Driving stick shift
Issue 216: Manual transmission in a world of copilots
This week I’m in Barcelona—a city near and dear to my heart. It was 13 years ago I called this place home; the first place I lived outside of the United States. As I caught up with a friend over tapas, we reminisced about a road trip I once took to Figueres, the home Salvador Dali. It prompted her to ask, “You know how to drive a manual car, right?” The reason for her question is because a lot of Americans visit Europe and are shocked to receive a manual transmission vehicle as their rental.
The conversation sparked a discussion on the importance of manual driving in our professional craft. In San Francisco, where I work, the fully autonomous Waymo is quickly becoming a normalized way of commuting.
It’s inevitable that cars will go from having an accelerator, brake, and clutch, to none of these controls at all. Despite the rapid evolution, I believe it’s still important to master manual control. Let’s look at reasons to learn the craft’s equivalent of manual driving and why it’s more important than ever in a world of autopilots and copilots.
The shift from manual to automatic
I won’t assume every reader grew up with a stick shift and will summarize the concept of manual driving. A manual car operates by allowing the driver to manually shift gears using a clutch pedal and gear stick, giving more direct control over the vehicle’s power and speed. The clutch is the key to control in manual driving as it is how you start driving the car, shifting into various gears of speed (usually 5), and putting it in reverse.
The rise of automatic transmission vehicles started in the post World War era. Automatic vehicles, as the name alludes, controlled all the shifting for you. Though these vehicles are less efficient and allows the driver less control, the tradeoff was convenience—two pedals and removing the mental friction of shifting gears.
Manual driving is direct control
Even with the advancement of automatic transmission, there is a strong argument that manual transmission is better. Because of the direct control of shifting gears, manual transmission often results in better fuel efficiency, lower maintenance cost, and more control over the vehicle, and less likely to overheat. It’s a more efficient experience if you know what you’re doing. Most importantly, it’s a more delightful experience and you look way cooler driving one. Ever see James Bond drive an automatic?
The essence of driving a stick shift is direct control and precision. I learned the majority of foundational skills as a software designer in the manual equivilent. Before Figma, I hand-drew wireframes and interactions on dot grid paper instead of hot gluing a bunch of UI libraries together. I didn’t use auto layout, and instead, relied on my intuition and eyes to work through different layout concepts. Before Replit and Cursor, I learned to write front-end code to build my designs before relying on copilots to write the code for me.
The ability to do things manually can sound silly in an era where we’re spoiled with incredible tools to create software. It’s not silly the moment OpenAI or Figma goes down. Manual driving gives you agency to keep moving if the GPS or autopilot stops working—the utmost direct control.
Embracing automatic technologies, sharpen manual skills
Even though I advocate for manual controls, I’ll honestly admit I’m not the best stick shift driver. The importance is I’m able to drive one if necessary and appreciate the technique of driving one. The barrier for people to create software is decreasing, and that’s excellent. Currently, it’s humans embracing AI copilots and eventually fully autonomous coding. One of the beauties of the Replit Agent is it shows you what it’s doing; teaching you foundations as things are automating.
For the past few years, I’ve spent the majority of my time working with design teams to build AI experiences. Despite having access to all the incredible AI tools and advanced software, I find myself starting on the whiteboard in the office or sketching with pen and paper. Emerging technologies come and go, and will continue to get better. However, embrace manual driving as all autonomy is built on the basis of core fundamentals.
Hyperlinks + notes
A collection of references for this post, updates, and weekly reads.
Helping every team succeed in the AI era | This week in Barcelona, we announced Atlassian Rovo’s GA. I’m incredible of the team’s milestone and looking forward to shipping more AI experiences to our customers
Machines of: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better | Inspiring blog post by Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic
Congrats to Play for launching 2.0 | If you’re in New York City, join them for Drinks & Demos
Congrats to Josh Puckett and Adam Michaela on launching Iteration Design. If you’re looking for design help, hit them up
Congrats Ornella Altunyan on joining Braintrust!
Brie Wolfson on Good Work with Barrett Brooks
“Our Employees Are Not Children” – Spotify Will Keep Remote Working
The metaphor of driving stick is one that I've tried and tested multiple times and this is yet another unique take, well done. But I also feel like there's an element of technological progression that comes into the metaphor, when you think about the real reason we all drive Automatic nowadays. It's just a product of the simplicity we created for ourselves - even the race cars that require manual shifts are just pushes of a button as opposed to finding the right notch in a gearbox. I think this nuance clears up the idea that driving in automatic shouldn't be seen as a shortcut or a cop-out, but rather a mode of efficiency..? Idk, maybe I'm driving the metaphor into the ground but, just making a small distinction there.
This brought back distant memories of me sitting in manual-driving cars. Also like the note: “Emerging technologies come and go, and will continue to get better. However, embrace manual driving as all autonomy is built on the basis of core fundamentals.”