You Can’t Learn UX Research Without Burning the Garlic
Last night my 12-year-old made shrimp fried rice from scratch and dumplings for dinner. She earns $10 for every full dinner she prepares (protein, veggie, carb). I don't give her a weekly allowance. She cooks for it.
I help her. I'm there. But she's the one holding the wok. She burns the garlic. Miscalculates the rice. Figures it out.
That's how craft gets built. Not by watching someone cook. Not by reading a recipe.
By burning the garlic and learning something.
For the record, instant ramen was the first thing she ever made.
Maybe that's where every cook starts?
And you don't need a wok. Any pan will do. You just have to be allowed to cook.
2.5 years ago I asked this question publicly.
Here's what's changed and what hasn't.
We just removed the pan from the stove for an entire generation of researchers, designers, and PMs. The entry-level work that used to develop junior practitioners disappeared.
Note-taking. Synthesis. Screener writing. Wireframing. Competitive analysis. Documentation.
AI tools absorbed them in the name of speed.
And the 2022–present layoffs are taking care of the rest.
𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝘁 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀. 𝗪𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻-𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗽.
The place where you burn the garlic and learn something.
We all went along with it. Did we even have a choice? Was it even conscious?
The tools are convenient, free, and everywhere. And genuinely intriguing. Junior salaries were easy to cut. These tasks were easy to automate. And the mandate came from the top.
Now the same platforms that sold us: research / design / PRDs / [fill in the blank] in minutes
are quietly pivoting to: HUMANS IN THE LOOP.
What if instant ramen feeds people just as well as shrimp fried rice?
What if the Thermomix cooks better than the wok?
What new on-ramps will emerge?
But we're in the messy middle right now. The old apprenticeship is gone. The new model isn't formed yet.
And products are being built in that gap by people moving fast, stretched thin, and often held accountable without ever having burned the garlic.
So I'll ask again: Who's going to be left to put IN THE LOOP?
Should we all just buy stock in instant ramen?
I hope we don't starve.
