The Renaissance mindset we’re missing in AI UX

A lot of us designers and PMs are really busy “shaping AI experiences” while knowing just enough about how AI works to sound convincing in a meeting… and not much more :)

We debate flows, nitpick patterns, obsess over screens — all while treating the model like a mysterious black box the engineers will figure out.

Reading about da Vinci was a gentle slap in the face.

In the Renaissance, imagination wasn’t separate from mechanics.
Vinci dove into anatomy, physics, materials, motion — because you couldn’t create anything meaningful without understanding how it worked.

Compare that to us:
We’re designing the most consequential technology of our time… while treating the underlying system like a magic trick we’d rather not learn.

I think we need some of that energy again.

Not to become engineers.
Not to pretend to be polymaths.

But to stop building blindly.

If we want to create meaningful AI products, we can’t just define the what.

We need to understand enough of the how — the constraints, the mechanics, the tradeoffs — to build with intention instead of assumption.

That Renaissance instinct to get your hands dirty, cross disciplines, and understand the machine?

We need it back — urgently.

Starting with me.