iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I mean, it’s all pixels and systems. Why constrain to prohibit a breakpoint at any measurement you want? AI’s got this! (Hashtag continues sarcasm)

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Three of my teammates have complained in the last two days of future shock. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_...

en.wikipedia.org

Future Shock - Wikipedia

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Yeah, pens are dumb and don’t define their performance. What a shift they put in.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Nowhere near enjoyable. Gunners did not play with the heart and passion of a champion except for a few bursts, otherwise sleepwalking a second half. Love the outcome, but hate that journey.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I am expanding it to slot default content, which basically means a composition shape, which means … everything: ready made examples, patterns, all the way to page definitions. I am also working on “partial” Figma generated and “unstructured” yet still organized “supplemental requirements.”

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

No idea. The eye test of this moderately-informed but not expert person suggests that Arsenal was far lower than that. So it makes me start to dismiss the visualization's relevance. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

I propose that this meter isn't measuring the right things to answer the question "Who deserved to win?"

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Wow. This article, while situated in a far more serious context with grave consequences - maps cleanly to risks and realities I see happening on teams I work in making design systems with AI.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

You can choose to see a different future that isn't across-competition collapse.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Observation: White movement helping Saka be more dynamic?

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Well that is about as favorable a Champions League bracket side as Arsenal could have ever imagined.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

I haven’t been this apoplectic about a performance in over a decade. Everything everyone says about mentality is, on today’s measure, deserved.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

What I saw emerging before and taking hold after ManU’s first goal was sluggishness. When all the “random” balls start dropping at an opponent’s feet. How much of this is accumulated fatigue and do you rotate the ENTIRE side including bench for the CL?

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Reposted by Nathan A Curtis

SmashingConf @smashingconf.com · 20/01/2026

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smashingconf.com

SmashingConf in-person Conferences 2026 — Friendly, inclusive & fun events for web designers and developers.

Looking for a practical conference about web design and development? We organize three hybrid conferences in 2026: Amsterdam, Freiburg, and Antwerp. Get your ticket now! Front-end, design, UX and…

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Either via plugin/AI or copy the layer, select it's parent, use Figma's convenient select all matching layers, paste.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

I've generally been using VS Code/Copilot in my work with: - Claude Sonnet 4.5 for most spec'ed features - GPT 5.2 for heavy refactors - GPT 5 mini for basic things and - mixing in Gemini and Claude Opus for cross-referencing/parallel takes.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Why are LLM plans so ridiculously conservative in time estimates? "Your POC will take 1 week and implementation 13 weeks." It just finished the POC (with added scope) in 1 hour and says implementation is now 3 days. Like, is it taunting me with "Without LLM" estimates?

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

So my now for a Saturday morning instructing an LLM to "Implement REST API conversion a Figma library file into my Anova data model based on Github spec kit's plan and tasks.", going to take a shower, coming back and realizing I didn't autoapprove the CLI commands and it got stuck on step 1.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I started using GPT 5.2 (instead of Claude 4.5 or similar) for plugin development yesterday. Today, I noticed the havoc this wreaked on my machine's energy consumption. Holy camole.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

In my travels, I have rarely seen semantic spacing, when I do it’s for a few specialized cases rather than for day-to-day composition, and that lack of semantic spacing makes me sad.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

I hate penalty shootouts in football. I would much rather see a “Remove a player for the pitch every three minutes” and see what happens

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

When do we have the Gyokeres conversation? Patience is trying. I get that he’s a runner, but he does so much else so poorly, such as receiving aerial service. It’s just… bad. Like my cousin’s fav windup whisper to an opponent: “why don’t your teammates pass to you?”

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Stats like this make it obvious: when are we going start having the Victor G goodness-of-fit conversation? The eye test has suggested we do so since his very first appearance.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

So what rate is an acceptable rate? (The answer is “When the rate is better than the human rate” although society won’t behave that way, such as with autonomous vehicles)

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

I agree. Although, also, as if humans are reliable and trustable in copious processes where AI isn't in the loop. I also think trust and reliability depend on task/scenario and vary in significance relative to opportunity, risk and value. Me coding a plugin ≠ AI confirming nuclear launch codes.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Do you reframe things? "Trust but verify instead of don't trust?" As I code, I find that AI makes mistakes, muddles things, but also learns. It can learn fast. Kinda like a junior coworker learning on the job. Despite the challenges, undoubtedly my output is still faster and better.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Love the article. RVP was for a bit, but he got out while can? Don’t give that sucker no statue. Give him guts! Thus my favorite was long Ramsey. My prediction (after that injury)? Pain. Eventually, he was a fine champion, but his time was past. We wish him luck.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

So, I won "Best Plugin" for the Figma Specs plugin at the @zeroheight.com design system awards last night, and am excited! I told my family, and two my kids reacted this way. I'm now also slightly confused.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

I am seriously tripping out. I just experienced two agentic "party mode" rounds of a team discussing an ADR of spec data schema updates for absolute positioning and Figma's Grid. Their perspectives were so thoughtful, the decision correct. Is this my (short lived) future before I'm replaced?

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Temptations/Four Tops (1st) Rush Barenaked Ladies (in a strip mall in front of the Record Exchange) Jonatha Brooke Max Richter

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Yeah seriously. A high school volleyball game has four refs. Basketball, three. Baseball, four. American football, so many more. And yet this game, so expansive and so many players, with one.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Now, I do need to get around to implementing slot prop evaluation (`body` 👀)

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

I have converted my Anova plugin to use Figma color tokens sensitive to Figma's light/dark mode. I like the results, and despite the lack of personality, value that the plugin conveys the same visual language as its parent environment.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

I'm improving my Anova plugin that generates component specs consistent with a JSON schema to manage specs in the file and easily consolidate and copy them into code.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Slots in Design Systems:Improving flexibility through custom composition inside components My latest on Substack nathanacurtis.substack.com/p/slots-in-d...

nathanacurtis.substack.com

Slots in Design Systems

Improving flexibility through custom composition within components

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

As design system teams start applying Figma's slots, they may best cope with having Menzel's "Let It Go" on repeat in the background. Relinquishing control is going to be... very difficult for some people.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

There’s a reason Flea covers Higher Ground.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Packing cubes are usually needed, but for me it’s about lean, backpack ready weight.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

I would enjoy you driving Play That Funky Music, and the audience can sing along

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

People will rise and fight when they can see people like themselves or that they care about being unnecessarily killed, abused or sufficiently freedom curtailed through a filter that doesn’t distort the truth. They need SEE and RECOGNIZE a sufficient threat.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Jumping from Kent St to gas chambers? C’mon. I grew up in Kent. Your dismissing it and claiming only gas chambers provoke change are both unhelpful. Kent St - middle America, middle class and “quieter” than Berkeley - was initially blamed on students. But unnecessary dead change opinions quickly.

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Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Assuming the first is a real historical figure, you actually rate Vader above Palpatine? Vadar did it for a confused sense of love in addition for his thirst for power. The emperor? Not so confused.

Nathan A Curtis @nathanacurtis.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Quite the Nickelsonian Departed-nodding going on there...