The eightieth short essay on design (and the virtues of incompleteness)
Last year I borrowed a funny looking yellow book from one of my esteemed partners. Now, months later, I can finally return it.
It has taken forever not because I’m a slow reader. Not because book got relegated to the skim-and-get-to-someday pile. But because it is one of those rare books that sucks you in and demands you go and find out more.
It is impossible to read a few pages and just go about your business. Essay after essay your curiosity is activated and you simply have to go digging for the examples, the references, the history. And the secret, I think, lies in its incompleteness.
This is a 272-page book on design without a single image. Not a single one. The essays in the book get you to do things because your brain needs to complete the visual part of the story, much like the Andean pan flute covers of 80s tunes at airports get stuck in your head because your brain needs to complete the song.
Here is my to-do list after getting through it. 22 out of the 79 essays made me go explore something else. From what little I understand about Americans, .278 is not a bad batting average.
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