Our human habit of anthropomorphizing everything

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.

Mar 17, 2025

“The reality is that animal behavior doesn’t always correlate to human behavior. Software and AI don’t “behave” at all, but rather function in accordance with their code. Humans, as social animals, find it easy to interpret certain outputs as “behaviors.” Humanizing the tech we use makes it a little bit more understandable.

But anthropomorphizing things can go wrong. Rather than making complex systems like AI more understandable, anthropomorphizing tech can actually contribute to further mystification and misunderstanding.”

Our human habit of anthropomorphizing everything →

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Editor picks

The hype and risks of vibe coding →
And why designers should not head down this path.
Minimum Viable Whatever →
How to avoid the poop trap.
UX is like diet and exercise: essential, yet easily ignored →
In our quest for success, we chase quick fixes.

The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about their work.

Exat typeface →

Make me think

I quit my FAANG job because it’ll be automated by the end of 2025 →
“Taking a medium-term look at the market dynamics surrounding my employment prompted me to quit a few weeks ago. I'm now convinced that my former job there will be obsolete by the end of the year.”
AI, DX, UX →
“The reality will be that the limited time and resources teams spend today building stuff for humans will instead get spent building stuff for robots, and as a byproduct everything human-centric about software will become increasingly subpar as we rationalize to ourselves, ‘Software doesn’t need to be good for human because humans don’t use software anymore. Their robots do!’”
AI and the power of small teams →
“Let that sink in: 4-5 people in a small room in Latvia led by a relatively inexperienced director used free software to make a movie that as of February 2025 had earned $20m and won an Oscar. I know it’s a bit more involved than that, but still – quite an accomplishment!”

Little gems this week

I took the Tesla Model 3 for a spin— here’s how it went →

The power of empty states — how Slack drives user activation →

I dreamed about being in the New Yorker →

Tools and resources

AI-powered iteration with Anima’s Playground →
Figma to functional.
Using NotebookLM to spread good design thinking →
Making AI work for us.
From designing things to designing change →
Designers as facilitators, protectors, and collaborators.