The Rota Vicentina is a trail running down the west coast of Portugal, marked by red wooden arrows across dunes and forests. Having hiked the route nearly ten years ago, I can still remember the first bite of my packed sandwich at lunch time, the sip of a cold beer in the evening and the satisfying ache in my legs after a long day.
Everything feels different when we've put effort in. If you took the route by car, the sandwich or beer just wouldn't be the same.
This is commonly acknowledged by our physical selves. Which is why, as technology has reduced the need for mobility, it has simultaneously enabled us to build products and practices to enhance it. More specifically, the explosion of wearables; now with over 1 billion daily users having barely existed ~15 years ago.
The 10k steps, the move goals, the VO2 max tracking; all demonstrating that, whatever kind of efficiency gains we've made, there is always demand for the right counter balance.
It's now becoming clear what software did for our bodies, AI is now doing for our minds. As Nataliya Kosmyna's MIT research team showed - people's brain connectivity declines by as much as 55 percent when they're using LLMs.
In other words, outsourcing your thinking drives the cerebral equivalent of backache, eye strain and muscle wastage. And some things, much like walking trails, shouldn't be skipped.
The process of applying yourself, grappling with something and navigating directions, fundamentally produces both a better experience and output.
This is especially true for creatives, and this is ultimately Marker's philosophy. A word processor built on the belief that AI can make you a better writer, not a redundant one, with a super-thesaurus, a fact-checker, and an editor you can talk to in the margins while you work.
And really, it's about time something changed for writers. As the largest creative class of all time, their predominant tool remains a 42 year old Microsoft Word product. At last, they deserve an always-on, infinitely intelligent and personalised editor to help them tap into their own creative spark and momentum.
With Jon & Ryan's unique insight from Deepmind, The Financial Times, Facebook & Nature, as well as being avid writers and readers themselves, they believe in the power of LLMs; not to replace our thinking but to unlock new ways of driving it.
That's why we couldn't be more excited to lead Marker's seed round, as they join our portfolio of companies reimagining new ways of working with AI - whether that be Granola for meetings, Figma for design or Notion for collaboration.
And, maybe, if wearables made us move with intention, the next class of products will teach us to think with it. Embracing the right kind of friction to forge unchartered paths. At the very least, the sandwiches - and everything else - tastes a lot better.
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We wrote this post in Marker, about Marker, while chatting to Marker in the margins, and it felt good.
Published — July 9, 2026
