Geoffrey Litt - The Future of Malleable Software

In this episode of Dive Club, Ridd interviews Geoffrey Litt, a design engineer at Notion, about the future of AI interfaces and malleable software. Geoffrey shares his journey, starting with his frustrations at an education tech startup where he realized the difficulty of creating software for diverse users. This led him to explore how users could build their own software tools, culminating in his work at Ink & Switch and now Notion, where he focuses on document-centric computing and enabling users to customize their software experiences. The conversation covers experiments like Embark, the importance of exposing structure in design, the role of AI in software malleability, and the concept of "coding like a surgeon," emphasizing hands-on involvement and continuous learning with AI tools. They also discuss the balance between disposable and permanent software, the bottlenecks in software distribution, and the evolving role of designers in creating adaptable systems.