The Power of Possibility & Fathom acquires Gauges
How to hire people who are better than you, dealing with social anxiety, what does it mean to be a designer right now, and more in this week's issue of Creativerly.
My name is Philipp and you are reading Creativerly, the internet corner where I unpack my musings, curate and write about noteworthy apps and software, and explore the latest trends in design and tech.
Hey and welcome to Creativerly 373 👋
The design landscape is shifting, rapidly, and sometimes relentlessly. In an era where technology and artificial intelligence are reshaping how we create, the pressure to adapt can feel overwhelming. Online conversations often emphasize the need for designers to expand their skill sets: to code, to ship faster, to leverage AI tools, and to constantly push the boundaries of productivity. But amid this push for versatility and speed, it’s worth pausing to ask: What does it truly mean to be a designer today?
For many, the essence of design lies in creativity, intentionality, and the pursuit of meaningful solutions, not just the ability to move quickly or adopt every new tool. The question isn’t just about keeping up with trends or mastering the latest software; it’s about understanding what truly drives impactful design. Does productivity always equate to better outcomes? Or is there value in slowing down, focusing on craft, and trusting the process? As the industry evolves, these are the conversations worth having, because the future of design shouldn’t just be about doing more, but about creating with purpose.
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Fresh Updates & News
Fathom acquires Gauges →
Fathom* just announced that they have acquired Gauges, the simple, real-time analytics product that paved the way for companies like Fathom itself. Gauges was founded by a small and mighty team called Ordererd List back in 2011. After shipping an incredible product which took off immediately, it got acquired by GitHub, nine months after launching. In 2017, Gauges changed owner again, as Github sold it to ReportGarden Inc, which kept it running for the next nine years. But recently, in March 2026, ReportGarden made the decision to sunset Gauges, as it was no longer feasible for them to maintain it. Since Gauges customers immediately emailed Fathom about importing their data, Jack Ellis, co-founder and CTO of Fathom messaged ReportGarden's CEO. And on 15th April, Fathom officially acquired Gauges.
Fathom offers already everything Gauges did, and more. With this acquisition, all Gauges customers will get migrated over to Fathom's platform, while preserving their historical data.
Mental Wealth
❯ The Power of Possibility – “It’s rare that you get to see work that directly helps those who most deserve it, but I want to tell you about the opportunity we so seldom get to actually contribute in a way that we know will have real impact.”
❯ How to hire people who are better than you – “If you don’t hire people better than you, the organization gets bigger, not better. But how do you hire for something you don’t understand?”
❯ Dealing With Social Anxiety – “I am not a people person. Despite being a YouTuber and now a “professor”, I would much rather be away from people as much as possible. Of course, that’s not very healthy, so I try to put myself out there as much as I’m comfortable with.”
❯ When moving fast, talking is the first thing to break – “When you make speed and “moving fast” the biggest priority on a project or in an organization, the first thing to breakdown is talking to each other. Talking takes time. Consensus is expensive and slow. In a pressurized environment there’s no time to schedule calls, get input from subject matter experts, or resolve key differences of opinion. ASAP makes a big assumption that all relevant parties are already in the room.”
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❉ Think tasks, not apps. Setapp* is you one-stop subscription to solving every task on Mac and iPhone.
❉ Fathom is cookie-free, GDPR compliant, privacy-first website analytics software. Get $10 off your first invoice and a 7-day free trial when you use this link*.
These are paid promotions or affiliate links to support Creativerly. If you are interested in putting your tool, product, or resource in front of over 2000 creative minds, consider advertising in Creativerly and book a sponsor or classified ad spot. Find all the important information at creativerly.com/advertise.
Appendix
❯ ICYMI
You’ve saved 500 articles, 200 videos, and 100 podcasts, promising to revisit them ‘someday.’ But will you? Explore the ‘save for later’ paradox: why we hoard digital content, the illusion of productivity, and how to embrace (or break) the cycle in an age of AI-generated overload.
❯ Quick Bits
- Voice actors fight to save their livelihoods and local cultures from Hollywood's AI push (Rina Chandran / Rest of World)
- Data Work Is Too Secretive. Big Tech Should be Held Accountable. (Tatiana Dias / Tech Policy Press)
- Sam Altman responds to ‘incendiary’ New Yorker article after attack on his home (Anthony Ha / TechCrunch)
- The most polluting LNG project in the US is being built in Louisiana (Tristan Baurick / Grist)
- The Iran war's wild spike in diesel prices is eating into your earnings (Tik Root / Mother Jones)
- Deezer says 44% of new music uploads are AI-generated, most streams are fraudulent (Ryan Whitwam / Ars Technica)
- Apple could be fined up to $38 billion by Indian antitrust regulator (Jackson Chen / Engadget)
- App host Vercel says it was hacked and customer data stolen (Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch)
- Norway’s state telecoms firm accused of helping Myanmar regime seize activists (Kaamil Ahmed / The Guardian)
- Websites break California privacy law at ‘industrial scale,’ survey finds (Colin Lecher / The Markup)
- Tim Cook will still be Apple’s Trump whisperer (Lauren Feiner / The Verge)
- MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged (David Gilbert / WIRED)
- Anthropic mocks up Claude Design to draft fancy new pink slips for marketing teams (Thomas Claburn / The Register)
- Carbon Removal Braces for Life After Microsoft’s Mega-Deals (Robinson Meyer / Heatmap News)
- In two months, Trump’s Cabinet has lost three women (Grace Panetta / The 19th)
- Robotaxis are the new millennial lifestyle subsidy (Rani Molla / Sherwood)
- Trump Pardoned a Nursing Home Owner Who Owed Almost $19 Million to a Grieving Family (Jeremy Kohler / ProPublica)
- War, climate change, and AI: What’s at stake at this year’s UN Indigenous forum (Anita Hofschneider / Grist)
- Apple will have a product guy as CEO again (Jay Peters, Stevie Bonifield / The Verge)
Till next time! 👋
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