I lead teams at the intersection of strategy and design. Autodidact. Polymath. Barbecue acolyte. I start fires (the good kind).
What all of these people had in common was a well-rounded curiosity, the good sense to know when something wasn’t working, and good social skills. Not only could they design well, they could write, think analytically; and they were curious about every job in the shop. If a job in the shop needed to be done, they’d volunteer to do it, even if (or maybe especially if) it meant having to learn a new skill.
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
In 1971, American philosopher John Rawls proposed an idea for determining the ethics of a situation, he called it a veil of ignorance. He later expanded on the idea in his book A Theory of Justice. In short, a veil of ignorance is a way of determining whether what you’re designing, be it a startup, a dinner plan, or a system of government, is just. It’s very simple: when designing something, imagine that your relationship to that system gets determined after you’ve made it. For example, if you’re designing a system of government that allows slavery, you might end up being enslaved. If you’re designing a ride-sharing service, you might end up as the driver or the rider.
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
One of the judicial tests for fraud is intent. Intent is notoriously hard to prove, unless the company committing the fraud has put together a detailed Powerpoint presentation illustrating the purpose and function of the software—which Volkswagen had (apparently unaware of Stringer Bell’s admonition, “Is you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy? The fuck is you thinking, man?” Your annoying friend is right; everyone needs to watch The Wire.)
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
In the words of the late great Ann Richards, they were “born on third base and think they hit a triple.”
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
For those of you not familiar with Ayn Rand, she wrote crappy books about the power of individual achievement while she collected social security and started some pseudo-philosophy called “objectivism,” which can be summed up in five words: I got mine, fuck you.
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design
Design is the intentional solution to a problem within a set of constraints.
Mike Monteiro in Ruined by Design