5 books that shaped the design approach of Airbnb’s Jon Gold | Figma Blog

Jem Gold’s design approach combines systems thinking, human-centered technology, disciplined focus, mindfulness, and functional programming. The five books she recommends show how design can be treated as a generative process—one that connects creative practice with engineering and tools that augment human ability.

Designing Programmes: Design as a System

• Karl Gerstner’s Designing Programmes presents design as a process that generates assets rather than relying on humans to create every final output manually.
• Though focused on layouts, logos, and typography, its ideas remain relevant to modern UI and design systems.
• Gold values the concept of a flexible pipeline that people can shape, with the system producing consistent results.

10% Happier: Creating Space for Better Decisions

• Dan Harris’s memoir about meditation influenced Gold’s design process and outlook.
• Meditation helps her avoid immediate, visceral reactions and take time to investigate the best response.
• She especially appreciates Harris’s skepticism toward mystical or “woo-woo” claims, making the book a practical introduction to meditation.

The Dream Machine: Computers as Creative Partners

• The Dream Machine explores J. C. R. Licklider’s vision of “man-computer symbiosis,” in which computers enhance human intelligence.
• It describes researchers who rejected IBM’s slow, punch-card-based model of computing in favor of interactive systems people could enjoy using.
• Gold identifies with their rebellious belief that technology should augment human creativity rather than merely automate routine tasks.

Deep Work: Protecting Creative Focus

• Cal Newport’s Deep Work argues that social media fragments attention and prevents sustained, original thinking.
• Gold responded by eliminating social media for a month and scheduling dedicated blocks for creative projects.
• When she felt the urge to check distractions, she replaced the habit with activities such as running or reading.
• The practice helped her preserve focus and create space for ideas to develop.

Functional Programming: Building from Small Primitives

• Professor Frisby’s Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming introduces functional programming through a short, approachable, free online book.
• The paradigm breaks problems into small, composable units that can be rearranged and combined.
• Gold applies this principle to design systems: instead of starting with a large page and breaking it down, designers can begin with basic primitives and build upward.
• This approach connects programming concepts directly to scalable, reusable design work.

Together, these books recommend a design practice built from composable systems, deliberate attention, skepticism, and technology that expands human creativity.