Thinkers, Dreamers, Doers

I love the Thinkers
Watching others
Raising questions
Engaging the Conversation

They are the ones who can
Dust off an old idea for a look
Make a verb out of "conference"
Ensure a story fills the pages
Imagery rich
A magnet for Pin and Like
Get others Thinking

They are great friends
Who are invited to the party
Who wear cooler shoes
Who first coin the word that becomes the buzz

Yes, I love the Thinkers
They serve up the inspiration
They elevate our work, even mine
For others to drink from the glass
And taste what things can be at their best

But Where I Live
-- And I once believed it was a choice --
Is a different sort
The Dreamers and Doers
Who undistracted
Spend seemingly infinite time
Patiently wading through the squalor
Often of a single question
With a broad smile
Bearing the load that others fear
Sweating an elegant solution
Obsession until breakthrough


If invited to the party
They may choose instead
A small forum of other
Dreamers and Doers
Who relish
A three hour discussion
Only one topic
A nuance in physics, history, violin making, fiscal policy, athletic equipment of a particular genre -- who knows!
Not selected for relevance
But for its intricacy
A complexity of flavor
That can't be captured in an Epicurious posting

Yes, I love the Thinkers
But I lie with the Dreamers and Doers
Because questions raised
Are not questions answered
When the Big Thoughts are done
The team built, the culture updated
Uncomfortably often
The original question
Rolls back into view
As yet unresolved
Waiting for someone undeterred by the stigma
Of an individual imagination
Or worse, old school expertise
To catch it before it drops
And run like a mad man for the end zone

I love the Thinkers

But I gush over the work-in-progress that defines

Dreamers and Doers because

Ideas conceived
Are not ideas fulfilled
Any more than the act of having sex
Is the same as raising a child

Design Heroes on My Mind

Some of My Design Heroes at a CCA Party circa 2008

Left to Right: Dan Harden (Whipsaw), Paul Bradley (Frog), Gadi Amit (NewDeal), Phil Hobson (Apple)

This week I had each of these guys on my mind. 

It started over the weekend when Gadi was quoted for an article in The New York Times. It used to be that great designers didn't make it into the popular media unless they were somehow outlandish and wore pink jumpsuits and big sunglasses. It demonstrates of how far our industry has come that Gadi would be a reference for how design and manufacturing can differentiate companies in the marketplace. (Although, there were no photos of Gadi so I can't confirm he wasn't wearing a feather boa during the interview to appease the journalist's vision of what a designer is.)

It was Phil's birthday on Wednesday, so that was on the agenda in the House of Hobsons. I asked what he wanted, and he gave his usual answer to that question: a Bundt cake. Not that he's ever even had a Bundt cake. He was making reference to a scene from There's Something about Mary when Matt Dillon knocks out Mary's vicious terrier and tries to stall for time to revive it by asking for a Bundt cake. Totally off the wall. (http://www.flickclip.com/flicks/somethingaboutmary.htm) While that is Phil's standard answer to the question, to surprise him, I decided to actually make a Bundt cake. (To ensure it was a surprise, what better time to do the cooking than in the middle of the day during a conference call about a project? If the kind clients who were on that call read this, it was in the oven while we were talking. I was listening -- I promise!)

Dan Harden lives a stone's throw from my house, but it was another Whipsaw neighbor, Gerson Goldberg, whom I met up with while running on Thursday morning. Gerson is on the engineering side at Whipsaw, and it is always a pleasure to hear how things are going from their corner of the Valley. Besides, I doubt that I'll ever run into Dan at that time in the morning for a chat. It was still dark out.

Finally, this week I thought very much about Paul Bradley and how long it has been since I have seen him. Paul is responsible for me actually learning about industrial design while we were both at IDEO, long before he left for Frog Design. Having had the recent pleasure of interacting with Mike Nuttall on some business and being tearful over the recent loss of Bill Moggridge, my IDEO design mentors are definitely on my mind. Paul is definitely on my mind.

Curiosity Killing the Cat

Stay Tuned

I am planning to contribute to a new site focused on product engineering.

The topics will be information relevant to the work of my heroes in the Bay Area and Asia, working from design to manufacturing. Both technical information and lifestyle.

Please drop me a note if you are interested in finding out more about it or if you have ideas for coverage.

Function, my employer, does not do press or have a blog, so "Where I Live" has been and will continue to be a place where I put stuff that doesn't have an appropriate venue. However, I plan to write much more to contribute to the new site. Stay tuned.