I spent the last two months of the summer building an e-commerce site for a beauty brand from scratch.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be in there manipulating code for weeks on end. But there I was, kicking the build off with Fable 5, iterating with Opus 5, and slowly ending up with a site that actually works.
The part I keep thinking about isn’t the site though. It’s the process.
There was so much back and forth. Some days I’d get genuinely frustrated.
And then it hit me that the whole thing felt familiar. It’s the same relationship I had with my dupla, the art director I was partnered with back in my agency days. You pitch, they push back, you adjust, they build on it. Nobody gets it right on the first pass. Iterations continue to be the back bone of the creative process.
The longer I stayed in it, the better I got at it. I stopped asking for whole blocks of code to be rewritten and started pinpointing the exact lines I wanted changed, then changing them myself. Small shift, but it made everything faster.
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Two months later, here’s what I walked away with: we can build pretty much whatever we can imagine now. The only real cost left is time and attention.
Which is what makes this week’s stories interesting. There’s new data suggesting students who lean on AI are scoring lower, and Autodesk just launched a campaign putting human makers front and center. Both are circling the same idea. The people getting the most out of AI aren’t the ones handing the work off. They’re the ones who commit to the back and forth.
Let’s get into it.
PLATFORM UPDATES
Apple Unveils Foldable iPhone Duo and AI-Powered Watch Series 12
Apple has officially entered the foldable market with its new iPhone Duo, featuring a unique wider form factor designed for better video consumption. Alongside this, the tech giant launched the Apple Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4, packed with ‘Audio Intelligence’ features that can recap your day and remember conversational details, signaling a strong push into AI wearables.
💡 Why this matters
The arrival of Apple’s foldable iPhone and AI-enhanced Watch highlights a significant shift in consumer tech towards innovation in form factor and integrated AI. Creators should consider how these new devices influence content consumption habits, potentially requiring optimized formats for foldable screens and exploring new possibilities for AI-driven, context-aware content experiences.
ADVERTISING
Manischewitz Bets on Dating Show to Win Over Gen Z
The 138-year-old Manischewitz brand is trying an unconventional approach to attract a younger demographic: a dating show. This bold move aims to connect with Gen Z by engaging them through entertainment, demonstrating how heritage brands are evolving their marketing strategies to stay relevant in a fast-changing cultural landscape.
💡 Why this matters
This is a prime example of an established brand thinking outside the box to reach Gen Z. Creators and marketers should note the power of entertainment and unique content formats, like reality shows, to engage niche audiences and drive brand awareness, even for non-endemic products. Authenticity and novelty are key.
AI & TOOLS
Students Who Lean Hardest on AI Are Scoring Lowest
New data shows that students who regularly use AI tools for schoolwork are turning in lower academic scores than students who don’t. Worth noting the study shows the two things happening together, not that one causes the other. It’s just as possible that students who are already struggling reach for AI more often.
💡 Why this matters
Either way, there’s something here for anyone using AI in their own work. The students in this study are using AI to skip the hard part. Ask, receive, submit, done. No back and forth, no wrestling with the answer, no staying in the room while it takes shape. That’s the opposite of what I described up top, and it’s the difference between using a tool and handing the work over to one. If you finish a task with AI and haven’t pushed back on anything it gave you, you probably didn’t learn much from it.
CREATOR ECONOMY
Autodesk Puts Human Creativity First Amidst AI Boom
In an era dominated by AI hype, Autodesk has launched a campaign that deliberately spotlights human makers and their creativity. The initiative focuses on real customer stories, delivering an emotional appeal that champions the irreplaceable value of human ingenuity and skill in design and production.
💡 Why this matters
This strategy highlights a growing counter-narrative to AI’s pervasive influence: the enduring power of human creativity. Creators and marketers can learn from Autodesk’s approach by emphasizing the unique human element, authentic stories, and personal touch in their work, differentiating themselves in an increasingly AI-driven content landscape.
🎯 YOUR EDGE THIS WEEK
Autodesk’s whole campaign is built on showing the maker, not just the thing they made. There is value to that.
This week, post one piece of content about your process instead of your result. A mistake you caught. A decision you almost made differently. The ugly middle version before the good one.
That’s the part nobody can generate. It only exists because you were there for it.
See you next week! — Karina
Maybe one of the biggest career changes AI creates is that learning can happen after you start the project rather than before. The old model was often ‘learn the skill, then earn permission to build.’ Increasingly it can be ‘build, hit a gap, learn exactly what the gap requires, keep going.’ That materially lowers the cost of career experimentation.
Maybe one of the most valuable AI skills is simply becoming comfortable with iteration. The old mental model was often ‘learn the skill, then produce the work.’ Increasingly it feels like ‘start producing the work, learn through the loop.’ That could materially lower the barrier to career experimentation for a lot of people.