Master the Art of AI & UX: Meta-Learning for Designers

This is Part 5 of a 5-Part series on how AI is revolutionizing the field of UX design, and how to keep your skills sharp. Read time ~4 min. If you haven’t read Part 4, read that first!

Last post, I explored how RAI frameworks will help us empower communities with AI tools and avert disasters from their misuse.

But given the warp-speed exponentially-accelerating rate of advancement in the field of AI...

You can barely open your mouth to express a thought about the latest trend or tool, before some new innovation hits that changes it all again.

It’s going to be like this practically every week now.

We’re all going to have to get used to the digital landscape constantly shifting under us even faster than before.

Meta-learning, the process of learning how to learn effectively, will be a core skill if we want to keep our footing.

Let’s look to a master for inspiration.

The Form of No Form ~ The Tao of Jeet Kune Do

In his martial arts training and teaching, Bruce Lee developed the philosophy of "The Form of No Form."

The idea is that rather than being attached to a specific art style or form, practitioners should focus on developing their own unique art by always learning from a variety of sources.

Rigid adherence to a specific form or style leads to inflexibility and a lack of resilience to sudden shocks or changes.

(You may relate to this if you've ever tried to adopt a new coding stack into your product... only to find a newer framework had become more popular by the time you did.)

Ultimately, "The Form of No Form" is about developing a fluid and adaptable approach to one’s practice, recombining learnings to find one’s own unique expression of their art.

The more you repeatedly flex the mental muscle of learning new skills, the easier it becomes to learn new skills in general. By practicing this, you strengthen your meta-learning capacity.

For over 15 years, across my entire design career, I've had the opportunity to practice mixed martial arts in the tradition of Sifu Bruce Lee and his protege, Guro Dan Inosanto (seen here in this screenshot from 'Game of Death').

(A brief aside: As a sci fi and kung fu geek, I always get a kick out of seeing how this martial lineage has made its way into popular IPs like The Mandalorian and Dune.)

Diana Lee Inosanto, daughter of Guro Dan Inosanto, facing Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka in 'The Mandalorian.'

Josh Brolin vs. Timothy Chalamet, using a Filipino blade style known as ‘Balintawak’ for the fight choreography in 'Dune.'

Beyond the physical aspects of martial artistry (and general nerdery), I’ve found Bruce Lee’s philosophy to be super-relevant to my design career, and our frenetic tech-driven modern lives in general.

Practicing new design skills and apps is part of staying current in our UX jobs, and growing in seniority.

As AI evolves, Designers who embrace the increasing pace of change will surf the waves of novelty, instead of getting knocked over by them.

Learning new tools like Stable Diffusion with a steeper learning curve may seem overwhelming at first.

But the more we do it, the better we get at picking up new skills quickly. And the more we cross-train in complimentary skills, the more options we have for creatively re-combining them into something fresh & original.

So how can you apply this all this to your design gong-fu in the Age of AI?

Let’s just ask ChatGPT.

Prompt: Please describe how UX designers could apply the principles of Bruce Lee's philosophy to keep their skills current with the rapid pace of advancement in the field AI:

Response (lightly edited):

Focus on developing a strong foundation in basic principles and techniques: Just as Lee emphasized the importance of developing a strong foundation in basic principles, UX designers can focus on mastering the fundamental skills and concepts that are necessary to excel in their field. This could include learning about user-centered design, usability testing, and other core UX principles.

Cultivate a strong connection to one's body and mind through physical and mental training: Lee believed that developing a strong connection to one's body and mind was essential for success. UX designers can apply this principle by staying physically and mentally fit, and taking care of their overall well-being in a profession that requires a lot of computer work that’s hard on the body. This could include exercises like meditation, yoga, or other activities that help to improve focus and clarity of thought.

(Author insert: Here’s my article on ergonomic setups and products for designers to keep your chi flowing while you’re working in the flow state) (Coming soon).

Be open to learning from a variety of sources: Rather than becoming too attached to a specific tool or design method, UX designers can stay current by learning from many teachers. This could include reading industry blogs and articles, taking online courses, and attending conferences.

Experiment with different design tools and techniques to find what works best for you: This could involve exploring new AI design tools and techniques as they become available, or working on personal projects that allow us to push the boundaries of our skill and knowledge.

As Sifu Bruce Lee would say, 'Keep what is useful, discard what is useless, add what is uniquely your own.'

Prompt: Let's get more specific. In about a paragraph, please describe ways that UX designers can practice to improve their meta-learning capacity.

Response (lightly edited):

Practice actively engaging with new information: ask questions, summarize what you have learned, or applying your new knowledge to a design problem.


Seek out opportunities to work on cutting-edge design projects, even if they are outside of your comfort zone (for instance, this could mean working on projects that use AI as part of the workflow). This can help you build your flexibility and adaptability as a designer.

As always, stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in UX design.

Thanks ChatGPT.

This avenue of discussion also opens up interesting questions like, ‘What about design education? What do we teach in design school that will still be relevant by the time a student graduates?

What do we teach our children in the age of AI?

The best answer available at the moment is ‘teach them how to learn.’

The ultimate skills for UX designers and creative professionals in general will be adaptability and resilience. Meta-learning will be critical.

Be Like Water, My Friends!

Thanks for reading this series, hope you got some value from it!

If you want to sharpen your design & writing skills and AI-proof your creative career during the coming wave of automation, you can subscribe below to have future posts like this sent directly to your email. Salut!