Genuine Creativity Is Your New Moat (2026)

1996: FutureSplash becomes Macromedia Flash 2000: Newgrounds creates its “Flash Portal;” experimental net art site PrayStation launches; the Favourite Website Awards (FWA) launches specifically to recognize innovative Flash websites 2001: PrayStation wins the Prix Ars Electronica 2002: Les Manovich writes Generation Flash 2004: Wired magazine covers a functioning Flash simulation of a Mac System 7 machine 2006: Flash Player is installed on almost 98% of web-connected PCs. ActionScript 3 is released with Flash Player 9 (which was the first version to be officially called Adobe Flash Player) 2008: Flash has become the standard delivery mechanism for web video 2010: Steve Jobs publishes his “Thoughts on Flash”; Three.js is released Beyond this point, Flash usage steadily plummets until it was officially discontinued in 2020. The Present Works and is Boring AI-‘designed’ Sites It is in Your Best Interests to be Creative Reexamine Your Assumptions Does this product need to work this way? Is this actually the customer’s problem? Is this feature a good solution, or merely the customary solution? What would we build if we hadn’t already seen 20 answers to the same question? AI Helps You Experiment Faster The Business Argument “We built an app” is no longer special or impressive. Professional-looking design is not a differentiator. Standard feature sets are easy to replicate. Even a novel output can still be copied quickly. Identify problems everyone else has overlooked Frame familiar things differently, even radically differently Invent a truly new interaction, model, experience, or category Make unusual or experimental choices coherent Continue evolving after your competitors copy your ideas Experimentation is Not a Guarantee, but it is a Requirement You don’t get new good ideas without sifting through piles of bad ones.