Can't you just put your pants on?
Why AI makes good designers feel like toddlers.
Nobody is born knowing the tag goes in the back
I was teaching my daughter to put on pants last weekend and realized how many motions I’d stopped noticing: pants right side out, tag in the back, one hole per leg, one leg at a time, weight shifted so she doesn’t tip over, and sitting down when her arms can’t reach the bottom.
No motion is unnecessary and that’s what makes it hard to learn.
If you’ve spent years in Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Webflow, working with AI feels exactly like this. You’ve gone through those motions 10,000 times and now they seem obvious. You don't have to think about what to do in making a logo, website, product, or design of any kind if you go that route.
But, now we're learning something entirely different where the outcome is still... good design.
That’s because the mechanism changed. It’s no longer moving pixels. It’s directing: writing/speaking what you want, critiquing what comes back, spotting where the agent strayed from your process, and resting in the gap while it works.
A few tools to help you along the way:
Conductor. Run multiple agents at the same time. One that works on a logo, one that makes a stylescape, one that builds a landing page mockup, one that helps you finish your newsletters... 😉 you get the idea.
Loom. Record a video, mark it up, and hand your agent the transcript and prompts it generates. Pairs well with the /watch-video skill on the next one.
Maker Skills. My co-founder Corey’s skills for coaching your agents to create like you.
Next.js (my preferred code language) and Agentation. Build your site in something agents work well with, then point at the exact element you want changed.
Your agent will know what Next.js is.
Paper. See everything your agent creates laid out on one canvas and work alongside the bots... at the same time. Paper is also the best canvas tool for website parity. Yes, even better than Figma.
Figma. Still useful for the final touches and smooooooooooth gradients on your design assets. This is almost more of a replacement for Adobe's suite rather than a web design tool.
Flora. An image, vector, and video generator your agent can drive for you, so you never have to touch the nodes.
You learned to eat, walk, talk and use the bathroom on your own. And, eventually you learned to put on pants (I hope).
This is no different than putting on pants.
— Zach
PS. Any tips on helping your kid put on their pants?
