iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 25/09/2026

the amount of times i could use this gif in a single day of corporate design work would astonish many people

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 13/09/2026

i have processed this photo maybe 500 times and it never gets old #photography

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 10/09/2026

bye. i regret every thought i put into making gutenberg more accessible just to let this guys ego pop off

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 09/09/2026

i do not want more phone. i want less phone

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 08/09/2026

i don’t think people realize the toll you still have to pay to get your thing in front of people. your thing could be great and you’re most likely paying a huge tax to Google, Facebook, Reddit, whoever. vibe coded products actually mean more money for them

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 05/09/2026

legitimately asking: can i delete linkedin yet? are we still doing it

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 05/09/2026

i don't think this survives much longer than a viral photo or whatever. for the operator of a vehicle, this does not win against direct manipulation and controls. but this isn't for operators, this is for passengers who want to relinquish the driving experience while still owning it

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 05/09/2026

look i'm seeing these thread counts and i'm not enjoying them

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 02/09/2026

this will age well when this happens again (and again) with increasingly less coded language from d** before he gives up on technology and ultimately goes into policy

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Reposted by nic bertino

jamie ☺︎ @jazzyjams.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

More people should have cats on their screens

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 02/09/2026

i am becoming unhinged, i am not making a lil tamagotchi that gives small hints about vim motions. i just make toys now tbh

a little maneki neko pixel cat sitting in an nvim session

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 26/08/2026

the waste of AI makes me super uncomfy for a number of reasons. i've also seen a huge uptick in "i made [thing thats already been solved] and i need you to beta test it for me" and shifting a huge validation burden to users

Post from reddit user DRZBIDA:
I can't comprehend the logic of wasting your own time prompting a worse version of something that's already been solved, clearly without ever checking whether a solution exists. And that's 99/100 of the "projects" out there right now.

Someone should tell Anthropic and OpenAI to put a step in their agent harness (for subscription users, not API) that web-searches whether the dumbass "idea" already exists before generating anything. It'd save an enormous amount of money and compute. It has become almost impossible to find / promote something actually useful in between all the useless abandonware.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 23/08/2026

new blog just dropped about my newfound appreciation of documentation and great user manuals www.nicbertino.com/blog/manuals/

nicbertino.com

The manual is part of the product

Why my latest project ships with a manual, how it stays updated, and its new

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 02/08/2026

load bearing and seams for me

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Reposted by nic bertino

Ky @ky.fyi · 02/08/2026

Hey friends. Still looking for work!

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 26/07/2026

ruby justice thelot's "why are there no new aesthetics" is my favorite lecture of the year and it's not even close

youtube.com

"Why Are There No New Aesthetics?" (Spring 2026 Rutgers Design Lecture Series)

YouTube video by Ruby Justice Thelot

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 22/07/2026

created a darkroom toy beta for all of my photog peeps that like the negative/print process or are curious about how it works #photography

caffenol.app

CAFFENOL darkroom

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 16/07/2026

develop a negative and then make a print!

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 14/07/2026

experimenting with a darkroom style print approach, live laugh print

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 10/07/2026

if netflix buys letterboxd. i'm done with internet

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 03/07/2026

happy mary in the junkyard day to those who celebrate this album rips maryinthejunkyard.bandcamp.com/album/role-m...

maryinthejunkyard.bandcamp.com

Role Model Hermit, by mary in the junkyard

11 track album

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 03/06/2026

i think i am slowly becoming a design anarchist

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 28/05/2026

this is one of my favorite youtube videos. send this video on the next voyager mission www.youtube.com/watch?v=pji5...

youtube.com

Destinations---UGHA Show #189 March 1994

YouTube video by Richard Zielinski

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 21/05/2026

mistook a candle for coffee and tried to drink it if anyone's wondering how i'm doing

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 30/04/2026

i'd like to announce that i am also porting to a rust compiler

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 18/04/2026

i think my biggest issue with figma is them taking open concepts and translating them into closed ones. they created a false need for two systems, like with tokens and variables. and so, now, their walled garden bet is collapsing their business, and they're easy egress away...

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 26/03/2026

my toxic daily warmup is posting long reddit comments about how disco demolition was not, in fact, the end of disco

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 24/03/2026

help i'm a human and i like reading llm.txts better than navigating the website manually. am i become computer

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 21/03/2026

our marketplace had our first in-person transaction today! cameras bringing people together in REAL life!

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 20/03/2026

on my third listen of the new grace ives album, big fan

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 28/02/2026

there are many, many good disco songs for the timeline but today's an especially good day for jackie moore's "this time, baby" in all 11 minutes and six seconds of groove www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSv...

youtube.com

Jackie Moore - This Time, Baby (Special Extended Remix)

YouTube video by gasf1

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 27/02/2026

it’s the new “let’s get social” i do not desire social, dear medical appointment booking microapp

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 25/02/2026

i am more convinced than ever that you have to talk to humans and users if you are building something that gives them more than it takes

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 23/02/2026

why is it that every single "cool" opencl*w implementation is "managing email" and "reminding me to leave for the gym"

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 18/02/2026

reposting: anyone writing about this? i am noticing a shift toward user hostility and i think it is going to get worse

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 18/02/2026

i maintain there will always be value in lofi, it's important upstream work to challenge your understanding and mastery of the problem in a very low stakes and fast way. it also means signficantly less waste when you do get to hifi, and i think we see the process in the output

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Blue sky nice ghost @rajandelman.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Is there a technology the left is excited about?" It's called the clamshell e-reader from It Follows, and I've been waiting for it since 2014

Teen girl in hospital bed reading from her little clam shell

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 18/02/2026

gotta say i'm a bit surprised this is the workflow example they chose (and they're getting cooked in the comments) www.youtube.com/watch?v=riFF...

youtube.com

Claude Code to Figma

YouTube video by Figma

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 12/02/2026

my people. this album is it. if you like jazz with *soul* and lots of vibe, you will love this

momokogill.bandcamp.com

Momoko, by Momoko Gill

11 track album

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 12/02/2026

workshopping this 2x2 for taste/craft/style/signature...?

A two by two grid shows Recognition (seeing quality) as a column header 1 and Execution (making quality) as header 2. The first row is "Shared" (learnable, evaluable). In the first cell, it says "Taste" - can they see what's working and what isn't? The next cell says "Craft" - can they solve the problem completely?

The second row says "Personal" (individual, emergent). The first cell says Style - what are they drawn to? and the final cell says Signature - what makes their work recognizably theirs?

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jedmund @jedmund.com · 11/02/2026

back when i was interviewing, i recorded myself to practice. now, i'm uploading that take as a resource for others on what a "principal product designer"-level presentation looks like: jedmund.com/universe/por... this is exactly what i'd show in an interview, so at 25 mins it is a little long.

jedmund.com

Post

A few months ago, I came across a recording I made of my personal portfolio presentation and thought it would be good to share as a resource for other designers...

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 10/02/2026

ongoing saga of tree (summer 25 vs feb 26)

A color photograph shows a tree tilting 45 degrees or so to the left, blocking a garage door.

A black and white photography shows a tree completely toppled over to the right, blocking the right door.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 06/02/2026

i have unearthed my 3.5 star pitchfork review from long ago, and guess what, still fledgling

A screenshot of a Pitchfork review says: "Demerit points for the so-lovingly-rendered-it's-almost-plagiaristic homage to the deep thuds and carnivalesque whirlygigging of Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger', but if you can get past that, 'Distraction' is actually a pretty wonderful slice of disco house. As the cringingly-named Melee Beats, fledgling Sacramento-based producer Nic Bertino makes French house from his American bedroom. There's good reason that sounds like a bad idea, but the 20-year-old Bertino's (junior) boyish vocals and considerable maximalist production chops say otherwise. 'Distraction''s chockers with sweep filters, slap funk basslines, and wheezy vocodered vocals, so it's obvious that Bertino's Daft Punk man-love runs far deeper than the obvious 'Harder, Better' connects, but, know what? There are worse bands to sound a lot like, especially at only 20."

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 06/02/2026

continuing to dispel myths about taste, diving into creative practices to develop taste while acknowledging the gatekeeping and exceptionalism associated with the "natural talent" myth

nicbertino.com

Taste is learned | Nic Bertino

Doing away with the "taste is something you're born with" myth

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 06/02/2026

do you enjoy: disco samples disco samples big ole bass synths if so: my new album is out for bandcamp friday! it's on youtube and soundcloud. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jKB...

youtube.com

melee - thee californians

YouTube video by Melee

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 04/02/2026

the number one response to this so far has been, generally, that taste is innate. do you believe taste is innate? why or why not?

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