‘Hard Fork’ Live Part 2: Dylan Field on Standing Out in the A.I. Era

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Any AI developer tool can create a brand new project from scratch. That part's easy.
The hard part is working with the code your business already runs on. IBM Bob is a new AI development partner that helps you do the hard job. Moving your technology into the AI age without losing the legacy code your business was built on. Let's create smarter business, IBM.
This episode of Hard Fork is brought to you by our Hard Fork Live 2026 sponsors. Premier sponsor, IBM, associate sponsors, Everpure, Pureleaf, and the University of Notre Dame, and supporting sponsor, Atlassian.

**Kevin Roose** (1:00)
Welcome back, Hard Fork listeners. This week, we are bringing you more interviews from Hard Fork Live and a special musical performance. Today, we are featuring an interview with Dylan Field, the CEO of Figma, as well as a musical performance by Dan Powell, one of The New York Times musicians and composers who works on the show and who was there in San Francisco at the live event as our DJ.

**Casey Newton** (1:24)
Yeah, this is a really fun collection of segments, fascinating conversations with Figma's Dylan Field and a just legendary performance from Dan Powell, who is one of our favorite people and one of the most fun things about working here is getting to hear dance cool music.

**Kevin Roose** (1:41)
We'll be back with more Hard Fork Live on Friday, including a discussion with Daniel Cocotello and Sayesh Kapoor, a hang with Dwarkesh Patel, and we'll take questions live from the crowd.

**Casey Newton** (1:53)
Now, have those been screened in advance?

**SPEAKER_1** (1:56)
No.

**Kevin Roose** (1:56)
They're firing from the hip.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:07)
Any AI developer tool can create a brand new project from scratch. That part's easy.
The hard part is working with the code your business already runs on. IBM Bob is a new AI development partner that helps you do the hard job. Moving your technology into the AI age without losing the legacy code your business was built on. Let's create smarter business, IBM.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:31)
I gave my brother a New York Times subscription.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:34)
She sent me a year-long subscription, so I have access to all the games.

**SPEAKER_7** (2:38)
We'll do Word, O, Mini, Spelling Bee.

**SPEAKER_8** (2:40)
It has given us a personal connection.

**SPEAKER_7** (2:43)
We exchange articles.

**Casey Newton** (2:45)
And so having read the same article, we can discuss it.

**SPEAKER_7** (2:48)
The coverage, the options, it's not just news.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:50)
Such a diversified disk.

**SPEAKER_8** (2:52)
I was really excited to give him a New York Times cooking subscription so that we could share recipes. And we even just shared a recipe the other day.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:00)
The New York Times contributes to our quality time together.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:04)
You have all of that information at your fingertips.

**Dan Powell** (3:06)
It enriches our relationship, broadening our horizons.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:10)
It was such a cool and thoughtful gift.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:12)
We're reading the same stuff, we're making the same food, we're on the same page.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:19)
Connect even more with someone you care about. Learn more about giving a New York Times subscription as a gift at nytimes.com/gift.

**Kevin Roose** (3:34)
Well, we have so much more to come tonight. I know it's hard to believe, but we are so excited for our next guest. Our next guest is the CEO of Figma, an AI and web-based design application, founded in 2012
It's Dylan Field. Dylan, welcome.

**Dylan Field** (3:52)
Thanks, guys.

**Kevin Roose** (3:54)
Hey, Dylan.

**Dylan Field** (3:55)
Hey.

**Kevin Roose** (3:58)
So Dylan, I wanna start by reading you a Facebook message I got on August 5th, 2009
Hey, Kevin, I recently picked up your book at the library. Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it. Anyway, best of luck with your future endeavors. I'm going to Brown this fall. Who knows? Maybe I'll meet you in Providence someday. That message was sent by a teenage boy named Dylan Field. I wanna just, first of all, apologize, I never respond to that.

**Casey Newton** (4:32)
Can you imagine you write a book and a college student emails you out of the blue and you're like, yeah, whatever.

**Kevin Roose** (4:37)
It was, you know, a lot going on in 2009 Anyway, I'm sorry for ghosting you. And second of all-

**Dylan Field** (4:43)
It was a good book. You shall read it.

**Kevin Roose** (4:45)
How did your freshman year of college go?

**Dylan Field** (4:47)
It was awesome. Yeah. And I got to meet you.

**Kevin Roose** (4:49)
Yeah.

**Dylan Field** (4:50)
Because I don't know if you remember, but for the acapella group that you were in, you came back as a super senior to hang out with everyone, I guess.