Tony Alicea

Falling In Love With the Problem, Not the Solution, Is More Important Than Ever A lot of people who design and/or build software (and other artifacts) are unhappy right now.

The Evaluability Gap: Designing for Scalable Human Review of AI Output In the age of AI, output velocity is no longer a limiting factor.

Why AI-Assisted Development Is More Exhausting Than It Should Be The promise of AI-assisted development is that it should make developers' lives easier.

Trace: Declarative Modeling for the AI Age Spec first, then plan, then code.

The Future of Self-Paced Online Education A lot of words have been dedicated to how LLMs are changing the landscape of software development.

We're Losing Our Voice to LLMs Social media has become a reminder of something precious we are losing in the age of LLMs: unique voices.

I've Started Offering Live Coaching.

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It's Not Context Engineering, It's Context Authoring When working with LLMs we shouldn't call it "context engineering", we should call it "context authoring".

Entropy Tolerance: The Essential Software Question for The AI Age "Entropy Tolerance" is the concept we should be using to talk about AI-assisted development, software requirements, and team processes in the age of LLMs and "vibe coding."

Generative Rapid Prototyping (GRiP) Prototypes save time and money.

Understanding React Server Components React Server Components have lifted server-rendering to be a truly first-class citizen of the React ecosystem.

.normalui-logo-cls-1{fill:currentColor;} Normal UI: A Usability Technique For Non-Designers I've been building web apps for 25 years.

How to Rewrite a Web Application You're about to start rewriting a web application.

Smart Jerks Aren't Worth It Myths proliferate in every culture.

Understanding React Compiler React's core architecture calls the functions you give it (i.e. your components) over and over.

On The Why Down How To Do Better Than MVP How do we build software that solves real problems?

A wall of wine at a winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

How To Write Email People Will Read Email is a part of everyday life.

The diesel fuel pump in one state is green, while in another is black.

This gas station pump asks for your zip code when you enter your credit card.

Boarding a Southwest Airlines plane is a study in frustration.

Mall kiosk with a Windows error.

Simple Is Not the Opposite of Complex My college life was all about education.

Simple garage door opener.

Heating and Cooling controller in an older model Kia.

Key and Lock In his seminal work The Design of Everyday Things (revised in 2013), Don Norman notes that with every new technology designers repeat the same mistakes of the past.

The key and lock is one of the oldest and best examples of a good interface.

Drink machine at a local Five Guys.

A Behringer 802 Mixer.

Walmart.

DOTW: Do One Thing Well The Mantra of the Guessable Interface In the land of coding there is a principle that defines the essence of modern multi-tier software architectures.

A mechanical pencil follows DOTW (Do One Thing Well).

Back of a Black & Decker Air Station.

A flashlight is designed to be used in the dark.

The doorknob with lock.

An on/off switch on a desk lamp.

Portable charger for a car battery.

Panel on a Keurig coffee brewer.

Back of a vacuum cleaner.

Struck by the brilliance of a tissue box.

My toaster oven.

Dyson bathroom hand dryer.

Airplane tray table.

Single light switch on blank wall.

Good Interface, Bad Interface I have been doing a great deal of traveling as of late.