{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Near Future Podcast","title":"Ep#5: Are middle managers actually finished? Plus: personal software, Ideogram & Midjourney goes medical","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3030,"description":"Tom and Jonny are back for another wide-ranging episode.\nJonny starts by recapping his golf trip to Mallorca — where a non-technical friend used Lovable to vibe-code a fully functional scoring app for their annual 16-man Ryder Cup-style tournament, the Stryder Cup. It's a perfect case study in personal software.\nFrom there, Tom brings a meaty topic: the \"death of the middle manager\" narrative gaining steam in the press. Drawing on his five years as Director of Product Design at Monzo, Tom and Jonny debate whether this is a real structural shift or a post-ZIRP overcorrection — and what managers should actually do to stay relevant.\nIn the quick-fire round, Jonny introduces Ideogram, a small but opinionated image model that excels at visual design and can be self-hosted and fine-tuned on your own work. Tom follows up with Midjourney's unexpected pivot into health and wellness medical devices — and what it says about where AI companies might be headed.\nThey close by testing themselves on \"In the Weights\" — a site that checks if your name appears in AI training data. Jonny is in (top 25% British product designer). Tom is not.\nFinally, they tease an upcoming half-day AI design workshop open to individuals — coming late July/early August. Email podcast@nearfuture.works with feedback, ideas, or complaints.\nChapters\n0:00 — Welcome & podcast updates\nNew email address: podcast@nearfuture.works\n1:23 — Guests & format chat\nGuests are coming — but this pod isn't going guest-only\n2:00 — Jonny's golf trip to Mallorca\n16-man Ryder Cup-style tournament, Mallorca, 35-degree heat\n4:06 — The Strider Cup app — vibe coded on Lovable\nHow a non-technical friend built a live scoring app with AI — and why personal software is the perfect use case\n8:59 — Can AI improve your golf game?\nSpoiler: Jonny is a lost cause\n10:49 — Are middle managers finished?\nTom introduces the \"Middle Managers in the Firing Line\" article and his Monzo perspective\n18:36 — Tom's take: the functions matter, not the...","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}