The Big Catch-Up - Charlie Ellington

Hello — we're friends, we work together, we've spoken, or all of the above.

I don't have social media — my brain can't handle it. I miss the serendipity though.* So I'm trying this.

Work

You may remember Deep Work, New Eye Design, Web3 (2019–2023).

Zebra Design is me starting again. Same methodology, optimised for AI. One person instead of five. Delivering code, not Figma files.

Life

This update covers years. Future emails will cover weeks.

2022 — Ibiza
2023 — Left Deep Work. Lived in a van.
2025 — Baby daughter born in December
2026 — Hitting the road again. Spain.

Having a baby is the big thing. Never have I felt more creative and motivated. Never have I felt more scared. Sleep still exists — mainly due to my amazing partner. So does life. It's just rigorously prioritised.

What I'm Reading

Something Big Is Happening — Matt Shumer If AI can do your work cheaper, that work won't exist for people. The next model solves the quality part.

AI — Naval Ravikant Every niche will be filled. We get to work on things we actually care about.

Taste — Paul Graham "When anyone can make anything, the big differentiator is what you choose to make."

(A friend sent me the Shumer post. I wasn't scrolling X.)

Thoughts

The vast majority are underestimating AI. But it's not all bad.

I shipped 173 components in code for a client last month. A five-person team did that work two years ago.

If implementation gets cheap, taste gets expensive. Before: 20% taste, 80% implementing. Now: 80% taste, 20% implementing. The quality of everything goes up.

This Week

Building a website for Benny's dad. Websites are prompt-away now — reminds me of building WordPress sites in 2012. Anyone could, but it still took someone who understood web design.

Next — a dashboard unifying CRMs and accounting software for my dad's practice.

Say Hello

If we haven't spoken — I'd love to reconnect. Drop me an email.

* On not having social media

I want to keep in touch. That's the simple version.

Social media has real advantages. Bene posts something, a friend sees it, next time they meet there's a talking point. That serendipity is real.

I've spent three years limiting tech, optimising for human connection — Rushkoff's Team Human idea that technology should serve connection, not replace it. Less social media. More being in person. More 1:1 WhatsApps sent purposefully when I think of someone.

It worked. But I optimised too far.

There's a concept in sociology called "weak ties" — Granovetter found your best opportunities come not from close friends but from people you see occasionally. The old colleague. The conference acquaintance. Weak ties bridge worlds that strong ties can't. Social media is very good at maintaining these. I haven't been.

I'm also missing business opportunities. I want to be honest about that. I'm the guy who can help you when you need that specific help — but probably not right now. If you don't know what I'm up to, you can't think of me when the moment comes. I'm running a business. That is part of the reason.

Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism — delete everything, bring back only what benefits you. Use technology, don't be used by it. I deleted everything. Email is what I'm bringing back.

The good parts of social media are real: serendipity, weak ties, shared context. The bad parts are real too: dopamine loops, attention fragmentation, performing for strangers. This email is my attempt at the good without the bad.