A Treatise on AI Chatbots Undermining the Enlightenment
On chatbot sycophancy, passivity, and the case for more intellectually challenging companions
I've been trying to articulate why the fawning, complimentary responses from AI chatbots feel so insidious to me. I've finally figured out how to explain it.
Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...
06.08.2025 09:33 β π 145 π 37 π¬ 12 π 6
One of my essays with a "Version history" dropdown visible in the metadata showing three different versions with different descriptions of what's been updated. Each version shows a relative date (2 years ago, 6 days ago).
I've wanted versioning on my digital garden for ages. Felt like a critical missing piece.
Making my own dreams come true over here.
Hard but fun to design this. These aren't automatically generated β I intentionally decide when to make new versions. Not every edit = new version. Only major updates
14.08.2025 13:18 β π 125 π 6 π¬ 11 π 1
Worked on some onboarding illustrations this morning. #buildinpublic #swiftui
26.01.2025 13:36 β π 34 π 1 π¬ 2 π 1
Noise, shadows, gradients and motion blurs
03.02.2025 17:23 β π 12 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
meet Apple Spotlight
15.01.2025 07:06 β π 101 π 18 π¬ 11 π 3
tomorrow is Joi Day, aka the 9th of every month. what one feature should we release tomorrow?
β joi.software
08.01.2025 17:00 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
The Website Manifesto
2025 YEAR OF THE WEBSITE
nora.zone/manifesto.html
01.01.2025 16:00 β π 249 π 105 π¬ 12 π 10
i have started a job where i have no idea whats going on 90% of the time
itβs rare to have an opportunity to be a beginner again β i am doing a residency as a research engineer at anthropic
30.12.2024 22:23 β π 32 π 1 π¬ 2 π 0
New app icon (Still a newspaper)
Reddit native comments view for an r/TodayILearned post
A reddit video inline for a 3d model on r/blender
The 'translate' button on the reader view
new update to feeeed, my 'build your own news feed' app!
π¦ A new look with a new icon, cleaner type and more consistent colors
π§΅ Native views for Reddit comment threads and videos (dont tell reddit!)
π Translate a story via the share menu (uses Google translate) & summaries in any language
30.12.2024 04:39 β π 34 π 2 π¬ 2 π 1
step 1 of writing a prolog interpreter: have Claude code me a custom debug utility that can visualize what my interpreter is doing :D
already helped me fix so many bugs!
20.12.2024 22:54 β π 64 π 7 π¬ 4 π 0
a little experiment in ui: MAGIC WAND
can you tell the computer to modify part of a complicated document by "pointing" at it?
20.12.2024 23:32 β π 33 π 3 π¬ 1 π 1
Our 'Open Supernotes' links just got a glow up β¨
20.12.2024 17:07 β π 8 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0
@are.na is the closest thing to βexploringβ the internet that exists
16.12.2024 00:30 β π 55 π 14 π¬ 2 π 0
I had so much fun designing @supernotes.app wrapped, here's mine π
16.12.2024 18:17 β π 11 π 4 π¬ 1 π 1
the animation that plays when you commit to your plan in semantical.com's Today app, created with rive.app
09.12.2024 11:00 β π 5 π 3 π¬ 0 π 0
After seeing @supernotes.app in action on the Galaxy Fold, I'm really tempted to buy one π
09.12.2024 18:49 β π 3 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0
βοΈπ π§οΈ
06.12.2024 09:12 β π 21 π 3 π¬ 1 π 1
Weather Widgets that can be customised..
09.12.2024 19:31 β π 11 π 1 π¬ 0 π 1
The touch bar has been turned into a standalone gadget, powered by an ESP32 microcontroller:
01.12.2024 22:41 β π 257 π 43 π¬ 11 π 7
02.12.2024 08:10 β π 22 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
little clay things: a rainbow, a calico cat, an apple, a snail, a mushroom, a mountain, an orange, a tulip, and a frog. the background is a bright yellow.
little pals
30.11.2024 21:41 β π 383 π 92 π¬ 1 π 0
In a alternative timeline. π¦
30.11.2024 08:38 β π 26 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0
Almost got this design where I want it. Still have plenty of tweaks I want to make and need to figure out the animations on the blueprints page.
Iβll go over and refactor a lot when I get more content in
29.11.2024 02:06 β π 9 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
A revised version of the previous screens that has an improved lockup and a better positioned header
ok i think this is a bit better
28.11.2024 06:20 β π 7 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
A grid of potential designs for Maitsu's WIP screen, particularly in the state where you are being prompted to start a new project
cannot for the life of me figure out what to do with this @maitsu.co screen #buildinpublic #design #swiftui
27.11.2024 05:59 β π 12 π 1 π¬ 5 π 0
π Jammed with @merycodes.bsky.social on this one!
Designing date pickers is always such a joy!
28.11.2024 07:30 β π 11 π 2 π¬ 2 π 1
From the archives - genUI.
28.11.2024 00:03 β π 18 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
sf compute fan art
27.11.2024 18:15 β π 7 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
Almost ready π To start Iβm thinking to limit to 10 users and offer lifetime licence π
27.11.2024 18:31 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
β’ Process in Play
β http://arkoty.pe
here for the love of the game
21 he/him ( γ»Ογ»)
cobalt.tools imput.net
wukko.me
Follow for updates on my web OS project (https://alpha.lisagui.com) as I add features and fix bugs. I occasionally post other stuff I'm working on.
https://lisagui.com/info β’ https://yaros.ae β’ https://mastodon.social/@lisagui β’ https://ko-fi.com/andrewy
bikes, typography, hip hop, and oxford commas. he/him.
π¨ head of design the browser company, building Dia Browser
dustinsenos.com β’ π british columbia
Internet Designer at www.sharypin.cool
designer @anagramclub
https://www.cosmos.so/bguillaume/personal-design-lab
Human Interface Designer. Photographer. Music Producer.
Rive creative team.
Zerocam co-founder.
Former Sketch, MacPaw (CleanMyMac, Gemini, Setapp)
Based In London.
Design engineer β¦ Building fun things
I design and code (order may vary) β’ Product Design β² Vercel
cooking up β’ prev vercel figma diagram
Design @Figma, previously @Discord
Random user interface designer from paris
Pop culture maniac
product designer
twitter.com/aleksliving
public note taking
https://pa.co