Hey there 👋

Welcome to this installment of Pixel Perfect Picks. Here I'm sharing something that I heard, read, and saw. You can subscribe to this newsletter here. I'm additionally publishing a more extended essay about software development, design, and freelancing every month.

Emil Kowalski published something really, really satisfying this week. Train Your Judgement is an interactive guide that teaches you to spot the difference between mediocre and excellent animations, the kind of subtle quality that AI still consistently gets wrong. Go through it yourself and I promise you'll look at micro-interactions differently afterwards. One of those things that's both useful and genuinely fun to go through.

Matthias Ott wrote something that's been sitting with me all week. The argument is that the industrial separation of thinking and doing, where designers plan and engineers build, was never a good fit for digital products in the first place. Working in the actual medium together from the start just produces better results. Design and Engineering, As One is a calm, well-reasoned read and honestly one of the better pieces I've come across in a while.

I've been a fan of Brian Lovin for a long time and his Dive Club talk on how to level up with AI as a designer is exactly the kind of perspective I always appreciate from him. Grounded, honest, and actually useful. Well worth your time.

On a completely different note, I also started dipping my toes into Pokémon Champions this weekend and I think I might be getting pulled into the competitive side of things. I even saved this intro to competitive Pokémon by WolfeyVGC to get started. Send help.

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Keep Creating Awesome Stuff ✌️

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-Marvin