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Technology · Thoughts

“Und was studierst du dann?” — the question that assumes my path is already set, by asking what I’ll study. It’s not a difficult question, as I love what I do and I have been designing and coding since I was 10 years old, so it’s logical to just study what’s fun to me. But is it really that simple? Not when neither path on the list was built for what I actually do. The false binary The German school and study system is built on disciplinary boundaries that predate the work I actually want to pursue. In my case I could either choose an art/design degree that is gatekept by analog portfolios with specific skills that I never specialized in or a computer science degree, where code is treated as the whole craft, when in reality it’s just a material for me and not the whole point. But I have to study, right? That’s what everyone kept telling me at least. The decade-long preparation I’ve been on this path since I was 10 years old. I want to do something different. I want to think different. Over the past few years I’ve been learning more about design and coding than ever before. Taste is also something I trained, as I talked about in my last post. The discovery that reframed everything Observing the tech and digital design industry online over the past few years, I started noticing the binary system loosen its grip. Design and functionality were never actually separate problems and companies like Ikea and Apple built entire identities on combining them, decades before anyone needed a word for it. What changed is that the startup and tech world finally gave that combination a name. That's where I found "Design Engineer" as a real, hired-for title. For the first time, the job described me instead of asking me to split myself in two. It's not just the big names, either. Smaller companies building for themselves and their own users are proving the same point at a smaller scale. Wooting, for example, has made a real impact in the keyboard industry by treating their physical product and software as one combined ecosystem that just works. Different industries, same throughline: design and functionality were never two skills to choose between. The tech industry just finally gave that throughline a name: Design Engineering. So what’s next? I want to jump straight into the industry, while keeping the option to study open alongside my work. I'm making this bet based on observation, not certainty. Betting on a title that's still establishing itself is a risk. But the bigger risk, to me, is detouring onto a path that was never built for what I do, just because it looks safer on paper. I'm not looking for a degree to legitimize me, but a team or company already operating in the world where this title exists. Somewhere that will allow me to not just be on one end of a hand-off, but part of the decisions.

Technology · Thoughts

There's a quote I keep coming back to. Emil Kowalski shared it in a course about animation on the web, and it stuck with me: "If taste is just personal preference, then everyone's taste is already perfect." — Paul Graham, Y Combinator. That line is sharp, because it exposes how people often misunderstand what taste really is. Taste isn't a fixed preference. It's a skill. And like any skill, you can get better at it. Taste is something you build I used to think some people just had "it" — that natural eye for what looks right. But the more I've worked in digital design, the more I've come to realize that's not true. The designers I admire most aren't talented in some innate way. They've just put in the work to develop their eye over time and it’s something I noticed in my own work, if I look back at my early works that I have also shared in my case studies. Get out of your bubble For me, the shift happened when I stopped looking at the same pool of inspiration. I started seeking out top-tier designers from around the world — people working in contexts, aesthetics, and constraints completely different from mine. It reminds me of the book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. The idea is simple: the work you make is a remix of everything you've absorbed. So the more diverse and high-quality your inputs, the better your outputs. But it only works if you're genuinely curious and intentional about where you look. Care enough to go the extra mile Good taste without effort is just opinion. What separates taste is the willingness to push further. It’s about experimenting, iterating and to care about the details. That doesn't mean getting stuck over one small decision for hours. It means giving yourself the space to explore early on, trying different directions before committing. The extra mile isn't about perfection. It's about not settling too quickly. To get out of your comfort zone and into the growth zone. Stay critical — even of work you love This is the part that trips people up. Good taste isn't about finding designers you admire and copying their decisions. It's about looking at even your favorite work critically and asking: what would I have done differently? That question is what sets you apart. Not just "how do I replicate this?" but "how would I approach this with my own perspective?" It keeps your taste honest and sets yourself apart. Keep going Good taste is a moving target. It grows as you grow. The designers who have it aren't the ones who got lucky; they're the ones who kept looking, kept questioning, and kept caring about their work. So keep going and keep exploring all over and build up your own taste that is based on the awesome work that has already been done for you (something you would call design principles).