Hi, Dario. I don’t know why you can’t see your own original comment, which I thought was very interesting, but I’ll repaste it here. Also, I’m going to drop you an email soon. I have a question or two. Thanks for your comments. Lee

“Thank you.

I’m an architect, a designer and an educator. More importantly I am a human being that cares about the future of mankind (although it often shows that it doesn’t deserve our concerns).

We could debate over some specific points in your essay, but the general message is spot on, and it highlights some twisted dynamics that got me to the point I’m at today: I am embarrassed of being a designer because I would be associated with all this. Furthermore, I can no longer accept the idea of a corporate design job, because I would have to deal with this, play the part, pretend it’s all good, and listen to hordes of clueless opportunists that ride the bandwagon to heights that their actual ability (and value) could never aspire to.

Unfortunately this phenomenon is an indicator of much bigger issues that we face as a contemporary society, that go well beyond design (and often time have nothing to do with it) but follow similar patterns.

A similar phenomenon filled the US with “foodies” that want to teach me (I’m Italian) what good food is, but their tastebuds are somehow not involved in the process. Of course they learn about food from TV (at least that’s how they get started, then there’s meetups and other fantastic opportunities to become “EXPERTS”), usually from a Chef that makes a great TV character, but unfortunately comes from what could universally be recognized as one of the worst culinary tradition in the world.

Another good one (somehow it’s often associated with the same circles) is the idea that failing is good. This is just plain stupid. Failing is good if you can go bankrupt with money that isn’t yours (VCs), if it has no consequences. Failing is OK as one step in the flow of iterations and prototypes that designer generates: you generate several solutions and test them to see the ones that work (others “fail” I guess), but it’s a context that is specifically designed for that.

Going into a business enterprise with the idea that failing is good is irresponsible to say the least. It might not harm you, you’ll become a “Serial Entrepreneur”, someone to avoid like the plague in my book (someone that repeatedly builds something that doesn’t work can’t be a good thing), but while these people can ride that with pride without caring, the waste land they leave behind of spent resources, overworked employees and lame implementations is a scar that should not be overlooked.

So yes, I’m a Designer, and I say with the same tone and stance that you’d use at an AA meeting. This ridiculous, continuous push for innovation has created a society where we can no longer find stable cultural bases.

For that reason I am also a Laggard, or as I prefer to say, a Luddite. I know you wrote this months ago, but just today a fellow luddite handed me a copy (printed, on paper!) of your essay, and after reading it I felt the need to reach out and join you for a bit to complain about this (and other) issue.

I apologize.

PS: you should write the next one on companies’ entertaining effort to setup an “innovation process”, it’s so frequent it’s not even funny. I tried many times to explain to my leadership that process is something you put in place to have predictable and repeatable results…does that sound like innovation?”