A friend posted a picture of her kid asleep on the stairs. The composition was already absurd; I had to see what would happen if I leaned into it. First pass landed too horror-movie (a child motionless on a staircase is more sinister than it sounds), so I kept reworking until it landed funny instead. The parents posted the final version to Reddit, and it climbed straight to the front page. First time something I’d made went truly viral. Not the last.
