The Secret of Great Design (Blog 7)

Unfortunately I did not go to Berlin, It was such a tough decision to make. I eventually decided I would go literally the night before. On my way down to Limerick I realised I had forgotten my passport. I took it as a sign not to go.

In this blog, I am given the opportunity to write about any topic. I have decided I want to go into further detail on what I learned from researching the topic of my debate, and more importantly what I learned from the rabbit hole of various TED talks, YouTube videos and articles about design. I found it very difficult to not get distracted by different videos which weren’t exactly related to my debate topic. But it was time that was not wasted as I learned some valuable lessons.

I learned that procrastinating, isn’t always the worst thing to do when you want to be creative. Sometimes rushing into something can limit great ideas. Obviously not completely leaving the task to the very last minute, but there is a balance and it is important to let a creative task sit in your mind for a while before beginning. This allows your brain to subconsciously think about the task as you complete other everyday tasks in the meantime. I learned about this from a TED talk by Adam Grant. (Grant, 2020) To moderately procrastinate is a very good technique when it comes to being creative and efficient. Leonardo Da Vinci took 16 years to make the ‘Mona Lisa’, some of the diversions he took in optics transformed the way that he modelled light and made him into much better painter. Sometimes by delaying a task you are leaving yourself open to much a larger variety of ideas. I have even noticed this in college assignments among my class. I think some of the best solutions to the briefs we are given are not by the person who has it completed first, or not the person who completes it last but the moderate procrastinator who take their time before pushing forward a final solution.

Another point I learned from this TED talk was that it is okay to doubt your idea, you can use it your advantage. When you feel doubt you should take a step back and look at your idea with a fresh pair of eyes. Sometimes the smallest iteration could be the change it needs. Although I already know that it is important not to be afraid of failing, I sometimes am afraid of embarrassment or being judged. I have learned that I’m more afraid of embarrassment than failure so in the future I am going to try to be more afraid of failing to even try. This relates to all aspects of life not just design.

I also learned that it important to think like a child, to look at things from first principles. Don’t let preconceived ideas allow you think there is only one way of doing something, or don’t let preconceived ideas make you think the way something is done now is the most efficient method of doing something. (Fadell, 2020)

Bibliography:

Grant, A., 2020. The Surprising Habits Of Original Thinkers. [online] youtube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxbCHn6gE3U> [Accessed 4 April 2020].

Grant, A., 2020.The Surprising Habits Of Original Thinkers. [online] youtube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxbCHn6gE3U> [Accessed 4 April 2020].