State of Play Ryo Lu: Why He Cloned Himself With Cursor.
Aug 4, 2025
Ryo Lu, product designer and tool-maker who helped build Notion and created Rio OS, chats about building browser-based OS experiments and making runnable prototypes. He explores why designers should become tool makers. He talks about using AI and agents to parallelize thinking, escaping creative burnout, and building without asking permission.
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Building Websites From Age 11 Shaped His Maker Mindset
- Ryo Lu started building websites at 11, creating an anime fansite and later a Chinese Apple community called Mac Idea at 17.
- These early projects taught him to learn tools by doing and attracted peers, shaping his maker mindset.
Building A Chinese Stripe Taught Platform Leverage
- In Shanghai Ryo built a unified payments API that integrated many Chinese payment methods into one dashboard.
- That product taught him how simplifying developer experience (like Stripe) unlocks many downstream businesses.
Make Room For Multiple Correct Approaches
- Accept different correct approaches and learn from them instead of being consumed by conflict.
- Ryo balanced his high-level vibe approach with Ivan's constraint-driven brute force critique at Notion to improve outcomes.