2026-05-07 — Yesterday I Learned
More Than It Seemed
A silly Google Slides trick, a framework breaking from its roots, and a school that made me genuinely wish I was five years old again. Today's theme: the second layer is usually the interesting one.
Google Slides Might Actually Vectorize Your Images
A newsletter said you can convert Nano Banana AI images to SVG using Google Slides, and I had the obvious reaction. But the process is real, the output is reportedly good for soft gradients, and the open question — whether it's genuine vectorization or raster-in-SVG wrapper — is worth testing. Either way, a productivity tool nobody expected to be doing this is apparently doing it.
Step 01
Set Up the Workspace
Download the image locally and check its exact pixel dimensions (e.g. 1792 × 2400). In Google Slides, go to File → Page setup → Custom, switch to Pixels, and enter those dimensions. Delete the default text boxes. Matching the dimensions prevents distortion in the conversion.
Step 02
Set the Image as Background
Insert → Image → Upload from computer. Once placed, right-click and choose "Set image as background." This is the key move — it makes Google's internal renderer treat the image as the primary slide layer, which appears to trigger the vectorization path on export.
Step 03
Export as SVG
File → Download → Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg, current slide). Google runs an internal vectorization process that's reportedly good at soft gradients. Open the result in a browser or vector editor — worth checking whether it contains actual paths or embedded raster data.
Step 04
Fix the Aspect Ratio
The exported SVG may default to a 1:1 square container regardless of page setup, leaving white-space gaps. Open in Figma or Inkscape and crop the canvas to the artwork edges. Even with this cleanup step, the gradient quality may beat most dedicated raster-to-vector tools.
Remix 3 Is Trying to Be More Than a React Framework
The Remix 3 beta preview dropped React as a hard dependency. That's the headline, but the more interesting thing is what it signals: a framework that was essentially "React Router plus conventions" is willing to rethink that identity at version 3.
Mature JS frameworks decoupling from their original rendering substrate is worth tracking. The surprising thing isn't "no React" — it's that frameworks are increasingly defining themselves by what they do for the web, not by which library they wrap. Remix is trying to be a web framework that happens to support React, not the other way around.
With a personal tutor, scores are a function of effort.
90% of Learning Is Wanting To
I went to a meetup and came away unusually inspired. Joe Liemandt — who was writing about AI in the 1980s and building with it in the 90s — walked through how Alpha School uses AI-driven personal tutors in 2-hour Pomodoro sprints. The AI handles instruction. But his thesis is that 90% of learning's impact comes from motivation, not instruction. The guides at Alpha focus almost entirely on that.
Authenticity over abstraction
The Post-Game Press Conference
They don't teach "public speaking." They train kids for the post-game press conference — with real reporters. The skill is identical; the context is one a kid actually wants to be competent in. Stakes are real. Effort follows.
Authenticity over abstraction
Contract Negotiation as Math Class
Math isn't taught as abstract exercises. It's taught through negotiating contracts. The math is identical; the reason to care is completely different. Motivation precedes learning — not the other way around.
The proof
Top 1% on Standardized Tests
Alpha students score in the top 1% on standardized tests. Two hours of AI-based personal tutoring per day in focused sprints, with the rest of the time on motivation, project, and engagement work. The scores suggest the model is working.
Personal take
I Rarely Wish I Were Younger
I left that meetup unusually inspired. I rarely wish to be younger — but I agree with Joe that it's a genuinely great time to be a 5-year-old. The trajectories available to kids starting in an environment like Alpha feel very different from what came before.
References