unpopular opinion: designing for power users is the easy path. yc selling to yc. engineers building for engineers. it's simple as a pitch on how you can 10x mrr in 2 months. but it's also leaving 80% of the market on the table. the general audience doesn't need complexity - they need someone who bothers to understand them. you don't need 80% of the features. you need 80% more listening.

one of the most counterintuitive things about how normal people use ai: builders think "better" means smarter and smarter...that's projection. most people don't give a shit about raw iq. they care that the ai remembers who they are, asks good questions, and feels like it's paying attention. i talk to gen z users every single day - hundreds of conversations at this point. and i keep hearing the same thing: they're quietly churning from chatgpt because those human elements are slipping. some are poking at gemini or claude now, wild considering a year ago they barely knew those existed. simple rule people keep forgetting: nobody picks friends because they're impressive. they pick friends who understand them and help them think. ai is no different.

high agency is the antidote to ai fear. what feels like competition becomes a chance to demonstrate how good you actually are.