The Curiosity Chronicles

And On Sundays We Rest.

Curious Inspiration. There was a dingy nightclub in the 80’s in London’s Soho frequented by art students called the Whiskey a Go-Go, shortened to The WAG. I remember dancing with a bunch of friends there one weekend and asking: “Who’s that cool girl with the big earrings?” A year later, “Diamond Life” was released, and so began my lifelong love of fellow art student Sade. Talk about a long career; 52 still going strong, and still with the hoop earrings. Here’s a clip of her singing “The Sweetest Taboo” live in Sydney. Enjoy. 

Curious About…Dinosaur Babies.

(From my Chinese Column, as usual, presented in its original Mandarin and English.)

I want to start by telling you a very delicate story.

Years ago, I had a client who had invented a new technology that they were very excited about. I can’t tell you what it is, but it doesn’t matter, because this product never saw the light of day. But this client truly believed that this technology was going to be huge. Massive. Revolutionary. The Next Big Thing. Our client contact in particular had personally invested lots of time, a couple of years if I’m not mistaken, in nurturing, refining and researching this technology, but I distinctly remember my colleagues and I sitting around a table when we were first handed the brief for the product, shaking our heads and saying to one another: “Nobody is going to want this thing.”

The client excitedly presented us with their ‘research’ tapes, hours and hours of people sitting in bare focus group rooms late at night, being somewhat unsubtly persuaded by their own internal researcher to say positive things about the product. But it was pretty obvious from their body language and the fact that many of them spoke in clipped half-sentences that participants were simply trying to pacify whoever was asking them the questions and go home rather than add any genuine feedback or critique. I think one significant point on the tape consisted of three different people spliced together to make up a sentence.

The client gave us a model of their proposed product, and it was clunky, unusable and ergonomically unsound. They sat, with excited eyes, and said: “So, what do you think?” There was a long silence in the room.

What they had produced was what I now refer to as a dinosaur baby.

Dinosaurs were pretty powerful animals that ruled the earth for a while, but they were not exactly beautiful, most of them were glorified big lizards. A dinosaur baby, as defined, is something so ugly that only a dinosaur’s mother could love it. In other words, it is something that you love because you have given birth to it and nurtured it but, for certain, it is not something for everyone else to love.

Too often people in the world of innovation create their own dinosaur babies: products that they love intensely because they gave birth to them, products seen through a doting parent’s eyes rather than the eyes of a consumer, and in many cases, products created and designed in a vacuum without insight or inspiration from elsewhere. Why? Because the people creating them are so determined that they are right that they continue along a path, refining and refining, trying harder and harder to convince others of their vision. By the time most dinosaur babies hit the world, they have cost the parent a fortune in time, money and emotional energy, and it becomes more about convincing people of what they don’t see rather than asking them what they do see. Taken out of their mother’s grasp, most dinosaur babies don’t fare well.

So what should we do to avoid giving birth to dinosaur babies?

First, you need to bring others into your process as early as possible. You need to make the journey of creating anything as collaborative, constructive and insightful as possible Do not sit alone in a room with a blank sheet of paper - while I am sure that there are Eureka moments where lightning bolts of brilliance hit the lone-geniuses sitting at their desks, I also know from experience that these are few and far between. Bring friends, colleagues and potential end-consumers in: look, ask, brainstorm and create together. It spreads the load and allows for more rounded, discursive ideas to be built together. And really listen to feedback and don’t defend, assuming everyone else is crazy and only you see the brilliance. You need to learn to DWL: Detach With Love, and let go of your concept early if it is not viable. Don’t be a defensive single parent. Be a collaborative family.

Secondly, you really need to bring prototyping into your process, again as early as possible. Prototyping makes something tangible, and by doing so, allows others to react to it in more realistic and useful ways. Put most basically, they are reacting tosomething they can look at, touch and feel rather than words on a page, and you can use that feedback to refine, alter or even redesign your concept earlier. And to bring back the dinosaur mother metaphor one more time, fix it before you fall deeply in love with the thing you have given birth to. We use early stage feedback and create what we call ‘sacrificial concepts’ to show our clients the value of learning, iterating an often letting go as early as possible. “Fail early to succeed sooner,” is a phrase we use a lot.

I bumped into this client years later at a conference: he was now working in a totally different industry. The product he had fallen so deeply in love with never launched, nor did any other competitive version of it, or anything even remotely like it. I asked him how he felt. “Mad at myself for wasting all that time,” was the reply.

To good parenting.

我想以一个小故事作为这篇文章的开头。

几年前，我有一个客户发明了一种他们为之兴奋不已的新技术。我不能告诉你们那是什么技术，不过也没关系，因为这个产品最后根本没见着天日。不过当时这个客户极其热忱地相信这个技术有多么伟大——影响大众、革命性的、新的大突破。客户方的这位联络人本人更是为之投入了大量的时间来扶植、完善和研究这项技术，如果我没记错，是几年的时间。但是我清楚地记得我和我的同事们坐在一张桌子前，第一次拿到产品简介的时候，我们摇着头说：“没有人会买这东西。

 客户满怀激情地给我们展示了他们从事“研究”时的录像——深夜时分人们坐在空荡荡的房间里几个小时几个小时地做“焦点组”调研，在他们自己的内部研究人员几乎不加掩饰的诱导下说产品的好话。但从他们的身体语言以及很多人零散的不成整句的语言表达中可以看出参与者只是在敷衍提问的人，好早点回家，而不是真心地发表反馈或意见。录像里有一个地方，甚至出现了三个不同的人的话语被粘结在一起以组成一个完整的句子。

然后客户给我一个产品模型，很笨重，不便使用，从人体工学角度很不完善。他们坐下来，满脸兴奋地说：“你们觉得怎么样？”整个房间陷入了一阵很长的沉默。

现在我会把他们的这个产品叫做“恐龙宝宝”。

恐龙一度是统治地球的强大生物，但它们并不很美丽，很多其实就是尊贵版的大蜥蜴。而恐龙宝宝通常很丑，只有恐龙妈妈才会喜欢。换句话说，有时候仅仅是因为“母不嫌子丑”，但其他人可就不一定会喜欢。

从事创新的人经常创造出自己的恐龙宝宝来：因为自己亲手创造的缘故而由衷喜爱的产品，由父母溺爱的眼光而不是由消费者的眼光来检验，在很多情况下，是在一种缺乏他人视角和灵感作为补充的真空状态中设计创造出来的。为什么？因为创造者本人如此坚信自己的作品，他们会沿着一条道儿不停地雕琢再雕琢，劝说再劝说别人认同他们的方向。等到大多数恐龙宝宝横空出世的时候，创造者已经花费了大量时间、金钱和情感，所以就更容易去劝说别人接受而不是客观地询问别人的看法。这些恐龙宝宝一旦脱离母体，大多数都活得不好。

因此，我们要怎样避免生出个恐龙宝宝呢？

应该让创造的过程尽可能地具备合作性、建设性和深刻洞察。不要自己一个人坐在房间里对着一纸空白搜肠刮肚——我相信有一些灵光一现豁然开朗的时刻，灵感像闪电似的击中了书桌前独自苦想的天才，但经验告诉我这种时刻很少而且很久才有一次。邀请朋友、同事和潜在的终端消费者参与进来：观察、询问、头脑风暴、一起创造。你的负担减轻了，而想法则更加全面、更有综合性。要真正听取反馈意见，不要辩护，不要虚妄地认为举世皆狂唯我独清。你必须学会DWL (Detach With Love，剥离爱念)，如果一个概念不切实就尽早放手。不要变成一个为了保卫宝宝而孤身作战的父母。要拥有一个充满合作的家庭。

其次，你真的需要在创造过程中建模，还是老话，越早越好。建模可以让理念有形化，让别人可以更现实、更具操作性地与之互动。最起码，别人可以看到、摸到、感觉到，而不是纸上的概念。而你可以借助别人的反馈完善、改变甚至重新设计自己早期的概念。再一次用恐龙妈妈来打个比方，就是在你对自己的产物陷入深爱之前修补它。我们通常运用早期的反馈来产生一些“牺牲型概念”，让客户认识到学习、重复和尽早放手的价值。“尽早失败，越早成功”是我们的一句口头禅。

后来我在一次会议上遇到了那个客户：他已经跳槽到了一个完全不同的领域。他曾经如此深爱的产品最终没能面世，也并没有与之竞争的或者些许类似的产品。我问他自己怎么看。他回答说：“我浪费了那么多时间，简直是疯了。

向优秀的创意养育者致敬。

 

And On Sundays We Rest.

Curious Inspiration. The Met’s Spring 2012 Costume Institute exhibition, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, explores the striking affinities between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, two Italian designers from different eras. Inspired by Miguel Covarrubias’s “Impossible Interviews” for Vanity Fair in the 1930s, the exhibition features orchestrated conversations between these iconic women to suggest new readings of their most innovative work. Iconic ensembles are presented with videos of simulated conversations between Schiaparelli and Prada directed by Baz Luhrmann, focusing on how both women explore similar themes in their work through very different approaches. Enjoy.

Curious About…Noses.

I’d love to be called a “nose.” A nose is someone who develops new perfume blends, ranging from the blends used in luxury perfume to scents which will be added to everyday things such as soaps and shampoos. There are thousands of noses in the world, but only around 50 are truly talented individuals, many of whom are famous in their own right. Top perfume companies such as Givaudan and Firmenich employ several noses to work on their scents, with others choosing to work independently, forming their own companies for the production and sale of fragrances.

The technical name for a nose is “perfumer,” with “nose” being more like a friendly slang term. In order to become a perfumer, someone has to have a natural aptitude for scent, combined with an extensive period of training. The best noses train in Grasse, France, a region which has been renowned for its perfume production for centuries, and it can take seven or more years to complete perfumery training, a mix of chemistry, artistry and lots of trial and error.

Traditionally, a nose would have trained as an apprentice, working with another perfumer, often a family member, to learn the tricks of the trade. In addition to being able to identify and blend scents, a nose must also think about issues like the cost of production, the stability of a scent after bottling, and how a scent will interact with other substances. Modern noses typically pursue advanced degrees in chemistry in addition to training in the scent industry, and many also study psychology, since psychology is a very important aspect of the perfume industry.

The services of an extremely talented nose can be quite costly. Jean-Claude Ellena, the creator of Hermes’ Un Jardin sur le Nil, was the subject of perfume writer Chandler Burr’s book “The Perfect Scent: A Year in the Perfume Industry in Paris,” which cataloged the journey, complexity and expense of creating a bestselling new fragrance.  Noses are capable of isolating and identifying thousands of scents, and they use a wide variety of resources to come up with scent blends suitable for a range of individuals. When creating a new fragrance, a nose thinks about who the scent will be marketed to, and where it will be sold, as people of different classes, genders, and nationalities prefer different scents. 

Working as a nose might sound romantic, but it’s also hard work. A nose must be hyperaware to all of the factors which can influence a scent, ranging from substances in the paper blotters they use to test fragrance oils to ambient odors in the laboratory. Most elite noses are assisted by support staff and apprentices who hope to learn the trade from a master.

Years ago I met “nose” Ann Gottlieb and she made a profound impression on me. Ann learned the art, science and business of fragrance under the personal tutelage of her mentor, Estée Lauder. She founded her company, Ann Gottlieb Associates, in 1983, and has developed top-selling fragrances for every market category, including three of the most famous: Obsession, Eternity and CkOne for Calvin Klein. She translates the vocabulary of fashion houses into the language spoken at essential oil houses, so everyone works in concert. She says: “It’s about listening and endless experimentation, about being fine-tuned to brands, olfactive trends and markets.”

What Of It? I rarely get job-envy, but this is one job that I would love to do. I think perfumery is a fascinating overlap between art and science and one of those rare art forms that is able to truly move us emotionally when it is done right. I remember the first time I smelt Obsession in 1985 and it was so evocative, primal and sexual that it stopped me in my tracks. To years later meet its creator was a real honor. I think nowadays in the hyper-manufactured world of beauty and fragrance, it is rare to find a human, analog skill at the center, one that simply cannot be replicated by a machine.

I Am Curious about crafts passed down from generations, about human, analog experiences in the middle of heavily manufactured industries, about the overlap between artistry and chemistry. 

And On Sundays We Rest.

Curious Inspiration. All of a sudden, the whole world seems to have discovered the genius of artist Domenico Gnoli. New York’s Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery recently mounted the first U.S. show devoted to Gnoli since his death four decades ago. In 1969, after a successful solo show at the trail-blazing Sidney Janis gallery in New York, the beautiful, bohemian dandy with an abundance of talent—he was also a leading illustrator and stage designer early in his career—was poised to become a major art star. But his career was cut tragically short, when he died a few months later of cancer, at only 36.

Gallerist Amalia Dayan says of him: “He was stylish in a dandyish, bohemian way. He was very, very handsome—and apparently, a huge womanizer. He didn’t have a huge amount of money, but he drove eccentric sports cars and had a little sailboat. When he died at 36, he’d already been married twice—the first time to an Italian model for a few years, and then to Yannick. They ran in a tight circle of gorgeous friends. It was a glamorous group.”

Gnoli’s stylish canvases take secondary details—the collar of a man’s shirt, the wave in a woman’s hair—and blow them up into the primary subject with remarkable attention to pattern, texture and detail. Enjoy.

Curious About…The Aesthetics of Heaven.

I’ve been avoiding this topic for obvious fears of repercussion, but let me start by explaining why I am suddenly so interested in heaven in the first place. I recently had to leave China at short notice because the air pollution there reduced my lungs to a complete asthmatic disarray, and upon coming home here to Montauk, I have been hyper aware of two things; first, my own mortality (I’ve never felt so protractedly sick or been so scared of an illness moving into “life threatening’ territory) and secondly, the stuff above us - clouds, blue skies, clean air, and way, far above that…I guess the thing we call heaven. I’m 50 next year, so perhaps the combination of all these factors has suddenly rendered me metaphysical, religious, spiritual.

Let’s start with Wikipedia, always a good general definition, which describes Heaven thus:

“Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious, cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings (such as a Sky deity, God, angels, King or Queen of Heaven, Heavenly Father or Heavenly Mother or Son of Heaven, heavenly saints or venerated ancestors) originate, are enthroned or inhabit. It is commonly believed that heavenly beings can descend to earth or take on earthly flesh and that earthly beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife or in exceptional cases enter Heaven alive. Heaven is often described as a “higher place”, the holiest place, a Paradise, in contrast to Hell or the Underworld or the “low places”, and universally or conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith, or other virtues or right beliefs or simply the Will of God. Some believe in the possibility of a Heaven on Earth in a World to Come.”

That’s well and fine, but heaven in the traditional sense all feels a bit grandiose, big and boomy to me - lots of ascension and divinity, but a bit like going to the Met - sounds good on paper but is overwhelmingly pompous when you’re there. I get the idea of majesty, of somehow making ourselves revel in our smallness and insignificance next to the massive scale of something, but I want my heaven to be smaller and more personal. My father died several years ago and my mother has long held the view that he is sitting in a garden waiting for her, which is more akin to my version of it. I guess as a designer I’m both interested in the concept of heaven but also the aesthetics of it. I hope it’s pretty. Googling it and looking for images produces a startling amount of kitsch: dreamy mantras, endless cherubim and seraphim, many variations on pearly gates, lots of what I can only describe as tacky, and I am frankly somewhat concerned that I’ll end up in a really ugly poster-art-dreamy place, which to a designer would be more akin to that other state - Hell.

I wrote an article a few years ago conjecturing that heaven hopefully looked like YouTube: a big white, infinite space populated with billions of tiny movie screens playing the minute details of people’s lives - their pets, their vacations, their birthdays, their weddings. I still like the idea that heaven is somehow bespoke in some way - about me and tailored to me, not a rather generic channel playing everyone else’s’ stuff, but a perfect one that recalls the wonderful details of my life and memories in a way that I can summon them up: Heaven On-Demand. Perhaps there are filters that I can apply, like Instagram, to turn the mundane into memories, making the everyday grainy, washed out and poetic.

What Of It? Separating out the God/no God debate for a second, obviously there is no way to know. In the movie “Contact,” Dr. Ellie Arroway, portrayed by Jodie Foster, journeys to a far away planet and has an encounter in deep, deep space, ‘heaven’ perhaps. Rendered speechless, she says: “Some celestial event. No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should’ve sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful… I had no idea.” Perhaps we simply have not developed either the visual or verbal means to either describe or portray heaven yet. From the Renaissance to the digital revolution, we have come so far, who knows what lies out there in the future - some perfect representation of heaven perhaps. So to end, I chose one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets, John Keats, and an image that I took myself of the beach near my home, at dawn on Christmas morning. Instagram added the final touch, elevating this from image to memory. I hope I end up somewhere close to this.

And On Sundays We Rest.

Curious Inspiration. When I was at college I spent a huge amount of my first year’s allowance on a Yohji Yamamoto sweater, and to this day I still love his clothes: complex, pleated, folded, wrapped origami creations that defy seasons and geography. Yamamoto himself is an enigma and rarely gives interviews, press or even allows himself to be photographed. In the documentary “This Is My Dream,” he breaks all that, and finally opens up to director Theo Stanley about his inspirations, fears and the demons that haunt him. Here is the trailer, watch the movie if you get a chance. Enjoy.

Curious About…Shanzhai Pets, Part II

At IDEO we liberally use the phrase: “Defer Judgment,” and I am asking that of you here. As I said the last time I wrote about this topic, I’m in no way condoning dyeing animals with toxic chemicals, but there is clearly something going on here. For a modicum of reassurance, on Sandy Paws Creative Grooming website, the writer says of her poodle Cindy: “For those who are overly concerned about the dogs emotions. Cindy loves the attention. She will prance around and expects your attention. This is a Creative Grooming Contest and Cindy will look like this for only a few hours. After the contest Cindy will be clipped into a normal poodle haircut.” I’m not sure if this is giraffe (or is it okapi?) Cindy below, but as a dog owner, to me she seems pretty content.

In recent years, pet ownership has been booming in China where it was once banned as bourgeois. In Beijing alone, there are more than a million households having pets.

As their country prospers, wealthy Chinese have begun to pamper and dress up their pets. Many pet grooming salons, especially for dogs, have sprung up. These salons offer pedicures, rose petal bubble baths, massages, dyeing and other pet pampering services.

New stars among the dogs are created using Hollywood hair design ideas, such as pony tails, spikes, braids and Mohawk. An ordinary dog grooming session will take two to three hours, costing anything between 50-500 yuan. The statistics gathered by the Beijing Association of Small Animal Protection shows that the Beijingers spent 500 million yuan per annum on pets.

Dyeing of pets has been practised in China for quite some years. However, dyeing them to resemble some other wild animals started only in mid-2010 in Beijing.

In a Chinese pet store, pets are turned into exotic wildlife in the new fad. The colours and looks of the dogs are manipulated in such a way that they look like other animals.

You can find dogs, ranging from golden retrievers to Pekingese, being groomed to look like a panda, a ferocious tiger, a zebra, and even Spider-Man/Woman or Ninja-Turtle.

One of the most popular trends is to create the panda-dog, as the giant panda is China’s treasure. The tiger-dog is also a favourite among pet owners.

However, such dog grooming service is not cheap. A full-body dyeing will cost the pet owner US$300. The whole process will take five hours to complete and can last only for six months or so.

The practice of dyeing pets is rapidly spreading to countries like USA, Japan and Taiwan. Pet owners have different reasons for dyeing their pets; some for vanity’s sake while others for events or for fun.

Pet owners are known to have changed their dogs’ colours for special occasions (e.g. wedding) or for a particular holiday (such as St Patrick’s Day). Some used the dogs as fashion accessories and dyed them to match their wardrobe or to highlight certain outfits. Others treated their dogs like novelty items and dyed them in a spectrum of inspiring colours.

The new Chinese style of dyeing dogs to resemble exotic animals has brought the art of pet dyeing to new heights.

In the USA, all grooming roads lead to Intergroom. 

The first Intergroom Conference was held in 1981; since that time, the event has become the largest international conference of its kind in the world. Over 2,000 dog and cat groomers from over 20 different countries attend Intergroom yearly.1997 marked the first year Intergroom was held both in the United States and in Europe. 

At the conference held in the United States each year, Intergroom always begins with an international grooming competition that leads to the title of “Intergroom International Groomer of the Year” - one of the most prestigious awards in the the world of grooming. The quality of grooming is extremely high and the competition is keen as top groomers from the United States, Canada, England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, compete for over $20,000.00 in cash, trophies, rosettes and prizes.

 Groomers can compete in six different classes: (1) Poodles, (2) Terriers, (3) Handstipping, (4) Spaniels and Other Sporting Dogs, (5) All Other Purebreeds, and (6) Mixed-Breed/Miscellaneous (this includes dogs of mixed-breed parentage plus any purebreeds that will be trimmed in styles other than “standard”). 

A New class was added in 2010: The ”Feline Fantasy” Class was offered in addition to the regular “Extreme Makeover” and “Creative Styling” Classes. The first winner, a half-shark half-cat, is showcased here. Defer Judgment.

What Of It? I put this stuff alongside children in beauty pageants and giving pigs awards at State Fairs - not my thing but I appreciate how much pleasure it gives other people. As I said the last time I blogged about this, I’m certainly not condoning dyeing animals with toxic chemicals (the Intergoom website goes out if its way to insist on non-toxicity) or even shaving their coats, but there is some inherent skill at work here.

I Am Curious about all forms of creativity: the weird, the wonderful and the downright crazy.

The Curiosity Chronicles Has Its First Birthday.

I want to start with a big Thank You - The Curiosity Chronicles turns 1 today.

206 posts, a healthy and avid group of followers, syndicated in both Metropolis and in China Business News and hopefully soon appearing in Japan. I’m amazed at the reach that this thing is getting: I regularly get emails from Africa, New Zealand, Russia and even have a pretty regular follower from Papua New Guinea. I can’t thank everyone enough for the encouragement, support, feedback and ideas about what to be curious about. Plenty more coming. I thought that in honor of the first anniversary I would revisit the topic that got by far and away the most reblogs, comments, hoots toots and tweets - Shanzhai Pets. 

And On Sundays We Rest:

Curious Inspirations. One of the most influential pieces of music in my life. In fact, one of the most inspirational things in my life, period, African Sanctus is a 1972 choral Mass and is the best-known work of British composer and ethnomusicologist David Fanshawe. In African Sanctus the Latin Mass is juxtaposed with live recordings of traditional African music, which the composer had recorded himself between 1969 to 1975 during a journey up the Nile, from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Victoria. The work consists of 13 movements and follows the journey of the composer through Africa. The recordings are from Egypt, the Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. Here is a sampler. Turn up really loud, and enjoy. 

And On Sundays We Rest.

Curious Inspiration. Katherine Hamnett was and still is one of my favorite fashion designers - famous for her slogan T-Shirts in the late 80’s and 90’s (many of my generation recall the controversy when Hamnett met with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wearing her own t-shirt with the slogan “58% DON’T WANT PERSHING”, a reference to polls showing public opposition in the United Kingdom against the basing of Pershing missiles in the country), she still has a great voice and point-of-view on the whole industry, and I’m glad to see is having something off a renaissance. Here is a short film from Net a Porter that chronicles her career and thoughts. Enjoy. 

Curious About..Interdependence 关于相互依存的好奇心

(The next installment of the Chinese version of this column, presented as always in its original Mandarin and English.)

I’m writing this as I fly across the Atlantic to the USA after a hectic set of conversations and meetings at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference.

I have lived on and off in America for over 20 years and one of the things that has always fascinated me about America is how it manages to be both diverse and unified at the same time - 50 states, each with their own unique geographies, climates, accents, economies and mindsets, but at the same time, still joined by a common purpose, shared beliefs and values. While nobody could argue that the USA faces unique challenges due to its diversity and scale, I have always found that the interdependence of the parts and the unity as a whole admirable.

It was my first time at Boao, and listening to speech after speech, one thought swam through my mind the entire time I was there: that perhaps, it is time for another USA to emerge - The United States of Asia. Let me explain.

The concept of interdependence is age-old when it comes to the nature. Interdependence in the natural world means that each species relies on others as part of its natural ecosystem, that by supporting one another each creates value for themselves and the others. Essentially, interdependence is a system where, by celebrating their differences and each realizing that their unique contribution creates mutual value, every species contributes to the good of the whole.

I’m lucky in that my work takes me all over the world and to different cultures and places – I grew up in Singapore which in many ways feels like home to me, but I have also spent a good deal of my life in both Europe and America, so I feel pretty well-equipped to make this statement: countries need to learn how to become more interdependent, like our animal friends.

In the last few weeks, I have worked on projects in four completely different Asian cultures, all of which taught me something and made me realize how those learnings could be so beneficial spread across the region.

First Japan, where we witnessed the resilience and dignity that emerged from the Japanese people in the wake of last year’s 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent economic problems, teaching us about the value of a collective sense of purpose and how each individual’s contribution can really matter. Then Singapore, where we see a society, where a well-designed and thoughtful infrastructure underpins and supports its citizenship, now looking to balance that infrastructure with an equally vibrant creative economy. Then India, where the natural resourcefulness and entrepreneurial bravery of the Indian mindset is creating new businesses at remarkable speed and with tremendous potential. Then finally to China, where I sat on a panel at Boao to discuss the manufacturing industry’s pressing need and imperative to shift itself from manufacturing meaningless products to creating meaningful and valuable products that meet the needs of the Chinese citizen.

That’s just four countries, and I can only imagine what Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and others have to offer, teach and contribute to the Asian ecosystem.

In our work at IDEO, we are often asked to help disparate parts of an organization work together around solving a common problem. We find that design is a great unifier; that by putting the user in the center of the process, we make sure that everyone is aligned around creating value for them, and that each individual’s contribution can be seen as driving towards the same end goal. As our work increases in its scale and complexity, we are finding that the stakeholders we are managing are often large, complex organizations in themselves. We find that giving business units a common problem to work together towards solving is an effective and constructive way to break down boundaries and show them that they can, in essence, go from being independent entities to becoming interdependent, each contributing their own expertise to the ecosystem.

In this same vein, I’d love to see The United States of Asia start to work together towards a common purpose – the happiness, wellbeing and prosperity of the Asian citizen. Each country has unique learning and insights, I have no doubt that each is working towards this goal, but often individually. I’m sure that by sharing the load and by realizing that each has its own unique piece to play in the system that each and all can benefit. Perhaps design can play the role of helping bring everyone together and work towards a common purpose and a more harmonious future.

To interdependence. To unity.

 

在忙碌完博鳌亚洲论坛2012年年会的一系列对话和会议之后，我踏上了返美的航班，在大西洋的上空写下了这篇文章。

我在美国断断续续生活了20多年，一直以来给我的一个最深的感触就是，这个国家既有多元化的一面，又能保持高度的统一。尽管全国50个州的地形、气候、口音、经济结构乃至观念模式都不尽相同，但各州都有一个共同的目标以及相同的信仰和价值观。不可否认的是，这种多样性和发展规模的确给美国造成了各种独特的挑战，但我始终认为，整个国家团结一心、互依互存的精神仍然值得钦佩。

此次是我头一回参加博鳌论坛，听着一场又一场的演讲，我脑海中时不时闪过这样一个念头：也许，另一个“USA”崛起的时刻已经到来——“亚洲联邦”（the United States of Asia)。且听我解释。

自然界中的相互依存这个概念已经由来已久。自然环境下的互依互存意味着每一种生物都是自然生态系统中的一部分，它们都有赖于这个系统中的其他生物，各种生物在相互扶持中为自己及其他生物创造价值。从本质上说，相互依存就是一个系统，系统里的每一个物种通过发挥各自的差异性，进而认识到自己的独特力量会创造出相互间的共同价值，并同心协力地致力于整个系统的正常运作。

因为工作的关系，我有幸走访了世界各地，亲历不同的文化和地方特色。我从小在新加坡长大，很大程度上新加坡就像是我的家，而同时我在欧洲和美国生活过很长时间，所以我有足够的理由表明这一主张：所有国家都需要学会如何相互依存，就像我们动物界的朋友那样。

过去几周以来，我先后在四个截然不同的亚洲国家做过项目，每一次经历都给了我一些启发，也让我认识到，如果这些启发能扩展到整个亚洲地区，这将会产生无穷的效益。

首先是日本，在那里我们见证了日本人民面对去年3.11大地震、海啸及随之而来的经济问题时所表现出的顽强的适应力和尊严，这让我们体会到了共同目标的价值以及不容忽视的个体力量。其次是新加坡，这个以健全完善的基础设施为公民造就福祉的国家，目前正寻求平衡，打造与其基础设施具有同样活力的创新经济。之后是印度，这个民族正以其丰富的自然资源和勇于开拓的创业精神，快速地打造出一个个潜力巨大的新型商业模式。最后是中国，我参加了博鳌论坛的一个专家小组会，探讨了制造业转型的紧迫性，即从机械化地生产无意义的产品，转而去创造富有意义和价值、能够切实满足中国人民需求的产品。

当然除了以上四个国家，还有泰国、马来西亚、印度尼西亚、越南等其他国家都将为亚洲生态系统贡献力量并带来借鉴意义。

在IDEO，我们经常需要帮助企业的各个部门开展相互协作、解决某个共同的问题。我们发现，设计是一股强大的结合力，它通过将用户置于流程的中心，以此确保每一位参与者的工作都是围绕为用户创造价值，每一个个体的努力都直接指向一个共同的目标。随着工作日益复杂且规模不断扩大，我们发现其实许多关键的利益相关方往往本身就是庞大复杂的组织。我们认为，给各业务部门分派一个共同的任务目标能有效打破组织间的距离，让他们从根本上体会到，他们可以从独立存在的个体转变为相互依存的伙伴，每个人都能为企业的生态系统贡献自己的专长。

同样地，我也希望看到“亚洲联邦”的各个国家开始同心协力地朝着一个共同目标迈进——即亚洲人民的幸福、健康和繁荣。虽然每个国家都拥有独特的经验和洞察，而且无疑都在朝着这个目标努力，但结果往往只是各干各的。我相信，若能相互分担这一使命，认识到系统中的每一个个体都有各自独特的作用，那么所有人都能从中受益。或许，设计的作用就是把人们连结在一起，让他们为了共同的目标以及更加和谐的未来而奋斗。

为相互依存喝彩。为团结一致喝彩。

And On Sundays We Rest.

Curious Inspiration. The final, climactic scene from one of the best movies of all time. Mike Nichols’ seminal 1967 The Graduate tells the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), a recent university graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and then proceeds to fall in love with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). Here, accompanied by Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” is the epic showdown. Enjoy.

Curious About…Boao. 关于博鳌的好奇心

(The next installment of the Chinese version of this column, presented as always in its original Mandarin and English.)

So I have been invited to speak at this years Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference. It’s a huge honor and I am very flattered. Looking at the guest list, I find myself somewhat intimidated – everyone on there has very serious titles: CEO of Something, President of Something, Executive Chairman of Something, all…except me. I’m a designer.

A journalist asked to interview me before the event, and the first question they asked was the most pertinent: “As the only designer invited to the panel, what do you think about your presence at the forum? What are the main things you are going to talk about?”

The answer is actually quite simple, and in fact represents my hope not just for Boao but for China at this moment in time, and hopefully, without sounding too grandiose, the world in general: that design clearly has a place to play in the Big Conversations right now. These are conversations about change; about taking intractable problems and breaking them down into smaller, more manageable chunks, about bringing disparate groups people of together and orienting them towards collective problem solving and action rather than endless discussion and debate.

As an example, we recently worked on a growing problem that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US has grappled with for years – that one out of every three children in America today is overweight or obese. While the CDC deftly handles sudden health crises of global proportions (such as flu pandemics) the agency’s efforts to control more insidious “lifestyle” diseases, such as childhood obesity and related chronic illnesses, receive fewer headlines and are less familiar to the public.

The CDC expanded its efforts to support America’s youth by launching Project Carrot, a program aimed at exploring how environmental changes, health policies, and marketing/communication efforts could be better integrated to deter childhood obesity. To narrow the scope, the main emphasis was on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.

The CDC wanted to try a new problem-solving approach. They turned to us because our human-centered design methodology contrasted with the CDC’s traditional means of gathering and disseminating scientific data. They believed that IDEO’s new perspective and innovative practices would help the adults who were running Project Carrot get inside tween minds - to understand their worlds, needs, and desires - in an inclusive and non-threatening way.

We spoke with tweens and a wide range of adults, from a senior director of grocery at WalMart to an elementary school district’s “renegade lunch lady,” about healthy eating. The interviews yielded some important information, including: parents tend to care more about their children’s safety and grades in school than whether they eat vegetables; “social marketing” is now dismissed by public health sector, where officials have tried it for 30 years and it hasn’t worked; and translating the CDC’s wealth of knowledge to the language of policymakers is difficult.

After sharing these insights with the CDC, IDEO helped the organization reframe Project Carrot’s objective. The final three prototypes worked together to make food environments less “toxic” by promoting environmental, policy, and social change.

This is what I mean by design’s ability to contribute by bringing together citizens and governments; by creating mechanisms for them to speak to each other and connect, by making intangible campaign promises tangible and individuals engaged. I am hoping that Boao can provide a forum for us all to think about how we can facilitate these kinds of conversations and have everyone benefit in the process.

Another space I think design has a huge role to play in is in education, one of our fastest-growing practice areas and one that our designers are most passionate about. Building the next generation of Asian leaders is something we are excited about in all our offices in this region, and I think a great topic for a forum like Boao is: “How does this generation of leaders help enable the next?”

Education is the means by which we thrive, individually and collectively. In recent times, the growing complexity and interconnectedness of our now global society has challenged the effectiveness of traditional education systems, which were designed for the needs of the industrial era. The old model was built upon the idea that a worker’s job was to apply the basic skills they’d learned in school to specific tasks. To thrive in the 21st century, however, we need to go beyond that—and teach people how to learn, engage, and create. As Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” The new model is about the constant creation of knowledge and empowering individuals to participate, communicate, and innovate.

This is the spirit that drives our Designs For Learning practice. Whether it’s about developing tools, environments, or curricula that enable more engaging learning experiences; transforming schools, programs, and organizations; or addressing systemic challenges that affect education-at-large, our human-centered methodologies and multi-disciplinary teams bring innovation solutions to education.

One goal I have for Boao is to identify people who are as passionate as we are about going on the journey of creating new types of leaders with new skills, hopefully designers in their own right, but in this case designers of our collective future.

So, we shall see. I’m excited to learn as always, to see and listen to the pulse of a event such as this. I’m assuming that my voice has something to add to the conversations, and that what I am proposing - that designing actual change, together - is a message that resonates. I’m planning on writing a series of reactions to the event in my next column, so am hoping that I am as optimistic coming out as I am going in.

我最近被邀请在即将举行的博鳌亚洲论坛年会上发言。我觉得非常荣幸。不过扫一眼嘉宾名单，我还真有点吓住了——名单上的每个人都有着隆重的头衔，CEO啊，总裁啊，执行董事长啊——就除了我。我只是一个设计师。

前一阵儿一家杂志因为准备博鳌专刊采访了我。他们问的最后一个问题是我最为关注的：“作为唯一一位设计界精英，您对此次参会作何感想？你的发言将涉及哪些要点？”

要回答这个问题其实很简单，因为它表达的是我的希望，不仅是关于当下中国的希望，也是关于整个世界的希望——但愿这听起来不是太夸大其词：我希望设计在当前的宏观对话中有一席之地。这些宏观对话关乎改变；关乎如何把难以解决的问题打碎成较小的、较为可操作的局部；关乎如何把分散的团体聚拢到一起采取集体行动解决问题而不要陷入无休止的讨论和争议。

举个例子，我们最近和美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）一起着手解决一个纠结多年的问题——目前美国三分之一的孩子体重超标或者患有肥胖症。CDC处理一些突发的全球性健康危机（比如流感）非常敏捷高效，但是对于一些隐藏于表象之下的“生活方式病”，例如儿童肥胖症以及相关的慢性病，CDC所做的努力并没有引起足够的重视，也不那么为公众所熟悉。

因此CDC发起了一个叫做“胡萝卜计划”的项目。这个项目针对美国的青少年，旨在探索如何更好地整合环境变化、健康政策和传播措施以缓解儿童肥胖问题。把范围再缩小一些，主要的重点是增加水果和蔬菜的摄入。

CDC希望尝试一种新的方法。他们来找我们，因为IDEO以人为本的设计方法与CDC传统的科学数据收集与解析恰恰构成一种反差。他们相信IDEO新的视角和创新手法可以帮助那些执行“胡萝卜计划”的成年人走进青少年的世界——理解他们的思路、需要和愿望——以一种包容的、不带威胁感的方式。

我们就健康饮食走访了许多青少年和成年人，从沃尔玛超市的资深总监到小学校区的午餐管理员。这些访谈产生了一些重要的信息，包括：相比于是否吃蔬菜，父母倾向于更重视孩子在学校的安全和成绩；在官员们尝试了30多年却未有收效的情况下，公共健康部门目前已经基本抛弃了“社会传播”的做法；要把CDC所掌握的渊博专业知识转化成政策制定者可用的语言很困难。

IDEO首先和CDC分享了这些洞察，然后帮助CDC重新设置了“胡萝卜计划”的目标框架。最后建了三个协同发挥作用的模型，通过推动环境、政策和社会转变减少饮食环境中的“毒素”。

 这就是我所说的设计的贡献力——把民众与政府聚合到一起；创造机制让他们可以对话和联系；把无形的愿景变得有形可见，让个人可以参与。我希望博鳌能够提供一个平台，让我们思考如何进行这种类型的对话，让每个人在过程中都受益。

 另一个我认为设计可以发挥重大作用的领域是教育，也是IDEO发展最快、设计师们最有热情投入的业务领域之一。新一代亚洲领导者的成长是我们在亚洲各地非常关注的话题。我认为像博鳌这样的论坛非常适合讨论的一个话题是：这一代的领导者如何帮助下一代成长？

教育是我们不管作为个人还是集体能够成功发展的必经途径。近年来，全球社会的结构越发复杂并且相互隔绝，为个体化时代而设计的传统教育体系面临挑战。老教育模式所基于的设想是工人把他们在学校里所学到的基础技能运用于特定的任务。而21世纪的成功需要超越这个模式，需要教会人们怎样学习、怎样建立联系、怎样创造。就像爱因斯坦说的：“我们不能用我们当初制造问题时同样的思路来解决问题。”新的模式关乎如何持续创造知识，如何让个体获得参与、沟通和创新的能力。

这是驱动IDEO开辟“学习设计”（Designs For Learning）业务的初衷。我们凭借人为本的设计方法和跨专业的设计团队为教育领域带来了创新——无论是开发可以使学习体验更具吸引力的工具、环境或者是课程；学校、课程和组织的转型；或是解决影响整个教育体系的系统性问题。

我去博鳌的目标之一是找到和我们一样对新型领导者的成长之旅充满热情的人。可能他们本身就是设计师，是我们共同未来的设计者。

让我们拭目以待。我一如既往地充满了学习的兴奋感，我将目睹和感受这一盛会的脉搏。我想我的声音能为此间的对话带去一些内容，而我所建议的让设计带来改变的想法可以得到共鸣。在接下来的专栏文章中我还会写一些参会的反响。希望我归来和我前往时都是一样的充满乐观。

And On Sundays We Rest.

Curious Inspiration. Anyone who knew me in 1986 can attest to the fact that I pretty much had this song and this scene on an endless loop. I love David Lynch’s movies; his unique ability to straddle the deeply mundane angst of suburbia and the darkly fucked-up underbelly within it at the same time is best witnessed in this clip, a pivotal scene from Blue Velvet. Dean Stockwell at his very best and the late Dennis Hopper portraying true psychosis in one of the darkest characters ever seen on screen. Let’s Hit The Fuckin’ Road. Enjoy.