This is really heartwarming. To be honest, I’m the kind of person who always wants to include others—invite them, reach out, make sure they know they belong. But sometimes when people reject the invites, I feel like “maybe someone like Anna in the story doesn’t really want to be with me.” Today I learned something from Alexei: “I know she’s always going to say no, but that’s not the point. I invite her so she’ll always feel included in the group.”

> The "make it pretty"-step should really be the last thing you do. If you design your UI with heavily visually simplified components and in black and white, it should still work and feel right. Make it work right, and the pretty will come.

Totally agree. I’ve fallen into the trap of chasing “cool” or fancy visuals first, but the most beautiful UI is the one that actually solves the user’s problem. A slick-looking interface that doesn’t work well isn’t really beautiful at all.