Fireside Chat: John Maeda and Diego Rodriguez
Topic: Simplicity
In this chat, the participants discuss John’s new book The Laws of Simplicity, teaching, TiVo, iPods, cars, Japan, and more.
Sample quotes
John: “I find that MIT students are a bit too smart. In my courses I try to make them ‘dumber’ in a sense.”
Diego: “I don’t think individual human beings are as actualized in complex, mystifying systems as they are in simple, intelligible systems.”
John: “Companies selling less simply need to market more.”
Diego: “I think businesses tend to put too much value on intellectual property and patents and not enough on operating systems and tacit knowledge.”
John: “The problem with Japanese design today is that it’s too perfect. Look at the success of Samsung over Sony. Sony design is perfect; Samsung design is fun. You do the math.”
Diego: “Not all complexity is bad. Especially in a business/venture context: complex systems that work well can be very hard to imitate. You can live off of those for a long time.” Read more
Topic: Simplicity
In this chat, the participants discuss John’s new book The Laws of Simplicity, teaching, TiVo, iPods, cars, Japan, and more.Sample quotes
John: “I find that MIT students are a bit too smart. In my courses I try to make them ‘dumber’ in a sense.”Diego: “I don’t think individual human beings are as actualized in complex, mystifying systems as they are in simple, intelligible systems.”
John: “Companies selling less simply need to market more.”
Diego: “I think businesses tend to put too much value on intellectual property and patents and not enough on operating systems and tacit knowledge.”
John: “The problem with Japanese design today is that it’s too perfect. Look at the success of Samsung over Sony. Sony design is perfect; Samsung design is fun. You do the math.”
Diego: “Not all complexity is bad. Especially in a business/venture context: complex systems that work well can be very hard to imitate. You can live off of those for a long time.” Read more