Have you ever thought… about whatever man builds, that all of man’s industrial efforts, all his calculations and computations, all of the nights spent over working draughts and blueprints, invariably culminate in the production of a thing whose sole and guiding principle is the ultimate principle of simplicity?

It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curve of a piece of furniture, or a ship’s keel, or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elementary purity of the curve of the human breast or shoulder, there must be experimentations of several generations of craftsmen. In any thing at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

I do think that process matters — not in any professional or even moral sense (I use the term loosely) — but in a personal, artistic one. The process is what you spend your time doing so it matters in that it should be enjoyable, satisfying and inspiring. It’s a shame that with many of the digital tools available there’s a distinct lack of joy in using them. But if you do find something that’s good, let the developer know you like it, and just as importantly, tell everyone else.

I still go to Starbucks every morning. Got a cup with ‘Congratulations’ on it (Wednesday); that was nice. But, other than that, they still charged me. So, everything’s staying the same.

Artistically-minded individuals derive personal value from expressing themselves through their work. Consequently, they become much more entwined in what they create and its success. They are often emotionally tethered to the product and will surface gripes long before they echo back from your users. These types of web developers are nearly incapable of “phoning it in” or letting something subpar slip through the cracks.

One of my fundamental design rules is to avoid error messages. After all, the natural world manages quite well without error messages. To me, good design means never having to say “that was wrong.” An error message really indicates that the system itself is confused: it doesn’t know how to proceed. It is the system that needs to be scolded, not the person.

The web used to look like a phone book. Now much of it looks like a design portfolio. In fact, it looks like the design portfolio of 20 well-known designers, whose style gets copied again and again by young designers who consider themselves disciples. Distinctions between graphic design and communication design are lost on these designers. As is the distinction between true style, which evolves from the nature of the project, and derivative pastiche, which is grafted onto many projects like a third arm.

Distraction today is this [points to my iPhone…]. I believe that these things are killing our discipline, killing our ability for solitude, and killing our ability to be bored. Children need to learn how to be bored. They don’t need to be entertained all the time.