I saw Dune: Part Two with team members this week in San Francisco. Wow, it was incredible and nearly perfect, especially experiencing it on the 70mm. It was the best theatrical experience I’ve seen since Mad Max: Fury Road, Inception, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The sequel to the acclaimed Frank Herbert book was directed by Denis Villeneuve, the French Canadian filmmaker who seems to not miss with previous titles: Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Sicario, and Dune: Part One (of course).

On remote calls, one of the first things people ask about is what book is on my shelf behind my desk. It’s a copy of, “The Art and Soul of Blade Runner. It’s an incredible coffee table book going behind the scenes on all the care that went through making a beautiful film that honors one of the most iconic Science Fiction films of all time.

When you listen to Villeneuve speak in interviews, it’s clear there is a deep reverence in how he approaches the work that feels like a religious devotion. Animism is the belief that objects, places, and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence or soul. It's the belief in the interconnectedness of all living and non-living things, often found in indigenous or traditional religions.

Regardless if you take the soul or animism figuratively or literally, it’s a great way to convey the essence of the products and objects you make. When Villenueve was approached to direct Blade Runner 2049, he was terrified about screwing up such an acclaimed franchise that his career would be over. As fellow legendary director Christopher Nolan said to him, "You're treading on sacred territory, man." Villeneuve ultimately took on the challenge of Blade Runner 2049. He worked from the fear of the expectation, but also the love he has for sci-fi; pouring his soul into the work.

“I still wake up sometimes at night, saying, ‘Why did I do that?’ I’d declined a few other projects of that scale, but at the time, I said to myself, ‘It’s a crazy project, but it’s worth the risk of losing everything.'” —Villeneuve said.

In my opinion, he crushed it. His ability to world build in Blade Runner 2049 gave him the experience and learnings to take on his next challenge, which was Dune—the story many said is unfilmable. He crushed it again.

When someone asks me what good craft is, I tell them to watch a Denis Villeneuve film. All art and creative work is subjective, and I don't expect everyone to love his style. What I think people all agree on is his craft is revealed through something that's opinionated, expressive, and deliberate. One does not accidentally craft something.

Breathing life into software

As designers, we’re taught early in our education to detach ourselves from the work. In critique, you shouldn’t take things personally because your work is not you. Though this is true, it’s also difficult for some designers to separate themselves from the work because of how they pour their soul into it. We should take big swings like Villeneuve did with Blade Runner 2049 for everything we create. We might fail, but if we put all our love into it, you might end up making something truly great.

Soul-less design is everywhere. Recently in Glasgow there was a Willy Wonka Experience that went viralk and not for good reasons. The experience generated with AI was promoted to be this truly magical experience. In reality, it was a Fyre Festival-esque disaster.

The Wonka Experience was so bad that some bamboozled attendees called the police. It’s a friendly reminder that if you ever feel bad about your work, remember that no one has called the police on you during code review or design crit.

An object cannot have a high bar of quality or soul if the creator did not put care into it. Whether it's a software designer, Willy Wonka experience organizer, or filmmaker, you can tell if people don't care about the quality of their work because it’s soul-less. The truth is the majority of people will not care about the quality or essence of the work, and that’s why it’s critical to hold a high standard.

The soul of your work is immortal

The end game is to create something the surpasses your time on this world. It’s unlikely you’ll see a print of SaaS software hanging in a Gothic cathedral. Whether a relic of a saint or an app you designed, the soul lives because of how it makes a person feel. There was a recent meme on Twitter about Webflow about how customers thank a website builder for changing their life.

It may sound like a joke. However, I can tell you from many conversations with customers this is sincere for many of them. Webflow didn’t change their life because they subscribe to a piece of SaaS software that let’s them build sites visually. It’s because using it unlocked something they possessed internally this whole time. It might be someone who struggled with front end development and were able to build in a language (design) they were more comfortable with. No one would dare say soul-less software changed their lives.

UI is the vessel to the soul

If you walk into a cathedral, you may see reliquaries, a container that holds sacred relics of saints. This may be an object the had in their life such as a ring, article of clothing. Often times, it can be part of their body (I know, it's Catholicism). Objects that perceive to have a spiritual essence are cared for. You would never see the room that holds a reliquary be messy, loud, or uncared for. The user interface (UI) is the equivalent of this in software. This is why I believe it's important to have a devotion to our craft. Karri Saarinen, CEO of Linear, talks about how Linear's mission is to bring magic back to software. I love this and agree with him. To me, this is giving software a soul.

Proof of Concept is dropping a different day next week: Issue 186 will drop later in the week instead of Sunday, March 17. I’m testing a new day to see how people like it.

Hype links

Collection of what I read and related to this week's post

• Denis Villeneuve Thought His Career Was Over After 'Blade Runner 2049'

• Scaling and Selling AI Products for Enterprise by May Habib

• ‘Dune 2’: How Artisans Pulled Off Shooting the Arena Fight Scene With Infrared Technology

• Congrats Fable on launching Prism

Job opportunities

• We're hiring at Replit

• First Round is hiring a Writer