John Maeda on LinkedIn: OPEN-SOURCE AI CODING ASSISTANTS: I'm glued to my GitHub Copilot these… (2024)

METACIRCULAR FRONTEND 🧑🍳FEASTING: After spending so much quality time on the backend with #SemanticKernel AI, I’ve rediscovered my passion for the frontend—especially with all the buzz around shadcn and similar tools. If you’re eager to cook up something like the new generation of developers, I’ve put together a step-by-step guide on how to set up a simple streaming OpenAI-powered chat using Next.js, Tailwind, and Yarn. You can check it out here https://lnkd.in/gpGpasjqThese days, I find that switching between the mindset of a non-programmer (like a manager or designer) and that of a programmer has become much easier thanks to the AI coding tools now at our disposal. Similarly, moving between backend and frontend development is now far simpler as these tools become more visually sophisticated. It’s an exciting time, especially for anyone who remembers taking MIT’s 6.001 back in the day—where the concept of metacircularity was brought to life in languages like LISP and Scheme. Now, it feels like we’re living in a truly metacircular world, where the LLM AI tools we use to build are themselves constructed with the very concepts they help us create.

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COOK A REALLY GOOD 🍞TOAST: It took me a few tries, but my step-by-step instructions here https://lnkd.in/g6JdHgiz will *likely* get you going like the cool kids with shadcn, nextjs, tailwind, and yarn (I'll bun another day). The reason why I went down this rabbithole is when I saw the Sonner (toast 🍞) component in action on a frontender's YT channel. You don't need to do all this stuff in the cool LLM AI era I know, but I'm old-fashioned so I like to kick the tires myself. It was well worth it. Enjoy! —JM

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GENAI PLUGINS, PLANS, PERSONAS: Paul Singh and Anurag(Anu) Karuparti have created a neat and durable knowledge base of LLM patterns for secure, scalable, and ethical cloud environments. "Generative AI for Cloud Solutions" is my go-to coffee break book for re-reviewing how we got here in AI today, and also how we look forward when building LLM-based software systems with increasing reliability. https://lnkd.in/gQtjcWSW

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MOZART OF AI CODING: Watch one line of 🪴 code grow into a lean, kind, streaming AI machine 🌳 in Chef Stephen Toub's visit https://lnkd.in/gshCmkGY to the Cozy AI Kitchen (CAIK 🍰). If you are a .NET 🤖 fan we have Stephen and the #SemanticKernel team's efforts to make your C# universe a beautiful place for LLM AI software development. HT 🧑🍳 Ross Heise 🧑🍳 Matt Scholz“Computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views themself as an artist will enjoy what they do, and will do it better.” —Donald KnuthFull episode: https://lnkd.in/gshCmkGYAll 27 episodes: https://lnkd.in/gs7EsCPG

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DESIGN IN TECH REPORT 2025: For folks interested in “Autodesigners on Autopilot” for SXSW #DesignInTech Report 2025 please upvote: https://lnkd.in/gYfnRJfBKey themes for the 2025 report:* The Autodesigner's Role: Understand how designers are evolving into "autodesigners" by training AI to automate routine design tasks.* 50 Years In The Making: Discover how the visionary work of Muriel Cooper and William J. Mitchell laid the foundation for today's AI-driven design.* AI and Computational Design: Explore how new AI innovations, rooted in computational design, are revolutionizing product creation and design.All past 10 annual reports are available here: https://lnkd.in/eq5kFQYPanelpicker entry for 2025: https://lnkd.in/gYfnRJfB

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AI 4 PRODUCT MGRS TIPS: We welcomed Kayla Lozano to the Cozy AI Kitchen (CAIK 🎂) to share her secrets for more efficient, creative, and decidedly *human* ways to work as a product manager. HT 👨🍳 Ross Heise "Let’s remember the importance of our own individual role in the AI evolution." --Kayla LozanoFull Cozy AI YouTube episode: https://lnkd.in/gZMMSmCEKayla's essay on LI: https://lnkd.in/gvD5xy2G

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AI MODELS 🍟 + GITHUB 🍔: If you like writing code and you want to easily munch on AI models while you're coding away, then you can now try out a new feature in beta β from today: https://lnkd.in/g2akSnnY It's the first project I've worked on since I joined Asha Sharma's world just two months ago, and you can learn more about the backstory over here: https://lnkd.in/gTNZpqVX By trying it out you'll bump into a few cool things like:* Simplifying your AI development efforts (😮💨 phew)* Discovering AI simplicity with a single API (😎 right?)* Safety by default with Azure AI security controls (😮💨 more phew)This hyperspeed project gave me the oppo to quickly learn GitHub Primer React to use computational design to speed the development of early surface sketches. If you don't know about Primer, there's a terrific 10-minute talk on Primer React over here https://lnkd.in/gRk7uNND if you are hoping to pick up an easy-to-use design system with components-as-code. Primer's completely open-source on GitHub of course: https://lnkd.in/gtCzTGcR

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AI AND LEARNING: Come to the Cozy AI Kitchen (CAIK 🎂) dinner table for desserts with SW Engineer Eleanor Lewis and Sr Content Mgr John Kennedy in the new bonus episode of the Cozy AI Dessert Corner: https://lnkd.in/gXx9H_wT"AI is not going to take away people putting the pieces together, but AI will makethe pieces more accessible." —Eleanor LewisThis reminded me of a story told me to me by one of the greatest engineering professors at MIT. They shared how designing a system is a matter of finding all the pieces of the puzzle, and then placing them closer together ... and when necessary, to sand the edges of the pieces together so that they all fit perfectly. As a human sander of puzzle piece edges for complex puzzles, and especially during this AI revolution, I feel that profoundly. HT 🧑🍳 Ross HeiseFull episode: https://lnkd.in/gXx9H_wTAll 24 Cozy AI Kitchen episodes: https://lnkd.in/gBUyy5yB

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DESIGN PICT(ure): What I've learned about design over the years distills into a simpler picture these days for me https://lnkd.in/gaWG8SrS at tea time 🫖 🕰️I've realized that everything always leads back to my favorite definition of a successful design approach as articulated by Raymond Loewy (1893-1986):MAYA = “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”Loewy designed the iconic glass Coca-Cola bottle that sits with highest regard alongside Kenji Ekuan's iconic glass Kikkoman shoyu (soy sauce) bottle. It's really easy to forget that bottles were, and still are, an important user-interface for liquids; bottles have many functional requirements, and sometimes their aesthetics can be be one of them when needing to stand out in the consumer landscape. But to meet consumers where they are, it's good to remember to make aesthetics a necessary requirement when there's competitive forces at play. Relatedly, I recall a RISD alumni passionately telling me once that, "Decoration is functional" — it's something that's always stuck with me as I've captured here: Problem: As a user I want to dispense liquid so that I can consume it.Initiative: Create a receptacle out of glass that fits the specific purpose.Consumer: Use a distinctive shape that is desirable and not too unfamiliar.Test: Try it out, or said differently: "A prototype is worth a thousand meetings."And as a fan of the early Macintosh image file format PICT, it's my way of paying homage to one of the GOAT-iest visual computing inventions that didn't make it into this century alongside the PDF file format. Full PICT-xplanation in 3 minutes: https://lnkd.in/gaWG8SrS---Learn more about Raymond Loewy and his invention of "streamlining": https://lnkd.in/gYqJ3HVHLearn more about the early MacOS PICT format if you're a curious GenZ NFT minter: https://lnkd.in/gsiztwtP

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