Devin Matthews rebranded his favorite sandwich shop in an effort to rediscover his love for the game. For free. 

He made a documentary ab out it called @SuprOrdinary.

Then his YouTube channel exploded.

Buck's Art Director reveals why SuprOrdinary almost started as a way to sell his feces for passive income (seriously), and how his cousin's death made him ask: "If I passed away tomorrow, would I feel like I did my best work?"

We talk the stress of medical bills, creative identity crises, and why making something you'd actually enjoy might be the only strategy that works.

Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)
Join 100,000+ designers for weekly insights on creative software and the people shaping it: https://uxtools.co

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - "Make something you'd enjoy"
02:02 - Devin became my favorite creator
05:22 - The not-so-romantic origin of Super Ordinary
06:30 - Passive income research gone wrong
07:52 - From teaching courses to creative entertainment
10:12 - Being a one-man band (then accepting help)
12:32 - The brainstorm meeting problem
14:09 - How to keep creative people around
21:08 - Balancing money and creative fulfillment
22:10 - "Life is short. Am I doing what I want?"
34:28 - The anxiety of going viral
39:14 - Playing the YouTube algorithm game
40:10 - TikTok gave me permission to experiment
43:39 - The aversion to being sold to
46:16 - Do you call yourself an influencer?
50:02 - Labels: designer, art director, filmmaker?
53:48 - "I still don't feel like a filmmaker"
57:59 - Who are we even making this for?
01:06:29 - Presenting designs as storytelling
01:13:32 - AI and the human side of creativity

ABOUT TOMMY GEOCO
I spent 15+ years in tech and design. Former military. Father of five. Now building Internet Enjoyers, a weird little media + product studio rediscovering soul in creative tech. This show is how I'm rediscovering my love for the game.

ABOUT STATE OF PLAY
Host Tommy Geoco discovers what fuels the internet's most interesting designers and builders.

LINKS:
UX Tools Newsletter: https://uxtools.co
Follow Devin: https://www.instagram.com/suprordinary
SuprOrdinary: @SuprOrdinary 
Buck: https://buck.co

FOLLOW ME:
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco

I took every dollar I made as a designer and poured it into a show that no one might watch.

$4k+ to bring Bernabe to New York. Three hours of sleep filming with Colin and Samir. Casey Neistat in the room. 30 interviews unedited. Revenue at 50%. The voice saying "you're going to wipe out" won't shut up.

I'm 38 but feeling brand new. Money is tight. Fulfillment is high. This media project is changing me in ways I don't understand yet.

I appreciate all of the support.

This is Taste Episode 1 drops Monday, October 27th. 

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Red eyes and three hours of sleep
00:37 - Pitching Colin and Samir: 48 hours embedded
01:36 - Processing the biggest set of my life
04:46 - This crew
06:29 - Bernabe's story
07:17 - Casey Neistat
09:02 - State of Play progress
11:48 - The voice: "You are going to wipe out"
13:15 - The unintended spiritual journey
15:32 - Why I'm doing this

ABOUT TOMMY GEOCO
I spent 15+ years in tech and design. Former military. Father of five. Now building Internet Enjoyers, a weird little media + product studio rediscovering soul in creative tech.

LINKS:
UX Tools Newsletter: https://uxtools.co
Podcast (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUMsheG88s&list=PLQ2ljYiRguo8tP6tZXv0qWkzHmQF42lXV
Podcast (Apple Music): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/state-of-play/id1829478829
Podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/3zDPTGHDSHgBekUxZQxUAN?si=2bcd212c472e464f

SPECIAL THANKS:
Agustin Eguia: https://agustineguia.com
Adam Stewart: https://www.instagram.com/adnastu/
Tom Fox: https://catalog.tomfox.site/

FOLLOW ME:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom_
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@designertom
Threads: https://threads.net/itsdesignertom

I'm running low on money and just scrapped an entire episode.

This week I made an executive decision: postpone the Figma episode. We're getting worse, not better. I launched a UX tools bundle at 5am, kept D&D night sacred, and realized I might just be a Dungeon Master LARPing as a founder (still not ready to accept how accurate that is).

This is what it looks like trying to balance play with reality.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Executive decision: We're postponing Figma
00:53 - The morning chaos with four teenagers
01:44 - Why we're getting worse, not better
02:42 - "Optimize for chaos, not process"
03:29 - The real cost of on-location shoots
04:56 - Skeleton crew breakdown
05:38 - Overwhelm sets in
06:32 - UX Tools Bundle: Down to the wire
07:03 - 11:30pm and still debugging
07:23 - 5am: Time to hit publish
07:53 - Why D&D night stays sacred
08:13 - "Maybe I'm just a Dungeon Master LARPing as a founder"
09:18 - The Figma multiplayer controversy parallel
10:04 - "If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone"

ABOUT TOMMY GEOCO
I spent 15+ years in tech and design. Former military. Father of five. Now building Internet Enjoyers, a weird little media + product studio rediscovering soul in creative tech. 

ABOUT STATE OF PLAY
Host Tommy Geoco discovers what fuels the internet's most interesting designers and builders, and shares the messy reality of building in public.

SPECIAL THANKS:
Agustin Eguia: https://agustineguia.com
Adam Stewart: https://www.instagram.com/adnastu/
Tom Fox: https://catalog.tomfox.site/

LINKS:
UX Tools Newsletter: https://uxtools.co

FOLLOW ME:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom_
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@designertom
Threads: https://threads.net/itsdesignertom

Ryo Lu went from Notion's founding designer to cloning himself with AI at Cursor. This is the full conversation.

From building anime fansites at 11 to architecting Notion's core systems to creating his own OS in a browser - Ryo reveals why the best designers are actually tool makers in disguise. 

We dig into creative burnout, why he stopped asking permission, and how AI is turning designers into parallel processors of their own brains.

Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)
Join 100,000+ designers for weekly insights on creative software and the people shaping it: https://uxtools.co

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Building websites at 11 years old
02:00 - The Chinese Apple fanboy community
03:50 - Failed startups and depression
07:00 - Creating "Chinese Stripe" in Shanghai
09:00 - How payment friction created China's internet boom
11:00 - Ivan's daily 4:30pm design critiques at Notion
14:00 - "I was not wrong either" - handling creative friction
17:00 - Becoming a sponge for information
20:00 - The fog of war problem in design
24:00 - "There is one ultimate solution"
27:00 - Why all SaaS tools are the same underneath
30:00 - From Figma to code - killing the abstraction layer
35:00 - Building prototyping environments
38:00 - Why Notion and Cursor solve the same problem
42:00 - What is RyoOS really?
45:00 - "Constant flow state" - rediscovering creative joy
48:00 - Designer burnout and serving too many masters
50:00 - 16-year-olds will out-build senior engineers
52:00 - "We're just builders and makers"

ABOUT TOMMY GEOCO
I spent 15+ years in tech and design. Former military. Father of five. Now building Internet Enjoyers, a weird little media + product studio rediscovering soul in creative tech. This show is how I'm rediscovering my love for the game.

ABOUT STATE OF PLAY
Host Tommy Geoco discovers what fuels the internet's most interesting designers and builders.

SPECIAL THANKS:
Sam Chapman: https://x.com/editedbysam
Mapal Berenson: https://youtube.com/@mapal
Bernabe Bolanos: https://youtube.com/@bernabebolanos
Adam Stewart: https://youtube.com/adnastu
Tom Fox: https://catalog.tomfox.site/

LINKS:
UX Tools: https://uxtools.co
Follow Ryo: https://x.com/ryolu_
Try Cursor: https://cursor.com
See RyoOS: http://os.ryo.lu/

FOLLOW ME:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom_
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@designertom
Threads: https://threads.net/itsdesignertom

This founder set an expiration ate for his company… and then hit 0M ARR.

Eric Simons (the builder behind Bolt.new) turned “we’re shutting down” into the world’s largest hackathon.

In this episode, we break down Eric’s probability playbook and how I’m applying it on my 60‑day clock to keep State of Play alive beyond October 1st.

We talk last bets, 100 swings, hackathons that print customers, and the automations I'm using to help me keep swinging.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
- How an "end date” forces focus (and why it worked for Eric Simons)
- The 100‑swing probability game for finding PMF again
- Turning ideas into sales leads (not “projects”)
- A real automation stack: Polar → n8n → Notion → email for code fulfillment
- Why designers are becoming builders and what that unlocks

SUPPORT THE SHOW:

UX Tools Newsletter (written by me):
Join 100,000+ designers for weekly insights → https://uxtools.co

CHAPTERS
00:00 – “In 60 days, it’s over” (cold open)
00:16 – Meet Eric Simons + the 0M ARR plot twist
00:30 – The decade everyone ignores (failure before the hockey stick)
02:30 – The Dropout DNA (living in an office, working 6am–3am)
03:30 – The 0,000 reality check vs a 00 Bolt build
05:00 – The Probability Playbook: take 100 swings
07:00 – The office‑squatter strategy (desperation, channeled)
09:00 – The competitor’s funeral + picking a death date
11:00 – The builder uprising
11:45 – The million‑dollar tweet (how the hackathon started)
13:00 – Meet the 100,000 (designers → builders)
15:00 – The only title I wear
16:00 – The last swing (countdown to Oct 1, 2025)

LINKS:
UX Tools Newsletter: https://uxtools.co
Follow Eric: https://x.com/EricSimons
Try Bolt: https://bolt.new

FOLLOW ME:
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@designertom
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco

Ben Huffman built a freelance platform with NO fees. Every investor told him it was the stupidest idea they’d ever heard.
Now Contra has 1M users and a $120M run rate.

We talk about living in the pain cave (the place your ideas live before anyone believes in them), building mission-driven companies, avoiding the “marketplace commodity problem,” and why community-led growth might be the future of creative work.

Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)
Join 90,000+ designers for weekly insights on creative software and the people shaping it: https://uxtools.co

CHAPTERS:
00:00 – The “pain cave” explained
01:12 – Investors called it the “worst idea ever”
04:51 – Why rejection always feels personal
07:32 – Building for the younger version of yourself
10:47 – The humanity problem with commission fees
13:41 – Early internet communities (Themeforest, torrent sites, Newegg)
15:30 – Solving the marketplace commodity problem
18:44 – Going “feed first” to foster authentic connections
20:28 – Becoming an independent discovery engine
24:08 – Partnering with creative tools like Framer
27:26 – Why open networks might win over closed platforms
30:28 – Building leverage as an independent creative
33:53 – The “Hollywood model” for creative projects
37:55 – Resumes are dead, project-based identity is the future
40:39 – Small core teams + specialist networks
43:17 – How indie communities share work and clients
46:05 – Branding yourself to get discovered
48:01 – The story of a 19-year-old making $50K/month from design
50:31 – How Contra makes money without fees
52:21 – Almost out of the pain cave

LINKS:
UX Tools Newsletter: https://uxtools.co
Follow Ben: https://x.com/_BenHQ
Try Contra: https://contra.com

FOLLOW ME:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom_
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@designertom
Threads: https://threads.net/itsdesignertom

NARRATIVE EPISODE:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2CrESEW03tMCrVGMCWlO8d?si=NVpYWxEKSVugGu5okwvh7w
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/he-built-a-freelance-platform-with-no-fees-now-1m-use-it/id1829478829?i=1000719514305

Ryo Lu went from Notion's founding designer to cloning himself with AI at Cursor. This is the full conversation.

From building anime fansites at 11 to architecting Notion's core systems to creating his own OS in a browser - Ryo reveals why the best designers are actually tool makers in disguise.

We dig into creative burnout, why he stopped asking permission, and how AI is turning designers into parallel processors of their own brains.

Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me): https://uxtools.co

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Building websites at 11 years old
02:00 - The Chinese Apple fanboy community
03:50 - Failed startups and depression
07:00 - Creating "Chinese Stripe" in Shanghai
09:00 - How payment friction created China's internet boom
11:00 - Ivan's daily 4:30pm design critiques at Notion
14:00 - "I was not wrong either" - handling creative friction
17:00 - Becoming a sponge for information
20:00 - The fog of war problem in design
24:00 - "There is one ultimate solution"
27:00 - Why all SaaS tools are the same underneath
30:00 - From Figma to code - killing the abstraction layer
35:00 - Building prototyping environments
38:00 - Why Notion and Cursor solve the same problem
42:00 - What is RyoOS really?
45:00 - "Constant flow state" - rediscovering creative joy
48:00 - Designer burnout and serving too many masters
50:00 - 16-year-olds will out-build senior engineers
52:00 - "We're just builders and makers"

LINKS:
UX Tools Newsletter: https://uxtools.co
Follow Ryo: https://x.com/ryolu_
Try Cursor: https://cursor.ai

FOLLOW ME:
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@designertom
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco

Ben Huffman built a freelance platform with NO fees. Every investor told him it was the stupidest idea they’d ever heard.
Now Contra has 1M users and a $120M run rate.

We talk about living in the pain cave (the place your ideas live before anyone believes in them), building mission-driven companies, avoiding the “marketplace commodity problem,” and why community-led growth might be the future of creative work.

Get the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)
https://uxtools.co

CHAPTERS:
00:00 – The “pain cave” explained
01:12 – Investors called it the “worst idea ever”
04:51 – Why rejection always feels personal
07:32 – Building for the younger version of yourself
10:47 – The humanity problem with commission fees
13:41 – Early internet communities (Themeforest, torrent sites, Newegg)
15:30 – Solving the marketplace commodity problem
18:44 – Going “feed first” to foster authentic connections
20:28 – Becoming an independent discovery engine
24:08 – Partnering with creative tools like Framer
27:26 – Why open networks might win over closed platforms
30:28 – Building leverage as an independent creative
33:53 – The “Hollywood model” for creative projects
37:55 – Resumes are dead, project-based identity is the future
40:39 – Small core teams + specialist networks
43:17 – How indie communities share work and clients
46:05 – Branding yourself to get discovered
48:01 – The story of a 19-year-old making $50K/month from design
50:31 – How Contra makes money without fees
52:21 – Almost out of the pain cave

LINKS:
UX Tools Newsletter: https://uxtools.co
Follow Ben: https://x.com/_BenHQ
Try Contra: https://contra.com

FOLLOW ME:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom
X / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco