Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.

—John Stuart Mill

If I look at things that have turned out well in my life (my marriage, some of my essays, my current career) the “design process” has been the same in each case. It has been what Christopher Alexander called an unfolding .1 Put simply:

• I paid attention to things I liked to do, and found ways to do more of that. I made it easy for interesting people

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The faster you can collide your ideas against reality, the faster you get feedback. By increasing the speed at which you can act on the context, trying new things will become cheaper for you—and so you will take more risks, and extract more information from the context. Write faster, prototype faster, ask for feedback faster. Velocity is... See more

The context is smarter than you . It holds more nuance and information than you can fit in your head. Collaborate with it.

The useful thing about defining good design as a form-context fit is that it tells you where you will find the form. The form is in the context.

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If I look at things that have turned out well in my life (my marriage, some of my essays, my current career) the “design process” has been the same in each case. It has been what Christopher Alexander called an unfolding .1 Put simply:

• I paid attention to things I liked to do, and found ways to do more of that. I made it easy for interesting people

... See more

Generally speaking, being very attentive to the day-to-day and the tiny steps available in it (exploring one tiny new thing or experience, for example) has been much more useful for me. I’m learning a little bit about myself and the world, and I have the space to iterate.

Many good ideas look bad at first.

A common reason we filter information and become blind to the context is that we bundle things when we think. Thinking about our career, we might think in abstractions like “a job.” But really a career is made up of a bunch of different things: a salary, an identity, relationships, status, a sense of meaning, and so on. It is often easier to find a... See more