In this News Limited story, Philippe Starck says design is dead and his work ‘unnecessary’.

“I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact, … Everything I designed was unnecessary.”

All the egoistical self-indulgence aside, this statement does merit a certain level of self-reflection, whether you are a designer or a consumer.

What does a designer really do anyway?
How green or sustainable is …

I recently walked pass a whole section in a shopping centre in Singapore selling humidifiers. This is just so “wrong”!

In case you have not been through Singapore, the temperature tends to be around the 30s (Celsius) with very high humidity. Everywhere is heavily air-conditioned. Cooled air tends to be drier, hence the humidifiers I am guessing. So strange, so illogical, and oh so human.

Air conditioners do dry out …

I am sure many of you have already seen this picture - it’s been floating around the email circuit for a while. I got sent it again recently, and realised what a lovely illustration it is of human nature at work. Whether painting road markings or building a rocket, we are often tempted, and do, take little shortcuts.

John Fortune and John Bird on the subprime hoo-hah:

And here are my thoughts on this:

Business decisions made by a relative few affects the lives of many.
Much irrational emotions and “sentiments” underlie these decisions. These are unquantifiable. And yet much of the overt discussions are still based around tables of numbers. And many know the power of a …

When Wholefoods’ cash register broke down one day, staff gave groceries away so as not to inconvenience customers.

Is this an exercise in customer care, or sheer business stupidity?

I reckon it is the former. I see it as a great relationship exercise.

The hard core convectional business person would think it is the latter.

The comments are interesting to read.

You can’t please everyone I guess. You can only …

My post Rationality is an illusion elicited a strong response from a business journalist.

The response(and subsequent responses) actually triggered significant further thoughts and clarifications. I thought my response to that is worthy of a separate post.

@Bassi Kumar:

“All the points you make are very genereic and can also be attributable to everyday people. Why just slag businesses?”

Exactly! I am trying to be business-focused …

Businesses and certain “experienced business people” like to pretend that rationality is the only way to make “real” business decisions.

Here are some irrational decisions I see many businesses make:

Penny-wise and pound foolish. Buying under-powered equipment, not having maintenance and backup plans, reacting to repeated and avoidable emergencies. Because thinking and planning is too hard.

The boss gets the fastest/best/most powerful computer to surf the web with, while the workers …

(My friend Stilgherrian and I had a discussion about this during the week. This post contains my synthesised thoughts.)

Clients in perpetual crisis

If you work in IT-related services, you will be familiar with this type of client:

They are always chaotic and in a rush. They only have time to listen to the bare minimum. They run out of time to respond to questions or think. They are …

A stranger came up to me in a café this afternoon. She was starting a new business and wanted to know what sort of computer she should get (as she saw me bashing away on my thinkpad.)

She was quite surprised to learn that I use a Windows laptop to do design work. “Yes,” I said. “I use the same Adobe design software on my thinkpad as I used …

A senior official of the Vatican has sanctimoniously come up with a new list of seven deadly sins.

Otherworldly mission aside, the Catholic Church* is just another globalised, hierarchical corporation. The proclaimed sins are like the guiding principles of the operations of this corporation.

Like many corporations, this smacks of a marketing exercise – yet one more attempt to make the corporation appear more relevant, and generate some …