WOW! What Do Designers/Problem Solvers Do?

What do Designers/Problem Solvers do?

Do they design 'things'?

Do they solve problems?

Do they 'right' the mistakes, limitations, assumptions, imperfections in an existing situation?

Do they 'change' situations and thereby the circumstances that help people in some way?

IOU - "3S" -- The Design Mantra

What is so special about Design?

Well it is not everything but it has an insidious way of seeping into anything around us as we are, so to say, completely dependent on the 'designed' world of ours. Even if we were to go back thousands of years to our simplistic way of living,which is a quite unlikely possibility, to save ourselves from premature extinction we would need to design that world too!

Whatever we might choose to do, designers who are basically problem solvers would need 'software' or a 'mantra' to inform, drive and remind them of the task ahead and how best it might be done.

To me the simplest possible 'software' or 'mantra' may be captured by three Indian words, as said in India, 'Satyam, Shivam Sundaram'.

While 'Satyam' stands for truth, 'Shivam' symbolizes unification of the male and female energies to create something new and Sundaram represents anything that is both beautiful and useful.

That can be a fine 'mantra' for design and designers since it first asks us to 'see' the reality to find out what exactly is to made 'right' and then use our creative energies that lends expression to some form of artifact that would be both beautiful and useful to people.

Not only the mantra is simple to remember but also captures the essence and purpose of design to continually 'right' things.

IOU - Aesthetics

Here is a different take on 'aesthetics'.

The more I am delving into Gregory Bateson's life and work I increasing find how his ideas were shaped in many ways by the Eastern concepts and processes. One of the symbols he used and wrote about was that of Shiva.

Shiva embodies the angle to the nature of aesthetics - It is summed up by the slogan -- Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram -- meaning -- Truth --> Shivam --> Aesthetics. The word Shivam is a bit special. It means the proper alignment of the male energy (expression) and female energy (containment) and turning on the mind (internally) that the Hindus and the Buddhists believe produces beauty (Sundaram).

Now for some fun -- the word Shiva has two parts --> 'Shi' and 'Va'. When you pronounce 'Shi' loudly you would invariably notice that the left side of your body vibrates (the female side -- connected to the right side of the brain). And then when you pronounce 'Va' loudly you would notice the vibration of the right side of the body -- connected to the left side of the brain). Well you probably get the hang of it.

Bateson's understanding of Shiva is great. As inside so outside symbolized by the famous Cosmic Dance in the form of Nataraj.

So the beauty a designer creates or the beauty of a decison any leader takes comes from the inner beauty of a designer's or a leader's mind that is the ability of achieving the 'no mind' state just before thinking. Leave it at that for the time being.