Notes | Wil Nichols-Higgins

July 2026
1. 21 Past Collaborators
  21 Cool folks I’ve been privileged enough to work with.
May
1. 24 Is AI Profitable
  - Link
  24 Love me a good side project. And a single-purpose website.
2. 07 Ky Decker on Ideological Burnout
  - Link
  07 Lots of relatable sentiments here. Particularly the musings on ideological burnout in the face of vacuity constantly encroaching on the previously enjoyable. “I wish none of us had to live like this. I would like to imagine a future that does not look like this.”
April
1. 20 Auzon 1
  - Album
  20 We arrived in France just a week and a half ago. These are my photos of Auzon so far.
January
1. 29 Design and Agency
  29 Let’s make our little corner of the world better.
December 2025
1. 01 So Good, You’ll Cry
  01 Last night’s dinner brought tears to my eyes twelve hours later. TW: aging, Parkinson’s, grief.
October
1. 15 Jenna and Abhi’s Bachelor(ette)
  - Album
  15 We had a weekend well-spent in Chicago.
2. 14 Good Work
  14 Or ‘oops, I’m incidentally supporting the Fascists’
3. 13 Catching Up
  13 Three new photo albums and some bullshitting
4. 05 Marcus Kwan on Windows Media Player
  - Link
  05 Throwback to a very different era and type of UI design. It’s delightful to see Frog’s old ID practice applied so visibly.
September
1. 06 Monthly Notes No. 3
  06 July’s and August’s monthly notes
2. 01 Five Square 1
  - Case Study
  01 Our first iteration of The Solitaire of Chess, and my second app to ship with Opt-6 Products.
July
1. 31 Dear Leelah
  31 I’m afraid that shit’s just gotten worse.
2. 15 AI Use, a Year Later
  15 Reflections on changes to my use of and attitude towards AI in the last year.
3. 14 Ariana’s Graduation
  - Album
  14 Ariana graduated with a Master’s in Social Work. I took her graduation photos.
4. 01 once more: on romance
  - Link
  01 “I’ve got rooms in my heart I didn’t know existed. I’ve got so many rooms left to discover, still. … Those rooms are there if you’ll only let yourself go through the darkness, in blind faith, toward them.”
June
1. 30 Monthly Notes No. 2
  30 June’s monthly notes
2. 28 Staff Designer
  28 Moving from Design Director to Staff Designer.
3. 27 Austin 8
  - Album
  27 Our ATX return until shortly before our wedding.
May
1. 31 Monthly Notes No. 1
  31 May’s monthly notes
2. 21 We Deserve Better Stories
  21 “The 2016 primaries were just like that time Snipe smooched Dumbledore in the ninth book” and that genre of commentary.
3. 11 Five Square 2
  - Case Study
  11 Following its initial release in Fall 2009, Five Square later received a 2011 overhaul with a brand-new, shining UI.
April
1. 28 Adam Newbold on Introspection
  - Link
  28 “If you can stop buying into the prevailing status-quo-preserving mindset of stuff like “the sin of empathy” or the notion that changing your mind is a weakness, you will discover completely new ways of relating to the very many different people that inhabit this world, and you will enjoy your time here that much more.”
2. 24 Bad Tastes
  24 Side-stepping the 'why bother?' of individual consumer choice.
3. 20 Divine Losers
  20 “If your heart is breaking right now, it means you still have a heart.”
4. 08 Diligence
  - Case Study
  08 Way back when everyone and their dog were designing GTD apps, a friend and I explored our own functionally minimally and visually rich task list.
5. 02 Remembering Alex Rogahn
  02 Today I learned that a childhood friend committed suicide in 2019.
March
1. 29 Elle on AI Art
  - Link
  29 “people want to harness the pureness of miyazaki’s vision for their own purposes without having to go through the empathic study that miyazaki goes through to hone his style, thereby completely missing the point of what makes it good”
February
1. 11 Ed Zitron on Masculinity
  - Link
  11 “True masculinity... it’s a sense of responsibility for both oneself and others and the things that we do, and finding strength in supporting and uplifting those close to you. And loving more, and caring more for people.” - 23:24-23:42
2. 06 Practical Performativity
  06 Sometimes it’s a good thing.
January
1. 27 Design at Zello
  27 My thoughts on Design and how they apply at Zello.
2. 23 Accountability
  23 How to address Manton Reece, and what I believe on related topics.
3. 22 Project Update 02
4. 13 Partners for Life
  13 I got married. Here’s what that means to me.
December 2024
1. 25 Nearsighted Solutions
  25 We misattribute instigation when observing healthy boundaries.
2. 03 The Personal Agency Fallacy
  03 We mistake agency for impact.
October
1. 10 ~~Pas~~ tous les hommes
  10 Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists’ defense predicates on their entitlement to the charity and empathy of both their fellow men and larger community. Give them none.
September
1. 19 Thirty
  19 I turned thirty today. These are some passing thoughts.
2. 18 My Interview Process
  18 Read about my interview process and exercises for Product Designers
August
1. 31 Passion, Craft, and Career Advancement
  31 Can designers succeed without passion for craft, and does that passion predicate career success?
2. 11 Threatening Communication
July
1. 19 Dumb Thoughts on Dumber AI
June
1. 03 Weaponized Effortlessness
2. 02 Project Update 01
February
1. 02 Imposter Syndrome
2. 01 Performativity and Anti-Marketing
January
1. 30 Opening the garage
  30 Working openly and publicly is good for community learning.