Daring Creativity. Daring Forever.

Episode: "Kids really need to see adults play" (Russ Mashmeyer bonus episode)
Host: Radim Malinic
Guest: Russ Mashmeyer (Design Director, Meta)
Date: December 25, 2025

Episode Overview

This bonus episode with Russ Mashmeyer explores how creativity, play, and experimentation survive (or perish) as we move from childhood into adulthood. Radim and Russ dive into the essential need for adults to model creative play, the realities and limitations of AI in the creative process, the value of context and history, and radical shifts in how creative digital work gets made. Together, they uncover why daring creativity isn’t about perfection, but about being visibly imperfect—and the lifelong impact of showing up and playing anyway.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of Adults Modeling Play

• Russ’s Core Point:
  Kids need to see adults play—not just succeed, but sometimes fail joyfully, modeling resilience and lifelong creativity.

  “They need to see that continuity – that behavior that they just engage so naturally in as kids is okay in adulthood... opening up that window to let your kids see you flub a line or fail, but do it with a smile and having fun... That creates moments of beauty and wonder and awesomeness.”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (01:12)

• Radim’s Expansion:
  Society often inadvertently teaches children that creative play expires with adulthood, which stifles risk-taking and imagination in future generations. Instead, adults should intentionally demonstrate resilience and joy in the creative process, especially the messy parts.

  “He’s not saying kids need to see adults succeed at creative projects, but specifically see them flub a line or fail with a smile because it’s teaching them resilience differently than a competitive environment.”
  — Radim Malinic (01:51)

• Memorable Moment:
  Russ shares a personal anecdote about fumbling through a song on drums with his son, highlighting that “creativity is a lifelong practice, not a childhood phase you graduate from when you become serious.” (02:40)

2. The True Nature (and Limits) of AI in Creativity

• Russ’s Take:
  AI isn’t here to replace human creativity—it is fundamentally designed to deliver the statistical average, not outlier, culturally impactful work.

  “AI models compute and deliver the mean, the average of a particular request or topic... And that’s just not what pushes culture forward.”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (03:20)

• Strategic Insight:
  AI excels at the “average stuff,” making human perspective, taste, and cultural insight more valuable than ever. Use AI to support (not supplant) creative work—helping where you’re weak so you can focus on what makes you unique.

• Radim’s Reflection:
  Media stokes fear of AI’s creative takeover, but the actual outcome is increased importance for the human factor: “...AI is mathematically designed to calculate the statistical middle, incapable of the cultural insights or lived experience that pushes fields forward.” (04:13)

3. The Power of Cultural Context and Studying History

• Russ’s Framework:
  The best creative work understands and builds upon cultural history. Being attuned to historical patterns (instead of fixating exclusively on what's next) is a core skill, especially in moments of technological transition.

  “The more you kind of study the past and study history and study breakthroughs... you begin to see a lot of patterns that feel really immutable for people over time.”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (05:59)

• Tech Progress in Perspective:
  Russ connects the current AI revolution to past upheavals like the advent of photography, referencing Walter Benjamin's essays on art and mechanical reproduction.

  “There have been many cycles of this in the history of commercial activity and industrialization. I mean particularly in the art realm... cultural uproar over photography as like a fine art medium...”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (06:40)

• Radim’s Summation:
  Radim emphasizes the need for cultural leadership, suggesting that understanding history is what enables creators to make breakthrough work that resonates rather than just copies.

4. Creative Process Transformation: From Drawing to Sculpting with AI

• Russ’s Metaphor:
  The shift in software creation feels like moving from precise drawing to expressive sculpting—AI enables rapid and tangible iteration.

  “It feels like going from a place of having to perfectly detail, draw you know, a realistic drawing of something, to sculpting. I feel like I can sculpt software now...”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (09:04)

• Workflow Revolution:
  Designers can now move from idea to usable prototype in minutes: sketch an idea, photograph it, prompt an AI, and test immediately. No more lengthy engineering cycles or bottlenecks.

  “Being able to do that solo and have that immediate feedback loop... not having to convince an engineer to take hours to hand code some dumb idea... but just literally take a photo of that napkin sketch... and like, two minutes later, being able to play with a prototype...”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (09:46)

• Radim’s Observations:
  For decades, software creation revolved around long, slow feedback cycles. Now, the immediacy of prototyping returns creators to a childlike state of possibility and discovery—but at a radically different scale and pace.

  “To draw something is about perfecting before committing. Every line matters because erasure is costly. Sculpting is about getting rough material into space, see how it sits, and then refine it iteratively. Russ shows AI has made software creation three dimensional in a way it was never possible before.”
  — Radim Malinic (10:32)

Notable Quotes

• On adults modeling play:
  “Opening up that window to let your kids see you flub a line or fail, but do it with a smile and having fun... That creates moments of beauty and wonder and awesomeness.”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (01:12)

• On AI’s limitations:
  “AI models compute and deliver the mean... That’s just not what pushes culture forward.”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (03:20)

• On the value of history:
  “The more you kind of study the past... you begin to see a lot of patterns that feel really immutable for people over time.”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (05:59)

• On creative software development:
  “I can sculpt software now... bringing rough pieces together, core functionality, big pieces, getting them locked in... then slowly refining and honing the expression.”
  — Russ Mashmeyer (09:04)

Timestamps of Key Segments

• [01:12] Russ on kids needing to see adults play
• [03:20] AI’s true (average) nature and why it’s not a replacement for creativity
• [05:59] Studying history to predict and shape what’s next
• [09:04] The shift from drawing to sculpting in software design thanks to AI

Tone and Language

Throughout the episode, Radim maintains an insightful, encouraging, and reflective tone, while Russ is practical, optimistic, and candid about both the promises and pitfalls of emerging creative tools.

Summary

This episode is a call to model daring creativity at every stage of life—not just for our own fulfillment, but to keep curiosity, risk-taking, and artistry alive for future generations. Russ Mashmeyer and Radim Malinic deliver a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation about why creativity remains fundamentally human, how new tools change—but never replace—the spark of inspiration, and why understanding our history is essential to creative progress. If you’re searching for reasons to keep your inner child (and creator) alive, or want a grounded vision for using AI in your creative process, this conversation is a must-listen.