailers, screenshots, or influencer reviews, the marquee was the only advertisement a game had. Designers relied on vibrant colour, heavy contrast, and wild typography to make players stop, look, and spend a coin.

Sinker photographed dozens of these marquees, and they look astonishingly like the spiritual ancestors of modern YouTube thumbnails. Before social media, this was how attention was engineered — through pure, analogue design.

What struck me most was the irony: I’ve never actually played any of the games shown in those marquees, yet the images still hit me with a sense of recognition. It’s a reminder that strong visual storytelling transcends time and technology — whether it’s a glowing sign on a 1980s arcade cabinet or a thumbnail on today’s feed.

Original article:

👉 The Amazing Art of the Video Game Marquee — dansinker.com

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably know that I’ve just made a sudden trip back to China because my father has been unwell. As with last time, it all happened quite abruptly, so the first half of October was a bit of a blur, with lots to juggle. Work naturally went on pause, including this newsletter.

The good news is that my father’s surgery went smoothly and his recovery is going well. For me, that means I can finally take a breather and ease back into a work rhythm.

So, the newsletter is back.

Recently, I also shared a few thoughts about this trip home and caring for family at a “出海去” community event. I’ll include some of that in this issue as well.

Right then, let’s get started.

How I Restarted My Life in 2025: Three Stories

When “stability” turns into a trap.

In 2025, I left a large company, navigated a family health crisis, and truly began building from scratch.

This isn’t a swashbuckling quest for freedom. It’s the discipline of rebuilding a system.

In this episode, I share three honest stories that changed my course —

about work, life, and the courage to stay clear‑headed in the midst of chaos.

If you’re at a crossroads too, I hope this gives you a measure of strength.

The train of midlife hasn’t stopped. It has simply switched tracks

Flying back to care for my dad, it hit me: this is a turning point. Ageing parents, hospitals, paperwork and bedside hours arrive all at once. On paper we’re more capable and earn more than in our twenties, yet the stakes are higher too. The real challenge is holding up both ends, caring upwards and downwards, while not dropping yourself.

These years have nudged me closer to Stoicism: first separate what I can and can’t control, then look for something to learn from the experience, even if it isn’t obvious yet. I thought this trip had no “meaning”. In time I realised it pulled me back to a simple question: what am I living for?

Those days in the ward made one thing crystal clear: my family in New Zealand is my anchor. Projects, achievements and titles I once clung to, however shiny, all take a bow eventually. Some end neatly. Some end abruptly. We do not get to script every scene.

So I’m calling this my “midlife calibration”. It forces a refocus: what is worth my time, money and care, and what isn’t. Close the taps that drain you. Keep what truly matters.

Midlife is not a crisis. It is a chance to set off again on a better line.

Can AI Make Design Faster?

AI has already proven it can make programming way more efficient. The real question is—can it do the same for design? Some people think it’s impossible. Others believe AI will take over design completely.

From what I’ve seen, the truth is somewhere in the middle. If you get comfortable with AI tools, you can definitely work three to five times faster while keeping the same quality.

Here’s a recent example from my own work. Our spoken English training app, JAM, is adding its most important feature yet: themed practice packs. Before, the app was pretty basic. With themed packs, it feels like a proper learning tool, which allows users to pick a topic and practice speaking around it.

This project took me about three days, around 20 hours of work. I handled everything:
• Research
• Building the course plan
• Designing the themed training content
• Creating the theme cards
• Finishing the UI design

If I hadn’t used AI, this would have been a team job. At least a UI designer, a content designer, and a copywriter working two to three weeks—and maybe even an education consultant. This time, I pulled it off solo.

The tricky part is knowing the details, just like in programming:
• When it makes sense to let AI generate images
• Which tool to use: ChatGPT, NanoBanana, or something else
• How to make sure the course content is accurate
• How to keep everything stable and consistent

That’s where experience comes in. And that’s also why I see a shift happening. Programmers who adapt to AI and know how to use it well are becoming more valuable, not less. I think the same applies to designers. The key is knowing when to step in yourself, and when to let AI take over.

ChatGPT Operator & Agents: The First Official Demo

I recently revisited OpenAI’s official video, Introduction to Operator & Agents.

There are tons of tutorials on YouTube already, but when it comes to brand-new features like this,

I always think the best way to understand them is to go straight to the source.

In this session, Sam Altman and three product leads demonstrate how the new Operator system allows ChatGPT to actually do things — like ordering food, booking tickets, or buying stuff online.

It’s not just about conversation anymore; it’s about execution.

A few key takeaways:

1. It runs on real integrations.

   Each Operator needs access to external APIs or services — it’s not magic, it’s infrastructure.

2. It confirms before acting.

   Whenever money or booking is involved, ChatGPT explicitly asks for user confirmation. That’s an important safety layer.

3. It feels more like an assistant than a chatbot.

   You talk, it acts. The line between “AI chat” and “digital assistant” is getting thinner.

I once built a simple Operator myself that sent ChatGPT outputs straight into Google Sheets — it worked pretty well.

But after I stopped my Pro subscription, I shelved it.

Now I’m curious what others are using to create similar automated workflows today.

Original video:

👉 Introduction to Operator & Agents - YouTube (OpenAI)

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

I’ve had plenty of failed projects before I started JAM. The difference this time is that I actually used those past mistakes to guide me -- and so far, it seems to be working out.

The first big lesson: don’t just build something because I think it’s cool. I used to create projects around my personal interests without ever checking if they mattered to anyone else. For example, I once built a website where I shared AI tips and little tech experiments. I loved writing about how to build, distribute, and collect information. But the truth? Nobody else really cared. I had no idea who the site was for or who the audience was supposed to be.

With jam, I flipped the script. I validated the idea first. One of my tweets about improving spoken English blew up, and that was the signal. People actually wanted it, they engaged with it, they needed it. That became rule number one: validate first. I’ll share the other rules later.

The second big shift was thinking about monetization from day one. In the past, I’d make something just for fun and then scramble to figure out who might pay for it. This time, I built a super rough prototype, sent it to real people, and included a survey. More than half said they’d pay if it became a polished product. That was my green flag.

So yeah, JAM is basically built on the back of all my past failures. And honestly, I’m curious to see what lessons come out of this one.

It’s hitting $300 MRR in under a month - so the ride is just getting started.

Weekly goodies

How I Use 12 Words to Get 10x Better AI Answers (My Simple Prompt System)

Do you ever get frustrated with AI giving you unreliable, messy, or off-target answers? This video will show you how to fix that. I’ll share the three simple prompts—just 12 words in total—that I use every day to get accurate, logical, and perfectly aligned results from any AI model.

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn the core principles of effective prompting. Discover how to turn your AI into a reliable collaborator rather than just a “magic box” that gives you noise. I’ll break down the what, why, and how of using prompts like:

“Fact check this”: To turn your AI into a critical internal editor that flags shaky or nonsensical claims. This is a key principle for ensuring accuracy and transparency in your output.

“Think step by step”: To force the model to slow down and show its reasoning, leading to more structured and accurate answers. This is also known as Chain-of-Thought (CoT) prompting.

“Ask me questions to clarify”: To get your AI to collaborate with you by asking questions that can improve the final result and align it with your goals.

Don’t just use AI; learn how to talk to it. These simple principles will help you handle 80% of your tasks, from writing and coding to research and business planning.

[Ad] Build Confidence in Speaking English—Start with JAM

JAM is a one-minute speaking practice app: random topics, 60 seconds of nonstop talking, and an AI coach named Jammy who corrects you instantly and shows better phrasing. One minute a day is enough to go from “too shy to speak” to “speaking naturally.”

Newsletter readers get an exclusive bonus: 1 month free membership (worth $5). Start your 30-day challenge now, and in a month you’ll be surprised by how much smoother your English sounds.

👉 Join the challenge

Vibe Coding and the Future of Development (Alex P)

Original link

A reflection on vibe coding: AI agents execute, engineers approve. Core practices like TDD, code reviews, and CI remain essential. A notable prediction is Prompt Management Systems to version prompts, track impact on code, and tag AI‑generated sections. It also nudges designers to co‑create with AI rather than only execute.

The Secret Science of Perfect Spacing (Chainlift)

Original video

Three takeaways: what looks symmetrical often isn’t mathematically; visual weight matters; and related elements should live closer. Typography and spacing drive most of the perceived quality. The video also mentions a handy tool called Lift Kit.

Re‑post Your Old Videos to Blow Up Your Business (Ed Lawrence)

Original video

Repost proven content 6–12 months later with a new title and thumbnail, and film a fresh intro to modernize it. Optionally prune low‑retention segments based on the old retention graph. Most of your current audience never saw the original, so this is efficient reach.

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Every time someone asks why I quit my job, I usually share a list of reasons.
Here’s just one, along with some advice.

If you’re working full-time today, there are only three ways to guard against an uncertain future:
• Your money makes money (investments)
• You have a side project or business
• You were born into wealth

Which one are you?

The corporate ladder is not what it was 10 or 20 years ago. The old model of steady job and steady promotion is broken.
Sooner or later, your cost-to-value ratio will not beat algorithms and machines.

Companies are clear about this: AI is here to cut costs. And in that equation, you are the cost.

If you have alternative income, you are safer.
If not, the day will come when you either leave on your own terms or you are forced out.
And the higher your position, the bigger the impact.

We are no longer in a black swan era.
We are living in a black swan farm.
Unpredictable shocks are constant: industry shifts, geopolitics, identity politics. Our parents never had to think about these things. We do.

My advice: even if you think your job is stable, use at least 20 percent of your time to invest in yourself.
Learn new skills.
Protect your health.

The next three to five years will reshape entire industries.
Most people will not notice until it is too late, like the frog sitting in the pot while the water gets hotter.

Weekly goodies:

“How I Turned a $150 Month into a $1M Challenge” - Florin Pop’s Indie Hacker Story

What does it really take to go from a $150 side hustle to building a $1M challenge in public?

In this episode of BearTalk, I sit down with Florin Pop, an indie hacker and creator who left his developer job in 2019 with just six months of savings. Florin shares how he built his audience, launched viral challenges, sold his first startup, and now tracks his ambitious $1M journey live on the internet.

You’ll learn:
• Why building in public creates accountability—and pressure
• The frameworks Florin uses to validate ideas quickly
• How to turn small MVPs into real revenue
• The psychology behind pricing and why “water costs $1 or $4” is the best analogy
• Why long-term consistency beats burnout sprints

Whether you’re a product designer, developer, or aspiring indie hacker, this episode will show you the mindset, tools, and strategies to start your own journey.

[Ad] Build Confidence in Speaking English—Start with JAM

JAM is a one-minute speaking practice app: random topics, 60 seconds of nonstop talking, and an AI coach named Jammy who corrects you instantly and shows better phrasing. One minute a day is enough to go from “too shy to speak” to “speaking naturally.”

Newsletter readers get an exclusive bonus: 1 month free membership (worth $5). Start your 30-day challenge now, and in a month you’ll be surprised by how much smoother your English sounds.

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A Practical Guide to Motion in Product Design

Original link

I came across a super practical article by Bryan Maniotakis called “How I Approach Motion in Product Design.” It’s packed with simple, actionable advice on how to use motion to create a better user experience. Instead of getting bogged down in technical details, he focuses on the core principles: using motion to guide attention, add a sense of delight, and improve navigation. It’s a great reminder that animation isn’t just a decoration; it’s a critical part of the design.

I think this is exactly what product designers need. It feels like a lot of designers, including myself, get intimidated by motion. But this article breaks it down into easy, fundamental stuff that anyone can apply right away. For instance, he points out that a good default animation time is around 300ms, and that bigger elements should move slower, just like in the real world. I’ve been exploring Rive to get my feet wet with animation, and these principles are a perfect guide for a beginner like me. A little motion can go a long way.

AI Generates Design Systems in Seconds?

Original video

Designer Andres The Designer dives into Relume’s AI tool that promises to generate full websites with design systems in just seconds. The real magic comes afterwards: you can take that system straight into Figma via the Relume plug-in, tweak the details, then export it into Framer through another plug-in, and publish live instantly. The flow looks almost surreal—AI-powered generation, human fine-tuning, and smooth handoff all the way to a working site.

From my perspective, this is exactly the kind of workflow I want to try. It could be game-changing for building landing pages quickly, especially when tied to my Jam project. Seeing a pipeline of Relume → Figma → Framer → Publish makes me think this might soon become the new normal for solo designers.

Is AI the Future of Design Systems? (by Arnau Ros)

Original video

In this video, designer Arnau Ros explores Relume’s AI-powered Style Guide Generator. The tool can build a complete design system in just seconds, starting from your chosen colour palette. Traditionally, designers spend hours setting up grids, colours, and typography, but here the process is almost instant. Once generated, the system can be taken into Figma for further design work, and then pushed to Webflow to create live websites. It’s a neat workflow for anyone working under tight deadlines or exploring rapid prototyping.

I could feed Jam’s colour palette into Relume and get a ready-made design system. That becomes both a starting point for Jam’s landing page and a hands-on tutorial I can share. Watching the tool spin up a system so quickly feels like a productivity boost I wish I had years ago.

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Today, let’s talk about how AI is changing the way we design.

No one argues anymore about AI making coding faster—it clearly does. But what about design? Some people say it’s impossible. Others think AI could even replace designers altogether. From my experience, if you know how to use the right AI tools, you can get three to five times faster while keeping the same quality.

Take a recent project of mine: our English-speaking app JAM is rolling out its most important new feature—topic packs. Before, practice was one-size-fits-all. With topic packs, it feels like a proper language-learning app: users can pick a theme and practise conversations around it.

This design took me about three days—roughly 20 hours. Here’s what was involved:

• Research

• Mapping the curriculum

• Writing the training content

• Generating topic cards

• Finalising the UI design

Without AI, this would’ve taken at least three people—a UI designer, a content designer, and a copywriter—two to three weeks, plus input from an education consultant. This time, I did it solo.

The trick, just like in coding, lies in the details:

• When to generate images with AI

• Whether to use ChatGPT, NanoBanana, or another tool

• How to keep the course content accurate

• How to ensure the overall project stays consistent and stable

These decisions need someone with hands-on experience. That’s why we’re seeing a shift: older developers who can master AI aren’t being left behind—they’re in higher demand because they deliver more. I believe the same applies to designers. The key is knowing when to step in yourself, and when to hand things over to AI.

This Week’s Video

How I Made AI 10× Smarter with Just 12 Words (My Minimal Prompting Framework)

Still frustrated by messy AI answers? The problem isn’t the AI—it’s the prompt.

In my latest video, I share three simple prompts—just 12 words in total—that completely changed how I use AI in design, tech, and productivity. Learn them once, and you can turn any AI into a reliable teammate that gives structured, accurate, logical answers.

[Ad] Build Confidence in Speaking English—Start with JAM

JAM is a one-minute speaking practice app: random topics, 60 seconds of nonstop talking, and an AI coach named Jammy who corrects you instantly and shows better phrasing. One minute a day is enough to go from “too shy to speak” to “speaking naturally.”

Newsletter readers get an exclusive bonus: 1 month free membership (worth $5). Start your 30-day challenge now, and in a month you’ll be surprised by how much smoother your English sounds.

👉 Join the challenge

[Ad] In the Age of AI, What’s Your Human Superpower?

AI is coming like a tidal wave. Those who just stand on the beach will get swept away. But those who learn to surf will see farther from the crest of the wave.

AI brings speed, scale, and efficiency. Humans bring empathy, creativity, and connection. In our Bear with AI community, we explore how to combine the best of both worlds—human and machine—so you can ride the wave instead of being crushed by it.

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This Week’s Picks

1) The 3-2-1 Speaking Trick: Cut the Rambling

Original video

Ever freeze up when called on to speak? Or ramble without structure? Communication coach Vinh Giangshares a simple framework: 3-2-1.

1. One core idea

2. Two perspectives or counterpoints

3. Three practical steps

This gives your speech a “skeleton” that makes it sharper and easier to follow.

It fits perfectly with the JAM app—especially for one-minute random topic practice. I could easily see this framework becoming part of JAM’s resource library or a future course pack.

2) The Simple Formula for $100K a Month (@tibo_maker)

Original post

How do you hit $100K monthly revenue? In theory, it’s simple: sell a $50 subscription to 2,000 people. The hard part is finding those 2,000.

Tibo’s approach: spend 50% of your time building, 50% finding customers. “Content isn’t marketing—it’s your lifeline.”

That matches my own experience: success doesn’t just come from the product itself, but from consistent sharing, building in public, and engaging honestly with users. That’s why I stick with newsletters, YouTube, and Twitter.

3) YouTube Growth Hacks from Noah Kagan

Original PDF

Plan thumbnails before filming—shoot 50+ if needed to find the best. Use KeywordTool.io and AnswerThePublic for ideas. If one video spikes in subscribers, make a follow-up fast. Start with a click-worthy title, then swap to an SEO-optimised one after the algorithm picks it up.

Grassroots tactics work too: offer giveaways (Noah once gave away a $1,300 MacBook Pro and gained ~400 subscribers—about $3 each). Use YouTube Community posts. Keep titles at 30–45 characters with numbers or brackets. Naturally weave in keywords during the video. Mix in screenshots and B-roll. Use “teasers” mid-video to keep people watching. And don’t be shy about cold-emailing other creators—you can find contacts on their About page.

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Everyone reading this has lived through at least one black swan event: COVID. I was no exception.

Back in 2019, I had just broken into the field I’d been dreaming about for years—product design—when I joined Les Mills International in New Zealand. You’ve probably heard of Les Mills: it started as a gym brand, but its real business became creating fitness content and licensing it to gyms and instructors worldwide. For a long time, the model was rock solid.

I joined the digital products team that served gyms and instructors. The work was exciting, fresh, and full of learning. We ran workshops, launched new projects, and even had team-building sessions led by world-class trainers. Honestly, I was riding high. I even considered getting certified as a Les Mills instructor myself—an employee perk.

(That’s a photo from our annual company meeting, with Philip Mills speaking. Sixty-something, still built like an athlete, one of the best NZ CEOs. I really admire him)

At the end of 2019, the outbreak began in China. By early 2020, things still felt normal in New Zealand, but we were glued to the news from home—it was surreal. During one workshop on future risks and challenges, I suggested “a global pandemic.” The whole room, including my manager, laughed it off. Someone joked I’d just watched too many zombie movies—maybe I was expecting World War Z to start.

By March, New Zealand closed its borders and went into an unprecedented level-four lockdown. A full month at home. The black swan had arrived. Our team was cut, and the company came close to collapse.

But here’s where things turned. A few years earlier, Les Mills had planted a small seed (a side project): an online fitness content service. It had been limping along, never really taking off. Then in that single month, subscriptions to Les Mills On Demand skyrocketed, matching the growth from the previous five years combined. Global license fees dried up, cash flow took a beating, but that little side project kept the company alive.

What’s true for companies is just as true for individuals. Building a side project, a small venture on the edge, can be the thing that saves you when a black swan lands.

And that product manager who once laughed at my “zombie-movie” comment? He later sent me a message apologizing. Respect.

So, in an age of Black Swans, what’s your lifeline project?

Weekly Goodies

"How I Turned a $150 Month into a $1M Challenge" - Florin Pop’s Indie Hacker Story

What does it really take to go from a $150 side hustle to building a $1M challenge in public?

In this episode of BearTalk, I sit down with Florin Pop, an indie hacker and creator who left his developer job in 2019 with just six months of savings. Florin shares how he built his audience, launched viral challenges, sold his first startup, and now tracks his ambitious $1M journey live on the internet.

AI is a Floor Raiser, not a Ceiling Raiser

I recently came across an interesting article by the Elroy Team titled "AI is a Floor Raiser, not a Ceiling Raiser." What I found most valuable were the simple charts in the post that perfectly illustrated AI's role in the learning process. It really made me reconsider how we should be leveraging AI.

My Take:

The core insight is this: the traditional learning curve starts slow, but with AI, that initial hump can be massively accelerated.

Picture it like this: when you start a new skill, the beginning is always the hardest. But with AI's help, it can meet you at your exact skill level, answer your specific questions, and even handle the rote, repetitive work for you. This essentially raises the "floor," giving you a powerful boost right out of the gate.

However, the article also brought up a crucial warning: after that initial speed boost, if you just passively "cheat" and let AI do all the heavy lifting, you'll hit a plateau. You won't make any real progress because you're not putting in the human effort. It's like using a cheat code in a video game—you advance quickly at first, but you're not actually improving your own skills.

This is exactly why I created the JAM app. My goal was to build a tool that uses AI as an accelerator, not an excuse for laziness. It can help us focus on the more valuable parts of learning, but it still demands our own thinking and effort to truly internalize the knowledge.

That's how we move from simply using AI to actually leveraging it to become a better version of ourselves.

Original article: https://elroy.bot/blog/2025/07/29/ai-is-a-floor-raiser-not-a-ceiling-raiser.html

How to Design for Short Attention Spans

Let’s be honest: people don’t read websites anymore. They scan, they swipe, and they scroll like their thumbs are training for the Olympics. So how do we, as designers, capture their attention in this “Attention Deficit Era”? Ryan Almeida, in his article on Muzli, shares some fantastic, no-nonsense principles for designing with this reality in mind. The core idea? Embrace the chaos and design for clarity, not cleverness.

My Two Cents:

As a product designer, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. The article hits on so many things that feel incredibly true right now. We all know that feeling of being overwhelmed, and as designers, our job is to make sure our users feel empowered, not frustrated.

Here are the biggest takeaways that resonated with me:

• One job per screen: This is a big one. It's so easy to cram everything onto a single page, but that just creates decision paralysis. One clear call-to-action per section is a game-changer.

• Immediate feedback: When a user taps or clicks, they need to know it worked instantly. That little visual cue isn’t just a nice-to-have; it's a critical part of the user journey.

• Predictable doesn't mean boring: This is a phrase I’m going to start using. We often chase novelty, but predictability builds trust. A familiar button layout or icon helps users feel comfortable and in control.

• Test on real devices: No excuses here. Emulators are great for a quick check, but there’s nothing like seeing your design on a real phone or tablet in a real-world context.

This is a great reminder that good UX is all about empathy. We're not just moving pixels around; we're crafting an experience for real people with real lives and very little time to spare.

Original article: https://medium.muz.li/how-to-design-for-short-attention-spans-34369615827a

[ AD ] Speak English with confidence — in just 1 minute a day

JAM is the one-minute speaking app: pick up a random topic, talk for 60 seconds, and get instant AI feedback from Jammy. Fast, fun, and confidence-boosting.

Newsletter bonus: grab 1 month free (worth $5) and join the 30-day speaking challenge. One minute a day — see how fluent you sound in just a month.

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Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a developer friend about a problem every indie maker secretly fears: what if someone copies your product?

I tweeted a few initial thoughts of my own:

1. Go vertical — pick a niche too small or boring for big players to care.

2. Build user lock-in — the more data and habits people create, the harder it is to leave.

3. Relying on technical moats is almost impossible in the AI era.

4. Put your personality into the product — copying features isn’t the same as copying a person.

That tweet sparked a lively discussion. I’ve pulled together some of the best insights, along with a few real-world cases that show how copycats work — and how you might survive them.

1. The Harsh Reality

The first point many people made: you can’t really prevent copying.

In tech, technical moats vanish quickly. If your idea shows traction, larger players with bigger teams and more resources can replicate it fast.

Think of Snapchat’s Stories feature. It was novel when it launched, but soon Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook all rolled out their own versions. Snapchat didn’t disappear, but its growth ceiling was capped.

So the question isn’t “how do I stop them from copying?” It’s “what can I do that makes copying less damaging?”

The newsletter is sponsored by JAM

Learning English isn’t about memorising words—it’s about speaking out loud.

JAM is a one-minute speaking practice app: pick a random topic, talk for 60 seconds, and get instant AI feedback on pronunciation, grammar, and fluency. Just one minute a day takes you from “too shy to speak” to “ready to express yourself.”

Special for newsletter readers: claim 1 month free membership (worth $5) and start your 30-day speaking challenge. One minute a day—see how fluent you can become.

👉 Join the challenge

2. Common Survival Strategies

Go Niche

One way is to build in markets too small or too weird for giants to care.

CAD plugins are a classic example: obscure, technical, but enough to sustain small teams.

Notion is another: it didn’t try to be a universal Word or Excel killer. It built a modular, flexible workspace that appealed to a niche of knowledge workers and slowly expanded outward.

Build User Lock-in

If users accumulate data, history, or workflows in your product, leaving becomes painful.

Evernote, at its peak, had this power. Even when Microsoft made OneNote free, many users stuck around because moving years of notes wasn’t worth it.

Outrun the Copycats

Speed is often the only real moat. Indie teams can ship faster than giants.

One founder in my mentions put it bluntly: “By the time a competitor copied one of our features, we’d already launched three new ones.”

Contrast that with Clubhouse. When it exploded in 2020, Twitter, Facebook, and Spotify all launched audio rooms within months. Clubhouse couldn’t ship fast enough, and the hype evaporated.

Personality and Brand

Features can be copied. Personality can’t.

Basecamp (formerly 37signals) is a great case. Its project management software has always been simple, even minimal. But its contrarian brand voice and “less is more” philosophy built a loyal user base that Microsoft Project could never touch.

Community and Story

Another strategy is to build around people, not just features.

TikTok is the obvious case. Instagram and YouTube copied its short video format, but TikTok’s algorithm, culture, and creator community made it irreplaceable.

Users don’t just want features — they want the vibe, the story, and the people behind them.

3. Alternative Plays

Not every solution is about fighting. Some creators suggested taking the opposite route:

• Sell early: If a giant wants to copy you, maybe being acquired is the cleanest exit.

• Lean into being small: A product that only makes “enough” money can still be a sustainable indie business, even if it’s not defensible at scale.

• Get funding: If your idea is truly big, raising capital before launch can create a moat that scares copycats away.

And of course, there’s the zen approach: don’t care too much. If someone copies you, it means you were onto something.

4. My Take

As indie makers, we’re almost guaranteed to face copycats at some point. But the game isn’t about stopping them. It’s about making yourself harder to replace.

That could mean:

• Picking niches too weird or too deep for big players.

• Shipping so fast that competitors are always behind.

• Putting yourself, your personality, and your brand into the product.

• Building a community around your work, not just a feature set.

Copycats can steal your idea, but they can’t steal you.

If your product gets cloned tomorrow, what’s your move: fight back head-on, or run faster than everyone else?

Video version:

Goodies this week

A Landing Page Design with Premium Feel

Basit A. Khan shared the first look at his new landing page design on X. Designers call it “clean,” clients call it “premium,” and he simply calls it “done.”

The highlight here is in the hero section — an abstract animated background combined with blur and glass transparency effects, giving it an instant sense of elegance and futurism. It’s deceptively simple, though the glass effect likely requires code to implement so it maintains both visual quality and performance.

My personal take:

I love this “less is more” approach to achieving a premium look. For tech brands especially, the clean + futuristic visual language works beautifully. Often, it’s not about piling on elements, but about using a few precise visual techniques to convey the brand’s essence. If you’re working on a website and want to communicate innovation and forward-thinking, this style is absolutely worth exploring.

Original link (post): https://x.com/basit_designs/status/1953476697497452933

Diagram-to-Vid: A Creative Way to Use Veo3

This post from Rory Flynn shows a super creative way to use Veo3 for video creation. Instead of just typing a prompt, he demonstrates a "Diagram-to-Vid" approach where you can draw directly on an image to specify exactly how you want the motion to look. He gives examples like pulling the camera back, applying a motion brush effect, and sequencing different actions, showing how you can get incredibly specific results from a simple visual guide.

My Take:

This is just too cool. What I love about this approach is that it makes me feel less like a prompt engineer and more like an actual creative director. In a traditional agency, a creative director would often sketch out a storyboard or draw arrows on an image to brief the team. This "Diagram-to-Vid" method with Veo3 feels exactly like that, but the AI is your motion graphics artist.

You find an image, add some notes and diagrams directly on it, and then get a result that feels like you've really "directed" it. It gives you so much more control and creative freedom than just a text prompt. This isn't just about making things; it's about giving a creative vision a tangible, executable form in a way that’s incredibly intuitive and powerful. This is the kind of AI-assisted creativity I get really excited about.

Original Post: https://x.com/Ror_Fly/status/1950352402416115788

How to MARKET a Viral App in 2025

Blake Anderson, an entrepreneur who has scaled apps to millions of downloads, breaks down his playbook for marketing a viral app in 2025. This YouTube video is the fourth part of a series, and it's full of practical, no-fluff advice. He boils it down to three core principles and three key methods, all designed to help you get your app in front of the right people.

My Take:

Watching this video felt like a wake-up call. We, as entrepreneurs and creators, spend so much time perfecting our product and maybe 20% on marketing. But Blake flips that idea on its head, advocating for an 80/20 split: 80% doing, 20% learning. That really hit home for me.

Here’s what resonated the most:

• Don't tell me how good your app is; tell me it can make my life better. He emphasizes that good marketing taps into basic human desires like social status and self-improvement. It’s not about features; it’s about the emotional benefit. This is a game-changer for how I think about pitching my own work.

• Rapid Iteration is key. The idea of testing four different hooks, finding the best one, and then doubling down is a powerful, practical strategy. It’s a scientific approach to creative work, which I love.

• Marketing is a skill you can learn and practice. I’ve always viewed marketing as something that “other people” do. But Blake's message is clear: every entrepreneur needs to be a marketer. I’m committing to spending at least an hour every day on social media marketing to practice this skill, because it’s a practical skill, and you only get better by doing.

This video is a great reminder that marketing isn't just a department; it's a core function of building a successful product. And the best way to get good at it is to just start doing it.

Original video:

The "Everything at Once" Approach

When you open a Chinese super app, you're not just accessing a single service; you're entering a full ecosystem. This design philosophy is known as progressive aggregation, which involves bringing many different services together onto a single screen and trusting the user to filter what they need. For example, the home screen for the Didi app isn't just for booking a taxi; it also offers grocery delivery, intercity buses, freight services, and even a finance tab where you can get a microloan or buy insurance. This is a stark contrast to Western apps like Uber or Google Maps, which use a sparse interface and guide you through a simple, three-step process. While this "all-in-one" approach may seem chaotic to Western users, it's considered efficient and familiar to local users.

The Reasons Behind the Design

So, why do these super apps look the way they do? There are three main reasons:

• Super app economics: In China, the cost of getting users to download an app is very high. Once a company secures that valuable space on a user's phone, they try to maximize the lifetime value of that user by cramming in as many services as possible. As one entrepreneur said, the goal is to be the one app that a user can't delete.

• Infrastructure and policy: China's unified QR payment system and real-name ID policies make it simple for companies to add new services on top of existing user data. For instance, an app like Didi already knows a user's commute habits and spending, which makes it easy to offer services like microloans or insurance within the same app.

• Culture: In many high-context cultures across China and Southeast Asia, an information-rich layout is seen as useful, not cluttered. This contrasts sharply with the Western ideal of minimalism. The more options available, the more it can feel like abundance and care, similar to how having twenty dishes on a table at a Chinese banquet or a Korean buffet is a sign of hospitality.

A New Perspective on Design Principles

The primary lesson here is that minimalism is a market preference, not a universal virtue. Before you decide a product's design is "too busy," consider your audience's culture, context, and their tolerance for density on a screen. In situations where customer acquisition costs are high and cross-service data can shorten a user's journey, a packed user interface may actually be more effective than a minimalist one, as long as the primary task remains clear.

This highlights a key difference between Western and Chinese design principles. Western design often uses progressive disclosure, where features are hidden until a user requests them. In contrast, Chinese super apps use progressive aggregation, putting all features upfront and trusting users to find what they need. Neither approach is better than the other; they are simply different adaptive strategies. The goal is to design for people, not for dogma.

So, the next time you see a super app with what seems like a chaotic design, remember that it's a reflection of unique economics, infrastructure, and a culture that creates abundance with care.

Watch video here:

Weekly Goodies

10 Principles for Designers in the Age of AI

Ryo Lu’s post on X reads like a “new age designer manifesto” for the AI era. Each point is short but loaded with intent:

• Don’t build slot machines

• Don’t fake humans

• Don’t hide the messy truths

• Don’t create black boxes

• Don’t make people feel stupid

• Don’t extract value or attention one-way

• Don’t optimize for vanity metrics

• Don’t gatekeep knowledge

• Don’t make tools that divide

• Don’t sacrifice agency for convenience

My personal take:

When I saw this post, one thought flashed in my mind: “This is exactly the manifesto of a designer in the AI age.”

Every “don’t” resonated deeply with me. As product designers, it’s easy to get seduced by features designed to boost engagement or vanity metrics, but this post reminds us to put human value first.

“Don’t build slot machines” — a blunt reminder to avoid creating “dark patterns” that exploit human weaknesses and cause addiction.

“Don’t hide the messy truths” and “Don’t create black boxes” — in the AI era, this is about transparency. Users deserve to know how a product works and why it makes certain decisions.

“Don’t make people feel stupid” — a good product should empower users, not leave them feeling helpless. It should respect their intelligence and agency.

Original link (post): https://x.com/ryolu_/status/1953112152199581742

The Future of AI in the Creative Industry

In this episode of The Futur, the conversation compares AI’s role in the creative field to the 1990s design “rule-breaking” era — when young designers reinvented how images were made. Today, AI is rewriting the rules again, speeding up creation, compressing timelines, simplifying workflows, and handling tedious tasks so creatives can focus on the ideas that matter.

Kevin Lau stress that thriving in the AI era means keeping both passion and detachment, embracing new tools, creating tangible and marketable ideas, collaborating effectively, and pushing for constant growth and innovation. AI can accelerate creativity, but its impact on jobs and the human experience is still uncertain.

I relate strongly to this perspective — AI is a booster, not a replacement for the core of creativity. Just as better tools don’t automatically make better art, the real value is in using the time and energy AI frees up to think deeper and craft better. In my own creative work, AI has stripped away repetitive chores, but the story and vision still need my own hands.

Original link (video):

A Landing Page Design with Premium Feel

Basit A. Khan shared the first look at his new landing page design on X. Designers call it “clean,” clients call it “premium,” and he simply calls it “done.”

The highlight here is in the hero section — an abstract animated background combined with blur and glass transparency effects, giving it an instant sense of elegance and futurism. It’s deceptively simple, though the glass effect likely requires code to implement so it maintains both visual quality and performance.

My personal take:

I love this “less is more” approach to achieving a premium look. For tech brands especially, the clean + futuristic visual language works beautifully. Often, it’s not about piling on elements, but about using a few precise visual techniques to convey the brand’s essence. If you’re working on a website and want to communicate innovation and forward-thinking, this style is absolutely worth exploring.

Original link (post): https://x.com/basit_designs/status/1953476697497452933

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Over the past month, I’ve been refining a new tool to improve spoken English: JAM. It officially launched two weeks ago, and today I’d like to share the story and the thinking behind it.

When I arrived in a new country at the “mature” age of 35, I had no connections, no work experience locally, and my English was clumsy at best. A few years later, I was working in one of the top tech firms and invited to speak on stage at international forums — all in English. How did that transformation happen? One simple method made the biggest difference. That method is now distilled into this app. I believe it can help others make the same leap.

One-Minute Practice Broke My Communication Barrier

When I first moved to New Zealand, I managed to find a job — but speaking was a real hurdle. My words were slow, heavily accented, and hesitant. Worst of all, I often resorted to saying nothing but “yes”, because I simply didn’t catch what people were asking.

Once, at the bank, the clerk asked if I wanted to cancel my card. I didn’t understand, felt embarrassed to ask again, and said “yes”. Walking out, I discovered my card had actually been closed. I had to shuffle back in to re-apply, red-faced.

That was when I realised the real barrier wasn’t vocabulary, but having the courage and fluency to speak out loud.

Later I joined a Toastmasters club, where I learned a simple but powerful exercise: pick a random topic and speak for one minute without stopping. The content didn’t matter — the point was to keep talking.

I began recording myself two or three times a day. After about a hundred rounds, something clicked: I stopped fearing mistakes. My English became more fluid. This single exercise helped me crush the biggest mental block — the fear of being wrong.

Traditional English learning is a bit like trying to master swimming on dry land — you might know the strokes, but the moment you get in the pool, you panic.

Most learners cram vocabulary and grammar, but when it’s time to speak, the mind goes blank. It’s not a lack of knowledge. It’s a lack of practice in real situations.

So I turned the method that worked for me into a tool: JAM (short for Just a Minute).

JAM is designed to prioritise speaking over memorising. Each session is just 60 seconds of talking, training your courage to speak and your improvisation skills. No need to wrestle with grammar first — you can start straight away. Afterwards, the AI gives you tailored feedback on what you actually said. With repeated practice, you break down that invisible wall of fear around speaking English.

And now, with a full English-language interface, JAM also works as a quirky speaking warm-up for native speakers — a way to stretch your improvisation muscles. Of course, it’s still most transformative for learners who want to finally break through.

Many people assume their English isn’t “good enough”, but often it’s already better than they think. What’s missing is the chance — and the nerve — to speak. JAM exists to create that chance. Each 60-second burst is a small but powerful step forward.

From “too shy to speak” to “speaking whenever you want” — that’s the shift JAM aims to make possible.

How JAM Helps You Build Spoken Confidence

JAM is a speaking practice app that turns spare minutes into mini speeches. Open the app, get a random topic, and talk for one minute. When you’re done, your AI coach, Jammy, instantly analyses your pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency — and offers a polished example answer. Do it daily, and you’ll find yourself speaking with confidence in real conversations.

How it works

1. Open JAM, get a random prompt (e.g. “Describe your favourite travel memory”), and speak non-stop for 60 seconds.

2. Receive your score and a clear visual report.

3. Read Jammy’s corrections and model response, then practise shadowing it.

4. Repeat daily — just one minute — and your fluency will climb naturally.

Who it’s for

• People living, studying, or working abroad — anyone who needs to adapt quickly to an English-speaking environment.

• Professionals — for meetings, presentations, or client calls.

• Exam candidates — sharpening speaking skills for IELTS, TOEFL, or PTE.

• Travellers — wanting smooth, stress-free exchanges on the road.

JAM is a paid app, but it costs less per month than two cups of coffee. Compare that to private tutoring — a single session with a native speaker might set you back hundreds of pounds. Jammy, your 24/7 AI coach, is there whenever you want, at a fraction of the cost.

A Gift for Newsletter Readers

For subscribers of this newsletter, I’ve set aside a special treat: a free one-month JAM membership(worth £4). Practise as many times as you like, wherever you are, with instant AI feedback.

It’s more than just a free code — it’s a 30-day speaking challenge. Before claiming, you’ll write down a pledge: to practise at least once a day, and to leave yourself a short note of encouragement. The app will generate a unique “learning contract” just for you.

In other words, I’ll cover the cost — you bring the consistency. Stick to it for 30 days, and your English confidence will leap forward.

Click to join the challenge. A month from now, you’ll thank your past self.

Link: https://Jamtalk.co/free

On the App Store: search “JAM English Speaking” or download directly here: https://apps.apple.com/nz/app/jam/id6749299926

Fluency doesn’t come from perfection — it comes from speaking. Your first 60 seconds start today.

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Last week, I launched my new product: JAM, an AI speaking coach.

It has been live for just 10 days. With only two of us building, every step feels worth celebrating.

✅ 500+ downloads

✅ $80+ in monthly revenue

✅ 3 versions shipped (bugs fixed + smoother experience)

✅ Chinese + English UI supported

We also launched a campaign for Chinese-speaking users: Free monthly code → 30-day English challenge. 100+ downloads in the first 12 hours.

On the backend, we built a notification system, internal tools, and push notifications in just a couple of days. At my previous role, that same setup took 3 teams months.

The biggest win? I’m closer than ever to business and product decisions. Design thinking helps me connect everything I’ve learned and put it straight into JAM.

Next step: marketing. I’ll be spending half my time there, and I’m excited to see where it takes us.

Check on App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jam/id6749299926

How I Built and Launched an AI-Powered App in 20 Days (as a Designer)

From idea to App Store in just 20 days — see exactly how I built an AI-powered iOS app as a designer, without being a full-time coder.

Transform your ideas into real products faster than ever - I'll show you exactly how I went from concept to App Store launch in just 20 days using AI tools like Cursor, with zero coding experience as a designer.

I'll walk you through my process, from using ChatGPT to validate the concept and building a functional prototype with Cursor, to collaborating with a developer and submitting the final product. This video isn't about code; it's about leveraging AI tools to turn your creative ideas into reality, even if you don't have a technical background.

This is a real-world case study for designers and tech professionals who want to explore how modern AI tools can accelerate their workflow, validate product ideas, and build functional prototypes faster than ever.

Other Goodies of the week

11 lessons from a year of using AI in my daily work

In his UX Collective article, Jan Takacs shares what he learned from a year of heavy AI use — aptly titled “From Hype to Habit.” Several points stood out to me:

• In multilingual work, English as the input language still delivers the highest-quality output.

• Great input = great output — the better you feed the AI, the better the results.

• The best outcomes often come when there’s almost a 1:1 ratio between input and output, rather than expecting the AI to spin gold from a vague prompt.

• Increasingly, he prefers speaking to AI over typing, especially as model quality improves.

• To get the most from AI long-term, you need to stay sharp — read, learn, think deeply, explore — and resist offloading too much, or your mental “muscle” will weaken.

For me, this reinforces one key adjustment: even though Chinese is my native language, keeping English as my primary input to AI can immediately improve quality. It’s a simple yet impactful change I’ll adopt as a long-term habit, treating AI as a thought partner, not a substitute.

Another point that really resonated with me is the importance of resisting the temptation to hand over all your work to AI. This kind of dependency can cause your “mental muscles” to atrophy over time. The most powerful way to use AI isn’t to have it do everything for you, but to treat it as a partner — one that broadens your perspective and deepens your thinking. We have to stay sharp and keep learning, rather than getting too comfortable, because once our thinking skills deteriorate, rebuilding them becomes incredibly hard.

Original link: https://uxdesign.cc/11-lessons-from-a-year-of-using-ai-in-my-daily-work-f03c18c7f861

5 AI Tools That Save Me 100+ Hours of Editing!

I just watched a video from Think Media that shared 5 AI tools for supercharging your editing workflow. For creators who are constantly producing content, these tools are like having a powerful production assistant that drastically cuts down on repetitive tasks. They handle everything from visuals and audio to carving out the best moments from long videos, giving us more time to focus on the creative side of things.

Here's a quick rundown of the 5 tools:

• CapCut: Beyond standard editing features, its powerful AI background removal and video upscaling can clean up your footage with a single click, saving a ton of post-production work.

• Adobe Podcast Enhance: This tool is made specifically for audio optimization. It takes bad recordings and makes them sound crisp and clear, giving your podcasts and voice-over videos a professional feel.

• Opus: Perfect for short-form content. Just upload a video, and it automatically finds the most engaging clips, adds captions, titles, and descriptions, making the repurposing process incredibly simple.

• VideoLeap: It can automatically slice a long video into 2-minute or 5-10 minute shorts, allowing you to easily pick and export the best parts for different platforms.

• Descript: This is a text-based video editor that lets you quickly search for highlights in a transcript and generate clips that are ready to use.

My Take:

I find this "tool combo" approach perfect for a high-volume, time-crunched creator like myself. When I'm promoting a product like JAM, I often need to distribute content across different platforms in multiple formats. These AI tools not only save me a ton of effort but also speed up my production cycle. The best part is that they have a low barrier to entry, so as a creative, I can handle most of the editing myself without needing to be a pro.

These tools reinforce my belief that AI isn't here to replace us; it's here to empower us. It automates the repetitive and mechanical tasks, giving us more time to think and, most importantly, to create.

Original video:

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

Should you chase the prestige of a big-name tech giant or dive head-first into a scrappy startup? In this episode I unpack my own path—from New Zealand’s top tech company to two-person teams—so you can see the real trade-offs. We’ll compare brand recognition, pay, mentorship, politics, impact, and speed of learning.

A firsthand look at how big tech and small startups shape your skills, impact, and long-term career growth—and how to choose between them.

Planning Research with Generative AI

Michael from NN/g shares a more formal framework for using generative AI to create research plans. In my own work, I use AI a lot in traditional UX research projects too. But the key reminder is — always remove sensitive data (names, genders, personal information, or business details) before using AI, then let creativity and imagination take over.

A research plan should include:

• The research goals or questions

• The method and how it will be conducted

• The tasks or questions for participants

• The target participant profile

• The screener questionnaire for recruitment

One useful tip is to break the plan into separate parts and have AI handle each individually before assembling them. For example:

Prompt template: I work for [type of organization]. My company provides [type of product/service]. I need to run a user-research study to learn [something about users or a problem].

Prompt example: I will run a research study and report on how UX practitioners across different organizations set up and use research repositories. Please generate 10 research questions that would be suitable for this study.

You can iterate by asking for more questions in a fresh session, then import them into an offline document (FigJam, Google Docs) to group, remove duplicates, and reword. After refining the list, start a new AI session so irrelevant questions don’t remain in the chat history. AI can also suggest research methods, define inclusion criteria, write natural-language task instructions (avoiding direct label references), craft neutral recruitment emails, and design screeners that hide the study’s true purpose.

My personal take:

This approach is great for “fast-to-shape” research contexts. AI won’t make decisions for you, but it can quickly surface potential questions, methods, and materials so you can spend more time on insights and analysis. The trick is to treat AI like a partner — you give it context and direction, it fills in details and sparks ideas. Keep safety and privacy first, then let your imagination do the rest.

Original link (article): https://www.nngroup.com/articles/plan-research-ai/

Prompting Technique: “Two-Stepping”

This post by Rob Lennon shares a prompting method called “two-stepping.” Although it was written over a year ago, it still holds value today.

The idea is to split your prompt into two parts:

1. Write your instructions as normal, telling the AI exactly what you want.

2. In the same prompt, add something like: “First, output your response according to the instructions above. Then…” — and have the AI summarise, expand, reformat, or review its own output.

The benefit is that you combine creation and refinement in a single prompt, reducing back-and-forth and keeping context intact.

My personal take:

I think this technique works really well when you need “generate + polish” workflows — for example, have the AI create a raw draft, then immediately distill it into a headline, bullet points, or a different style. In content production, it can save a lot of task-switching time. Even though today’s AI handles context much better, “two-stepping” is still a great tool for more controlled results.

Original link (post): https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01hvmjw5p3tntbxd3y4r4bh6wt/

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections. Subscribe for free at bear.academy

💬 Contact

• Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words

• bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life

• Beartalking.com - all my posts, in English and Chinese

• https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese

My answer is three simple words: career, well-being, and Paradigm.

There’s a quote I love: “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” Right now, AI isn’t just changing the rules—it’s changing the entire game. If you’re not learning, adapting, and sometimes even reinventing yourself, you risk getting left behind. That applies whether you’re a designer, developer, or marketer.

So if you’re thinking about your own career path, ask yourself: are you set up to thrive in this new world, or just treading water? Are you ready for a future where AI is a collaborator—not just a tool, but maybe even your creative partner? Or are you stuck in old ways of working, hoping things will slow down?

Sometimes leaving comfort behind is the only way to get ahead of the curve. For me, stepping out was how I could really engage with the new world of work—where AI isn’t something you read about, but something you build with, every single day.

Goodies this week

GPT-Tone: One-Click Fix for GPT-4o’s Yellow Tint (Free, No Sign-up)

GPT-Tone is a lightweight web tool that removes the yellow tint commonly seen in GPT-4o images. It’s free, watermark-free, and instant, with the page stressing privacy. Instead of opening full photo suites, you can drag-and-drop and get true-to-life colours in seconds—handy for creators who just need a quick, reliable post-processing pass. The site explicitly targets GPT-4o’s warm bias; broader analysis also notes GPT-4o tends to skew warm, and simple RGB scaling often restores natural colour.

My take

It’s genuinely useful. Many GPT images look overly warm and a bit lifeless. Traditional editors are overkill for quick fixes and can wash out details. GPT-Tone fits right into a fast “generate → pick → publish” pipeline. For thumbnails, covers, and mood boards, I’d de-yellow with GPT-Tone first, then do minimal framing/sharpening.

Link:

https://gpt-tone.com/

The Boring Winner: Don’t Just Build in Public—Win in Public

A crisp 200-word post by Zaid Al Kazemi (Zaid’s Newsletter, July 22, 2025) argues: people don’t care how nuanced you are; they care about value. To make value land, you must sell—spot a pain, promise relief, show how, and back it with credibility. The strongest credibility comes from winners. Winners are “boring” because they just keep winning. So the easiest path to trust is winning in public: celebrate your first customer, then 10, then 50 with a long thank-you note—and keep going. Build. Show. Win. Show.

My take

As a solo builder, I share my process a lot but not my wins enough. I’ll start shipping public proof: the first 10/50/100 paid users for Jam, a retention bump, a user case study from prompt to purchase. Not bragging—just clear signals that the product works. Tactically: keep a “Wins Log,” post a short Wins Friday recap each week, and pair every win with the “how” to avoid vanity.

Original link

https://newsletter.zalkazemi.com/p/the-boring-winner-boring-winner-we-all-want-to-be-understood-loved-for-the-dynamic-complex-thoughtfu

Wispr Flow Raises $30M Led by Menlo Ventures

Per TechCruncthor Ivan Mehta), AI dictation app Wispr Flow closed a $30M Series A led by Menlo Ventures, with NEA, 8VC and sl founders/executives participating; Matt Kraning from Menlo will join the board. Founder-CEO Tanay Kothari says the company is on track to profitability. Wispr began with a “silent mouthing” hardware concept, then pivoted to software: Mac app in Oct 2024, Windows in Mar 2025, and iOS earlier this month. It supports 104 languages, reports ~50% MoM user growth, has an ~18-person team, and plans Android plus enterprise features. Published June 24, 2025.

My take: Voice is the most scalable input—everyone can speak. No surprise that VCs use Wispr Flow daily and then fund what they can’t put down. I’ve been using it for notes and drafts; it noticeably reduces friction from thought to text. Big Tech’s distribution edge is a real risk, but in the “input interface” race, the winner is whoever minimizes that friction. For creators and knowledge workers, this is a real productivity boost to watch.

Original link:

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/24/wispr-flow-raises-30m-from-menlo-ventures-for-its-ai-powered-dictation-app/

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections.

Find me here:

• https://twitter.com/bearbig

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu

Last week I mentioned we're going through a "paradigm shift" that's changing how we work. My DMs exploded. Everyone wanted to know: what exactly do you mean by that?

Fair question. Let me break it down.

That nagging feeling you've been having about work? You're not losing it. The rules have changed, and nobody sent out a memo.

I've been hearing this from so many people lately: "I'm doing everything right, but something feels off. Like I'm missing something big." Well, you're not missing anything--the game itself is different now.

What's Actually Happening

We're in the middle of a massive shift. AI is eating entire job functions for breakfast. Interfaces are disappearing. Remote work isn't a "nice-to-have" anymore--it's just work. And all of this is happening at once.

For designers: Remember when you spent years perfecting pixel-perfect UIs? Cool. Now half your users talk to their devices instead of tapping them. Voice interfaces, AI assistants, spatial computing--suddenly "interface design" means something completely different. You're not designing buttons anymore; you're designing conversations.

For developers: You mastered frameworks, memorized syntax, optimized every line of code. Meanwhile, AI just wrote a functioning app in the time it took you to read this sentence. Companies are starting to ask uncomfortable questions like "Do we really need five developers when AI can handle the heavy lifting?"

It's not that your skills are worthless. It's that the definition of valuable work is being rewritten in real time.

Stop Climbing, Start Dancing

Here's the thing: careers used to be like climbing a ladder. Learn skill → get better → earn more → repeat. Linear and predictable.

Now? It's more like dancing. The music keeps changing, and you need to feel the rhythm and adjust on the fly. Some days you're leading, some days you're following, and sometimes you're just trying not to step on anyone's toes.

The people who are thriving aren't necessarily the smartest or most experienced. They're the ones who noticed the music changed and started moving differently.

What This Means for You

First, breathe. You didn't mess up. The whole playing field shifted while you were focused on getting better at the old game.

Second, get curious instead of anxious. What's actually happening in your industry? Not what you think should be happening--what is happening. The people making moves aren't the ones with the best résumés; they're the ones reading the room.

Third, experiment. Try that AI tool everyone's talking about. Take on a project that scares you a little. Talk to someone doing something completely different. The worst thing you can do right now is nothing.

The Bottom Line

Your experience matters. Your skills matter. But clinging to how things used to work is career suicide.

The professionals winning right now aren't the ones fighting the change--they're the ones riding the wave. They stopped asking "How do I get better at what I used to do?" and started asking "What needs doing now?"

The script changed. Time to learn your new lines.

Goodies this week

Three Handy Phrases for Getting the Most Out of AI

Here are three simple but effective prompts I often use when working with AI tools:

• fact check this

• think step by step

• ask me questions to clarify

(Verify the facts, think it through bit by bit, and feel free to ask if anything’s unclear.)

Common AI Phrases Used by Twitter user TZ:

• When asking questions: critical thinking this

• For writing code: stick to the principle of minimal code changes

• When editing writing: please give a score, explain the criteria and reasons, and suggest improvements

Did a Virtual Investing Experiment — Can You Guess How It Turned Out?

I asked the AI to run a simulated investing experiment with the following setup:

• Timeframe: from 1st Jan last year to 1st Jan this year

• Portfolio: 20 randomly selected stocks — a mix of high-volatility and more stable picks

• Starting capital: $50,000, evenly split across the 20 stocks

Investment Rules:

• If a stock goes up more than 15%, sell it immediately

• If a stock drops more than 15%, sell that too

• Reinvest any proceeds equally across the remaining stocks

• You're allowed to buy back stocks previously sold

• Each trade costs $5

The goal was to see, based on real market data, how much that £50k would be worth after a year using this 15% rule strategy.

Result of the Virtual Investment:

We lost money 🤣

Outcome using the 15% rule strategy:

• Final portfolio value: $48,374.17

• Net loss: -$1,625.83

• Overall return: -3.25%

Full breakdown here:
https://x.com/bearbig/status/1947967835960930455

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections.

Find me here:

• https://twitter.com/bearbig

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu

The Magic of Meituan’s Convenience

Meituan is like a digital Swiss Army knife for urban life in China. Launched in 2010 by entrepreneur Wang Xing as a simple coupon service, it has evolved into a powerhouse super app with over 770 million monthly active transactional users and 3 million delivery riders zipping around the country (Meituan.txt). Need a power bank on the go? Just scan a QR code, pay 2 yuan (about $0.30 USD), and you’ve got 30 minutes of juice—return it anywhere in the city. Forgot your keys at home? For just 20 yuan (~$3 USD), Meituan’s riders can deliver them to you in about an hour. From food delivery to scooter rentals to buying medicine, Meituan’s vast network makes daily life ridiculously convenient. It’s no wonder it’s a staple for modern Chinese city dwellers.

The Chaos of Meituan’s User Experience

But here’s the catch: Meituan’s app is a hot mess. Imagine opening a digital Chinese buffet where every dish is screaming for your attention. The interface bombards you with menus, pop-ups, live-streaming promotions, and gamified features like “silver membership” badges. Want to order food? You’ll wade through sliding banners, promotional landing pages, and a homepage that’s more like a labyrinth than a starting point. Even the Chinese locals call it chaotic. The app’s design feels like it’s trying to sell you everything at once—coupons, live streams, even loans (more on that later). It’s so overwhelming that finding what you need can feel like a treasure hunt gone wrong.

A Financial Powerhouse in Disguise?

Speaking of loans, Meituan isn’t just about food or power banks—it’s a financial juggernaut. By tracking your purchases, the app builds a profile of your financial habits, offering services like borrowing money directly through its platform. For example, I was offered a loan of 197,000 RMB (~$30,000 USD) based on my spending data. This integration of e-commerce, delivery, and financial services makes Meituan a true super app, but it also raises eyebrows. With so much personal data in one place, concerns about privacy and sustainability linger, though those debates are for another day.

You can even watch livestream shows from Meituan app!

Love It, Hate It, Can’t Live Without It

Meituan is a paradox: a brilliantly convenient tool that can also drive you up the wall with its cluttered interface. It’s a testament to how far technology can go in simplifying life while complicating the user experience. Next time you’re in China, give it a spin—just brace yourself for the chaos. What’s your take—would you trade a bit of app insanity for unmatched convenience?

Chinese Super App Meituan: Convenience vs UX Chaos

Meituan proves that a super-app’s mind-blowing convenience can clash with chaotic UX—offering priceless design lessons for every product team.

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections.

Find me here:

• https://twitter.com/bearbig

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu

This newsletter is my retrospective on that project.

I’m Trying to Make US$1,000 in 20 Hours | Episode 1

What happens when a slightly “rusty” product designer sets a fitness-check-in style goal—make US$1,000 in just twenty hours?

I cracked open my full AI toolkit and used Figma Sites to whip up a standalone sponsorship-ready website, documenting every twist and turn on Twitter (X).

To my surprise, half-way through the sprint I’d already pocketed US$650 from ad-hoc consulting gigs—well on the way to the target.

In this episode you’ll see the whole live-build sprint: rapid user research, one-click wireframes with Lovable, a design system drafted via ChatGPT—and, crucially, how I translated user feedback into real revenue.

If you’re a content creator, indie dev, or UX professional, you’ll pick up practical tips for turning skills into cash, squeezing more out of AI tools, and pitching sponsors with confidence.

How to Earn US$1,000 in 20 Hours (Part Two)

What happens when a product designer turns a weekend into a money-making lab? In this instalment I rebuild my income from scratch—no outside funding, just skills, AI tools and a ticking 20-hour clock. Watch me take apart and rebuild my media-kit site in Figma Sites, combine ChatGPT + Lovable for instant wireframes, and land three paid consulting gigs that pushed revenue beyond US$1,000 in just two days. I break down ROI, reusable assets, and how a single X (Twitter) comment thread became a signed contract. You’ll learn:

• how to spot faint market signals and pivot fast

• a consulting workflow you can copy tomorrow

• why building in public turbo-charges trust and sales

• the tech stack—AI prompts, design hacks, outreach scripts—that kept both the clock and the cash moving

It’s a real-time case study in blending AI-driven design, public storytelling and rapid-fire consultancy to bank US$1,000.

Text version of the recap below:

Earning US$1,000 in 20 Hours: Half-way Report at US$650

The elevator pitch: I set myself an extreme “20 hours = US$1,000” experiment. Midway through, consulting plus a lean product prototype have already delivered US$650.

Why Stage a Personal Hackathon?

I’m currently in China looking after family, so paid design work all but dried up and my skills felt creaky. Rather than just fret about getting back in shape, I upgraded “refresher training” to a public experiment: cap my total work time at twenty hours, bar all trading and outside investment, and hit US$1,000 solely with the tools and expertise already to hand—while sharing every step with the community. It forced me into action and offered peers and students a playbook they might replicate.

What on Earth Should I Sell?

I weighed three routes. First, a digital asset or SaaS—sustainable, but a long build-out. Second, investments—ruled out because they need capital and break the zero-budget rule. Third, selling services—fastest to land within twenty hours. Looking back at my income mix, sponsorship brokering, affiliate revenue and design services all convert quickly. Given my edge in content and product design, I zeroed in on the pain point of helping YouTubers secure sponsorships.

Ten Hours to a Sponsorship Website MVP

Once I’d picked a lane, I spent half a day validating demand. I threw a question into an Auckland YouTuber WhatsApp group—“How do you quickly spin up a sponsorship page?”—and the replies confirmed everyone had tried and stumbled. I drafted a PRD with ChatGPT, fed it to Lovable for an HTML stub, imported that into Figma for visual polish, and used Figma AI to auto-generate a colour palette and type scale. In under ten hours I launched a responsive site that doubles as a public case study and my own media kit.

A Pleasant Surprise: Consulting First to US$650

I live-tweeted the build and three SaaS founders slid into my DMs, asking for paid design reviews. Three consulting calls later I’d banked roughly US$650—quicker cash-flow than the site itself. That validated my hunch that consultancy is the fastest, most reliable monetisation path. Even so, I’m sticking to the plan and finishing the product route before the full retrospective.

Four Hours Left—What’s Next?

I’m allocating the remaining hours to three tasks: tightening the landing-page copy to hammer home “help creators land more sponsors”; demoing the site to five target YouTubers to land a first bespoke build; and continuing to stream every step on X, because radical transparency often opens unexpected doors.

Half-Time, but Already Ahead of Expectations

So far I’ve learnt that public progress updates act as free market tests and traffic drivers; the ChatGPT → Lovable → Figma AI stack compresses days of UI work into mere hours; and funding the journey with consulting before productising is the safest route in an extreme time-box. I’ll use the final four hours to see whether the site can stand alone as a product and, once the clock stops, record a full breakdown video sharing every figure and takeaway.

Earning US$1,000 in 20 Hours: Full Challenge Recap

One-line summary: break 20 hours into a “mini-hackathon”, avoid outside money and crypto, rely on design and content skills, pocket US$1,000 in cash, and stockpile assets for the next big push.

Why Put Myself Through This?

Last year, while caring for family in China, I barely touched any structured design projects and felt my craft rusting. Instead of brooding, I turned “getting back in shape” into a public experiment: in a fortnight, earn US$1,000 within 20 hours and share the entire journey. It rebooted my practice and proved that personal skills can still generate solid value under extreme constraints.

Inputs and Outcomes—Let the Numbers Talk

The main input was time—about twenty-five hours when you include thinking on trains and in queues. Cash input was zero; the rules barred investments and trading. Income split two ways: US$650 from design consulting and US$350 from sponsorship-related work, hitting the US$1,000 mark. Less tangible but equally valuable were boosts in social credibility, a steeper learning curve, and fresh leads. Consulting remains the swiftest, most certain source of cash, laying a safety net for later product experiments.

What Assets Did the Challenge Leave Behind?

First, content assets: a full Twitter thread, two YouTube videos, and a detailed blog recap, all laying groundwork for future storytelling. Second, digital assets: the Sponsor Hub demo built with Figma Sites plus a reusable site architecture for creators. Third, process assets: a clear consulting SOP—from intake to review to action plan—bundled with cold-outreach emails and DM templates. Lastly, tooling know-how: hands-on fluency with the ChatGPT + Lovable + Figma pipeline and three months of Mobbin for design inspiration.

Methods and Mindsets—Five Deep Lessons

1. AI plus design slashes UI production time. ChatGPT for PRDs, Lovable for HTML, Figma for polish—days of work down to hours.

2. Building in public is free market research: hourly updates bring instant feedback and paid leads.

3. Weak signals hide big chances: a casual comment can blossom into a consulting fee.

4. Pivot quickly: when consulting pays fastest, “sell brain-power” first, then productise.

5. Trust is currency: stockpile it before cashing in—and never overdraw, or next time nobody pays.

Transferable Principles and Insights

A crisp, compelling personal narrative drives growth. Money follows when trust has somewhere to land—offer a clear, buy-able hook. Globally, countless Chinese products want to go international but lack execution; that gap spells a dual opportunity for consulting and courses.

What’s Next?

I’ll make “monthly theme challenges” a habit, designing a new micro-experiment each month to pile up case studies and reach. A “group sprint” is on the cards—inviting the community in to amplify the signal. I’ll boost my English-language output to tap a broader market and, product-wise, aim to craft a “mini digital product you can build and sell in twenty hours”. Every workflow, template and case study will be documented into material that can be sold or taught.

Final Word: Turning Experience into Leverage

This twenty-hour sprint yielded far more than US$1,000 on the ledger—it produced a validated mindset, a proven toolchain and live market feedback. Ready for your own extreme challenge? Tell me in the comments; perhaps our next public experiment will be a collaborative one.

Last week a friend DMed me at 1 am:

“Bear, hiring freezes everywhere. Is it crazy to quit and go solo now?”

I laughed because that’s exactly what Airbnb’s founders did in 2008—right in the teeth of the global financial crisis. They couldn’t pay rent, so they inflated air-mattresses for conference visitors and unwittingly kicked off a multibillion-dollar movement.

History loves that plot twist. When big companies slam on the brakes, nimble designers hit the gas. Basecamp bloomed after the dot-com implosion. Figma started while venture money was hiding under the bed. Tough seasons force small teams to build lean—and lean design sells.

Here's the video, and if you'd like to read, below is the full blog version.

Why 2025 Feels Ripe

A few datapoints had me double-take this year:
• US freelancers earned US $1.27 trillion in 2023—about the size of the entire agricultural sector.
• The creator economy already tops US $191 billion and is on pace to triple by 2030.
• Four in ten remote-capable workers now live the hybrid life; companies treat talent like modular Lego bricks—hire when needed, release when done.
• And yes, generative-AI has gone mainstream among creatives, letting one designer ship what an agency once required.

In short: budgets didn’t vanish—they shape-shifted. They’re hunting for specialists who can drop in, solve a problem, and bounce.

Seven Hustles I Keep Seeing Win

Instead of shotgun listing, let me paint a quick tour. Picture us on a Wellington waterfront walk, flat white in hand, gossiping about what’s actually working.

1. The One-Person AI Studio

My mate Emma prototypes with ChatGPT, mood-boards in Midjourney, polishes in Figma, then hands over dev-ready files. Two-week sprint, fixed fee. Clients love the speed; she loves the margin.

2. Digital Goods While-You-Sleep

Louis bundles sleek UI icons and Notion dashboards. Gumroad pings him at 3 a.m.—“You made another US $29”. It’s a modern version of selling stock photos, minus the gatekeepers.

3. Tiny SaaS or Figma Plugin

Ruby wrote a plug-in that auto-localises strings. Price: US $5 per user, per month. Last time we talked she was clearing rent before lunch.

4. Live Cohort Courses

Think four Saturday sessions on “Prompt Craft for Designers”. Twenty seats at US $399. Students finish with certificates and bragging rights; you finish with runway.

5. No-Code Venture Studio

Build founders’ MVPs in Framer or Figma Sites in two weeks. Charge cash up-front and take a sliver of equity for fun. If one pops, so do you.

1. Kickstarter-First Physical Product

Stats show nearly eight in ten campaigns that pass the 20 % mark end up fully funded. Set a friendly target; call in favours to cross that early line; let the momentum algorithm carry you.

3. Paid Crit & Job Club

Slack group, weekly design reviews, a curated job board. Ten bucks a month feels like lunch money to members—but adds up fast on your side of the ledger.

Notice the pattern? Each idea banks on speed, community trust, and tooling that didn’t exist five years ago.

How I’d Tackle It in 30 Days

Week 1 – Spot the itch. Write down ten micro-annoyances you or clients complain about (“Why is localisation still manual?”).

Week 2 – Prototype the aspirin. Build the scrappiest version that demonstrates relief—loom video, fig-jam link, whatever.

Week 3 – Charge a stranger. Post the offer on X, LinkedIn, and in a Discord you actually hang out in. Price it—even if it’s US $10. The first swipe of a credit card turns a hobby into a business.

Week 4 – Tighten the screws. Shipping reveals the parts that rattle. Fix one rattle per week. Repeat.

Rinse until you wake up and realise you just built a real thing.

A Friendly Nudge Before You Go

Recessions prune the forest but fertilise the soil. You don’t need venture funding—you need a small circle of humans who whisper, “Take my money and solve this for me.” Grab a weekend, pick one idea, and run a tiny experiment.

When you land your first paying customer, pop back and tell me. I’ll raise a Butterbeer to you—because, like Harry sneaking past Fluffy, the scariest part is just cracking the door.

What itch are you scratching first?

⸻

Spoiler alert

You may say, “Bear, don’t just talk the talk, walk the walk!” Yes, I do! I’m currently doing a self-hackathon to turn $20 into $1,000 in 20 hours. Right now, with 5 hours left, I’ve already secured $615.

I’ll share the full details in my next newsletter.

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections.

Find me here:

• https://twitter.com/bearbig

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu

Apple released Liquid Glass design language on WWDC, which sparked a wide range of feedback. I have some thoughts on that, and I’ll share them below.

Also, if you read the last newsletter, you might remember that I’m currently in China handling a family health issue. Things are going well, and I’m slowly getting back on track with technology and design. This experience has been a good reminder that people are the most important part of our lives.

I’m also starting to make videos again. That had been paused due to the family situation, which shifted my focus for a short while—but I’m getting back on track now.

This week, I’ve made a video sharing 6 tips for using ChatGPT. Try a few of them—you might notice some improvements or differences!

Cool, that’s it for today. Enjoy!

Apple's Liquid Glass - an accessibility disaster?

To be honest, the new “glass” style introduced in iOS 26 during WWDC doesn’t resemble real glass at all, and I really don’t like it. But more importantly, it breaks the standard accessibility rule.

I don’t understand how they made this decision. A company of this scale choosing to reduce the user experience — especially for seniors or people using their devices outdoors — is baffling. How and why did they think this was a good idea?

And judging by the stock performance, it feels like I’m not alone in feeling this way.

(A moment later) I watched the introduction of the “Liquid glass” design language on Apple's Keynote, and I must say, there are a few highlights. It seems Apple has identified this material not just as a design element, but as a strategic business differentiator. From a physical standpoint — think Apple’s flagship stores, the glass on all their products including Vision Pro — to the visual language of their software, there’s a strong sense of cohesion in how they’re presenting this concept.

However, I can’t help but sense that there might be some internal politics at play. Previously, under Jony Ive’s direction, aluminium was the hallmark material. Now with the shift towards liquid glass, it’s possible that a leadership shake-up or some behind-the-scenes disagreements have led to this change in direction — something not uncommon in large corporations.

And what's the value for users? I still not get the user value of updating the design language.

For designers, at least two key challenges are becoming apparent:

Compressed content space: The use of liquid glass often goes hand-in-hand with heavy use of rounded corners and circular motifs, which noticeably reduces usable content space — especially on mobile. This presents a real challenge for UI designers who need to convey more within tighter visual boundaries.

Need for motion design skills: One of the core strengths of this design language lies in its dynamic visual effects. For designers, just producing static screens is no longer enough. It’s essential to develop a grasp of motion design — at the very least, being able to implement basic animations using development tools. The era of simply completing static designs in Figma and handing them off is well and truly over.

6 secrets to Leveling Up Your Conversations with ChatGPT!

What if a single tool could brainstorm ideas, write like a pro, and even schedule your day? In this episode, I reveal six insider secrets that turn ChatGPT from “helpful” to game-changing. You’ll learn how to craft laser-sharp prompts, keep the conversation flowing, and tap 2025’s newest features—Deep Research, Voice Mode, and Tasks—for real-time facts and hands-free chats. I’ll also show you how to spin up custom GPTs that handle your repetitive design or content chores while you sleep.

Whether you’re a designer, developer, or solo-preneur, these tips will boost creativity, slice your workflow in half, and safeguard you from outdated info. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to turn ChatGPT into your smartest teammate.

Note: here's a text version if you prefer to read rather than watch video:

Are you still treating ChatGPT like a neat toy? A tiny tweak in the way you ask questions can save hours of work and replace what once took a whole research team. Let’s walk through six moves that turn this AI into a genuine power tool.

Ask clear, grounded questions

ChatGPT shines when you set the scene, give it a role and spell out the goal in one breath. Try something like, “You’re a SaaS marketing consultant—give me three ways to cut churn among small-business users.” The sharper the setup, the less the model wanders and the faster you get usable answers.

Treat it like a teammate, not a search box

Think of the chat as an ongoing conversation. Follow-up questions keep context alive and let you steer the response exactly where you need it. Role-playing helps too. Tell it, “Act as a news editor,” and the tone snaps into a tighter, newsroom style right away.

Play with the new toys: Deep Research, voice chat and tasks

OpenAI’s Deep Research mode now scours the web in several steps and hands you a mini-report in minutes instead of hours. Voice chat lets you interrupt and guide the AI like you’re on a call. Built-in tasks and automations can schedule reminders or kick off little workflows right inside the thread.

Use AI as a creativity booster

More than four out of five creative pros already lean on generative AI to speed up ideas and polish final output. A simple loop—draft with ChatGPT, validate with Google Trends, then ask ChatGPT to write titles and social posts—turns one person into a one-stop content shop.

Fact-check everything

The model can still hallucinate, especially on breaking news. Ask it for links and sources, then cross-check against trusted outlets or official reports. Deep Research automatically attaches citations, which cuts down on manual verification.

Build your own custom GPTs

Feed the system your brand voice, product docs or FAQ sheets and you’ll have a private helper that stays on message every single time. Teams are already using custom GPTs to answer support tickets and churn out marketing emails while designers sleep. The payoff is consistent tone, faster turnaround and fewer repetitive tasks.

Pick one of these moves—say, sharpening a single prompt—and try it today. Then explore Deep Research, voice chat or even spin up a custom GPT. Here’s a question to start you off: if ChatGPT could take over the dullest 20 percent of your workflow, which part would you hand over first?

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections.

Find me here:

• https://twitter.com/bearbig

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu

I recently revisited The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s a powerful book for creative people looking to regain their spark. Among its methods, the most impactful for me has been “Morning Pages.” The idea is simple: you write a few pages every morning—unfiltered, uncensored. Over time, it’s supposed to ease stress and reveal what’s buried deep in your mind. Many people swear by it, and I became one of them. I started last year, and it gradually became a habit because I gained so many insights about myself. That daily reflection was transformative.

I even keep a notebook next to my pillow, with a pen ready. Sometimes I write in the middle of the night, just to release thoughts. This small practice helped me through something recent and deeply personal.

Earlier this week, my father had a heart attack. I spent the first few days in the hospital with him, running errands, making arrangements—life got very chaotic. He’s been living alone in his apartment for many years, and with his health declining, I knew his space must’ve fallen apart. When I entered the apartment, I was petrified. It was worse than I thought, and I hired a house-cleaning team that worked for seven hours to tidy it up. When they finished, I finally stood in that apartment, able to breathe, to take it all in. And then I saw it—an old-style notebook lying next to his pillow. Out of curiosity, I opened it.

Half the pages were filled. They were mostly copied Chinese poetry, and some calligraphy. I imagined he used it to calm his mind, maybe to help him sleep—just like I do with mine. The first few pages were beautifully written, neat and composed. As I turned the pages, the handwriting grew messier. By the final page, it was nearly illegible. It felt like I was watching two different people writing.

And then it hit me. That notebook mirrored his health, his mind. In the last pages, you could feel the suffering, the pain, the confusion. It was like a silent scream on paper. And I suddenly saw myself in him.

Our notebooks were different in format and content—but in spirit, they were the same.

I don’t have a close relationship with my dad. In fact, it’s been strained. My parents divorced when I was in junior school, and I always blamed him for it. I felt like I didn’t have a normal family, because of him. When I was 17, my mom died in a car accident. After that, I felt completely alone. My dad wasn’t really there for me. Even when I struggled financially after uni, he didn’t offer support. Those moments stuck with me. But maybe, in some strange way, that disappointment became fuel. It made me who I am today: independent, resilient.

I’ve moved countries, changed careers, started my own business, carved out a life on my own terms. And yet… now that I have my own family, I see glimpses of him in me.

Sometimes, I find myself pulling away from my daughter—even though she’s perfect in every way. I hide in my work, my podcasts, my videos. Just like my dad escaped into literature, his version of escape, or healing.

And then I realized—the forms are different, but the spirit is the same.

In that moment, standing there in his apartment, I forgave him.

It’s strange how the mind works—how in just a few minutes, you can release years of blame, feel sudden compassion, and finally understand someone you’ve struggled with for decades.

Now I see that the divorce wasn’t entirely his fault. It takes two people. And maybe he wasn’t a good dad—not because he didn’t care, but because he didn’t know how. He didn’t grow up in a stable family either. No one taught him.

So now, I don’t see his heart attack as a curse or bad luck. I see it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to see him clearly, to understand him, and maybe to repair what’s broken.

There will still be struggles. He’s not used to having me around. He’s lived alone for so long. And this process will be challenging for both of us. But he’s old now. This is the final chapter—my chance to know him before it’s too late.

I thank the universe for this opportunity. And I will use it wisely.

Hello, I’m Bear—a product designer, UX mentor and an award‑winning bilingual podcast host, currently living in Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy sharing insights from my work, life, and study, helping all of us grow together.

Bear Academy Newsletter is my weekly email packed with thoughts on technology, design, and productivity—featuring book breakdowns, learning tips, and career reflections.

Find me here:

• https://twitter.com/bearbig

• LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu