You’re reading The Steady Beat, a weekly round-up of hand-picked articles and resources for people who make software products: designers, engineers, product managers, and organizational leaders.
By the Numbers - NYE in NYC
- 12 - The Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball is a geodesic sphere with a diameter of 12 feet.
- 11,875 - The New Year’s Eve Ball weighs a hefty 11,875 pounds.
- 2,688 - The Ball is covered with a total of 2,688 crystal triangles that vary in size, and range in length from 4 ¾ inches to 5 ¾ inches per side.
- 32,256 - Illuminating the Ball are 32,256 LEDs, with each LED module containing 48 LEDs — 12 red, 12 blue, 12 green, and 12 white for a total of 8,064 of each color.
- 16 million - The Ball is capable of displaying a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns that creates a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square.
— Times Square NYC, 6m, #history, #nyc, #nye
Steady Progress: The 2024 Recap
It was a big year for Steady and our mission to cut the coordination tax and multiply speed-to-impact for our customers, starting with the launch of Steady itself! Along the way we baked in AI, expanded integrations, and generally added and refined ways for teams and people to get on the same page fast—allowing teammates to not only keep tabs on what happened, but to act proactively towards shared outcomes. We’re looking forward to a huge 2025, with more AI, more integrations, and, most importantly, more autonomous team coordination.
— Everything we shipped in 2024 @ Steady, 14m, #product-updates, #team-coordination, #software-development
AI in Design: Innovation or Insult?
Pentagram, the leading independent design consultancy, recently faced criticism and sparked debate over their use of generative AI in a project for the U.S. government’s Performance.gov website. The agency utilized AI platform Midjourney to create over 1,500 icons. Some in the design community have condemned this move as a displacement of artists and a theft from creative folks. However, others argue that Pentagram’s use of AI signals a shift towards a world where AI and traditional artistic craft can co-exist. They believe that AI allows a new engagement with creativity, challenging the redefinition of what it means to be a designer. This event has undoubtedly stirred up the ongoing AI art debate, and whether history will view Pentagram’s move as pioneering or pathetic is yet to be seen.
— Creative Bloq, 13m, #ai, #design, #branding
Hybrid Work Wars: Flexibility Wins the Talent Battle
Forget office nostalgia—2025’s hybrid work trends favor trust over mandates. Companies clinging to rigid return-to-office (RTO) policies, like Amazon and Tesla, are shedding top talent to more flexible rivals. Forward-thinking organizations are ditching outdated attendance metrics for results-based performance and embracing tailored hybrid norms instead of one-size-fits-all rules. The focus is shifting from “days in the office” to “core hours and focus time,” while innovators tie flexibility to AI adoption. The lesson? Trust and adaptability aren’t just good policy—they’re the keys to retaining top talent and outpacing the competition.
— MIT Sloan Review, 10m, #hybrid-work, #workplace-trends, #leadership, #management
The AI Codependency Crisis
Andrew Zuo takes us on a deep dive into the rise of AI-powered coding tools like Cursor and GitHub Copilot, arguing that their growing dominance is reshaping—and in some ways undermining—software development. From modular IDEs now prioritizing AI features to studies showing AI assistants introduce more bugs without productivity gains, Zuo paints a concerning picture of over-reliance on AI. While these tools can teach and assist, their misuse risks atrophying developer skills, hollowing out education, and prioritizing ease over correctness. The verdict? AI coding isn’t inherently bad, but we’re letting it kill the craft by overusing it in all the wrong places.
— Medium, 7m, #artificial-intelligence, #coding, #software-development
Autonomous Team Coordination
The average knowledge worker loses 23 hours weekly to coordination overhead. Fix that with Steady today.
Steady is an AI-powered coordination layer that runs in the background, distilling plans and progress from tools, teams, & people into forward-looking tailored summaries, giving everyone the clarity they need to build outstanding products together. Teams using Steady typically see 10X speed-to-impact increases in the first 30 days.
Learn more at steady.space.
Editor’s note: we’re pausing The Steady Beat for the holidays. Thanks for reading and see you in 2025!
