{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Near Future Podcast","title":"Ep #11: No Shortcuts. Backyard Designers, AI Slop, and the Leadership Squeeze","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/2fa71341\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3611,"description":"Tom and Jonny are back for a duo episode after a month of guest interviews — Jonny has just about got the internet back after a house move and a camping trip. \nThey reflect on what the recent guest run has taught them, dig into Backyard Designers Club and the hooha it sparked, and talk through why design and engineering leadership is such a hard place to be right now. \nPlus: Tom built a 3D chess game for his 5-year-old using Opus 5 and Three.js, and Jonny's Ooda gets a quiet YC moment.\nChapters0:04 — Intro: Jonny's back (and has internet again)3:44 — Reflections on a month of guest episodes8:20 — The common thread: leaders who build17:00 — AI raises the floor, not the ceiling — but the ceiling hasn't moved21:35 — The AI slop problem: Hacker News, Substack's detector & LinkedIn's report button22:08 — Ellipsis and the proof-of-work problem for human writing26:10 — Ini's wireless-in-the-browser project: the opposite of slop21:32 — Backyard Designers Club: craft, sound design and game-like delight29:13 — How fast an original idea can be cloned31:21 — The hoo-ha: exclusion, community claims, and what a community actually is38:53 — Who's on Backyard Designers — and what it says about design's visible/invisible divide41:35 — Engineering leadership burnout: Gergely Orosz's three reasons leaders are quitting44:35 — Is design leadership 12 months behind engineering on the same trajectory?51:57 — Tom's AI experiments: agent skill pack + a 3D underwater chess game1:00:01 — Jonny's Ooda project gets a YC validation moment1:00:42 — What's coming up: Build workshop, Wednesday event with Christine Røde (The Browser Company), Brighton in September\nUseful LinksBackyard Designers Club — https://backyarddesigners.clubBroke Ass Designers — the commentary/reaction version - https://brokeass-designers.fly.dev/Ellipsus — proof-of-work writing tool https://ellipsus.com/Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer) — engineering leadership trends post...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/8vUveugi5ZjKDI2pGhMY6ZwBcP7SSSqiqKb9hZCqvHM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lOGE1/OTk1MmI3NWJjZTAw/Y2EyMWJjODZkODFj/MjI4MC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}