Since last week I’ve realised (quite welcomingly) that I know nothing. This is true in my personal life as well as my professional life – this blog is considering the latter only.
In a previous post I whinged about designer elitism and I have to say I was guilty of it myself.
I am about to mentor a design student from sydney university and I’m terrified. Here I am, 20 years in the biz and I feel like the truth is this: No one knows anything, really. We are all just exploring and validating retrospectively as we go to prove we are an expert in something.
Today I saw this: http://dvice.com/archives/2012/10/ethiopian-kids.php And it blew my mind.
These tablets and the apps in them weren’t researched, designed and tested for illiterate, non-digital children.
Yet they got it, adapted and excelled. I’m having a really big moment that’s challenging me professionally and I am liking it.
By the way, I think that Ethopian experiment is a game changer, it is heartening and very moving. It gives me hope for the human race as it’s surfacing the basic qualities of humanity. Curiosity, exploration and tool creation for more exploration.