Generally Intelligent Malleable software and human agency with Geoffrey Litt
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Nov 14, 2025 Geoffrey Litt is a design engineer at Notion and a former MIT researcher focused on malleable software that lets users shape their own computing environments. He discusses barriers to malleability in mainstream software and the need for user-editable tools. Geoffrey explores AI's role in the creative process, emphasizing how it can enhance or hinder user agency. He also advocates for universal versioning and gradual tailorability, envisioning a future where users become active creators of their digital tools.
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Excel Sparked The Malleability Question
- Geoffrey Litt started caring about malleable software after seeing teachers export CSVs and fix things in Excel instead of using his product.
- The messy but exact fixes teachers made in spreadsheets inspired him to ask why more software isn't like that.
Editor Vs. View-Only Apps
- Most apps ship as view-only experiences while spreadsheets ship with their editor built in, creating a huge difference in user agency.
- Malleability reduces friction between being a passive user and a creative modifier of software.
Build Live Editing With Version Control
- Live-edit tools need instant editing, AI-assisted coding, and universal version control to be usable for end users.
- Make code behave like shared documents and provide easy branching and merging to keep edits safe and collaborative.