My copy of Warren Berger’s book bristles with Post-It Notes. Its full title is Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, Your Business, and Maybe Even the World and it features the visionary ideas of Bruce Mau, along with other designers and thinkers on the topic. I’m forcing myself to stop at page 50 and recommend it to you right now. It’s important.
I have a new theory: highly sensitive people (HSPs) are perfectly suited for being designers. I’m so convinced that we’re extremely valuable precisely because of our various traits, and this book supports that idea in many different ways.
The innate curiosity, complex thinking abilities, and long-viewing we’re capable of as HSPs puts us within sight of visions that are out there, but that might actually work.
What if we saw ourselves as capable and effective at designing the world we want to live in? What if we start with the assumption that we’re built to press our faces up against the outer edge of the envelope and look beyond, to reach out and grasp what didn’t exist until we thought to touch it?
By relying on “abductive reasoning,” or the ability to think about and picture what might be, designers can glimpse possibilities that lie on the other side of the fence.
~ Warren Berger, Glimmer
Designers “live in an expansive world where they believe the only thing limiting us is the stuff we haven’t figured out yet. And they’re excited about it. You’ll hear them say things like, ‘I’m working on this really cool problem that has no answer!’ That’s what they live for.”
~ Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management, as quoted in Glimmer
We need you. We need you. We need you. Your valuable ideas, your whacky imaginings, your unpolished, half-formed, rough, barely describable flights of fancy contain miracles with the leverage to change the trajectory of the planet.
What we’ve found is, if someone has an enthusiasm or curiosity about many different disciplines, then they can be more flexible, more empathetic, and more engaged with the world.
~ Tim Brown, IDEO’s Chief Executive, as quoted in Glimmer
Find some way to pursue what intrigues you. Never mind if no one else is intrigued. That’s the point. Be first. Be brave. Be so curious you drench yourself in questions and come out cleansed, a gift cradled in your hands.
Feeling lost on a project can be the first step toward finding an original solution.
~ Warren Berger, Glimmer
Related reading: Bruce Mau Design’s Manifesto for Growth, Creativity Prompts Compendium
6 Comments
Grace — Yes! I agree — and I would take it one step further. Sensitives are not only perfectly suited to being designers, but also as visionaries.
Absolutely! I suppose I think of designers as being inherently visionary.
Read this yesterday. It made my mind whirl. Thought oh, I’ll respond after I’ve thought about this a bit and then life intervened and am just getting back. So read it again. And again my mind is whirling. Thoughts are still not completely sorted out but I agree — designers *and* visionaries and wondering if that also applies to make us better counselors. Many many thoughts — shall I just say: lots of food for thought here?
Geez, Jo. It’s nice to know you’re having the same reaction to the book’s concepts that I did — and you haven’t even read it yet. If you do look into the book, and as you think more on this topic, I’d love to have updates. Share them here if you feel like it. There’s a rich vein of exploration that’s opened up on these connected topics.
I am so thrilled that you are enjoying the book. I hope it inspires you to have more “Glimmer moments” – that wonderful moment when you detect that first twinkling of a new creative possibility.
Thanks for taking the time to comment here, Warren. Your beautifully gathered thoughts and well-constructed presentation have turned a light on for me that’s now illuminating vast reaches of unexplored territory — in myself and in the world I experience around me. And I was already feeling pretty darn illuminated, so that’s saying a lot.
I look forward to keeping track of what you’re up to.