What's design?

Design is about playing the song of humanity.
From the dreams we have,
the ideas we come up with,
and the rules we break.

To create without cutting corners is to respect others.
To whole-ass something.
Even on the parts people will never see.

How it makes people feel.
Seen, appreciated, empowered.

Caring is not about making things perfect,
but about not diluting our humanity.

It's about trying out Lisp or Haskell,
when the industry settles around TypeScript,
Go and Java, or even just stops reading code.

About looking at "solved topics" like type design
(the text kind) or ham radio, and still reading
dozens of books on them,
despite everyone thinking you're crazy and losing time.

About fixing that old '50s car with your father,
or building that LEGO set with your little sister,
or recording that one cringe VCR home movie.
Or adding support in Noto Sans for a language only
a couple thousand speakers even know.

Because caring is our inner drive as a species.
Creation is our play.
It's what extends us beyond our space and time.

It's never too late to care.

When we make a piano and figure out what tactility
and heft feels nicest on every key.
Or make a drill fit the ergonomics of our hands.
And the way bicycle pedals and seats can be adjusted
to close to every person.

We think of the wonder a baby feels when they first
start drawing with crayons.
Smashing the cylinder into the square hole.
And pressing the damn button that makes the toy
sing again.

Humanity is all about blasting that cylinder like it owes us money.
Or figuring out that actually, it did fit in the square hole.

It's about democratizing access to inventions for the rest of us.
Making it cheap, safe, conscious of ourselves and our environment.
Turning inventions into instruments. Amplifying us.

Because to make anything but instruments does us a disservice.
Instruments allow us to keep playing the song of humanity.