At the end of "A Hands-On UX/UI Guide That Captivates Users," the author writes:
This work is not like leatherworking, where time alone will bring you to some mastery. I've worked nearly ten years, yet design is still a foreign territory to me, full of things I don't know. Design is not a genre that stands independently — it is always under the influence of era, culture, and technology. Maybe because of this quality, even a brief slip in my studies makes me feel like I'm falling behind. Why, then, have I held onto this hard work for ten years? Because I believe in the enormous impact design holds. There is no environment we encounter from the moment we open our eyes in the morning to when we close them at night where design is absent. The book introduces cases where design thinking effectively solved problems that aren't easily fixed even with a lot of money. From a wide view, design is an important means of guiding the world we live in toward a better direction, and is itself an environment. For this to be possible, there must be more excellent designers than there are now. Our lives would likely be poorer than they are today if not for the design heritage left by great senior designers of the past.
Suddenly the essay The Old Man Who Carved Wooden Pestles (by Yoon Oh-young) came to mind. One sentence I met while studying for the college entrance exam was engraved deep in me, and I've kept the essay collection I bought in high school ever since. Let me copy out a few lines.
Stunned, I said, "The person who's going to buy it says it's fine — what more do you need to carve? You are stubborn, sir. I told you I don't have time for my train." The old man snapped, "Go buy one somewhere else. I won't sell it to you." Having waited so long, I couldn't just leave, and it looked like my train was gone anyway, so I gave up and resigned myself. "Fine, carve however you want." "See — if you rush me, it just gets rougher and slower. A thing has to be made properly. You can't just stop in the middle of carving, you know." (abridged)
I, who now had to miss my train and take the next one, was thoroughly unhappy. 'How does he think he's running a business like this? There's no way it can work. It's not customer-first, it's self-first. And he names any price he likes. He doesn't know commercial ethics — an unfriendly, brusque old man.' The more I thought, the angrier I got. (abridged)
People in the old days had bargains as bargains and livelihood as livelihood, but for that single moment of making a thing, they were absorbed in one thing only: making something beautiful. And they felt pride in it by themselves. This pestle, too, must have been made in that spirit.
Watching Kim Seong-yeon, a 10-year-veteran designer who works under the pen name Woody, I had the chance to look back at myself — 10 years in as a planner.
I graduated from fashion design, ran a cafe, and made and sold clothing under my own name. Through my days doing barista work and modelist work (design + pattern design) in parallel, I always brewed coffee and sewed clothes with that old man — the pestle-carver Yoon Oh-young recalled from 40 years ago — in mind. Then, at thirty, I moved over to IT and took up design and planning work. When making a product, it was enough to think only of the old man. But in IT, because things get made through collaboration and decision-making among stakeholders of many fields, I often found situations where not only the old man but also the essayist's perspective overlapped.
This work is not something that time alone brings you to some mastery of. Some say ten years and it's worn smooth — you could do it with your eyes closed.. but I'm almost ten years in and, like Woody, I'm still a stranger to this, full of things I don't know. So somewhere along the way this not-quite-compulsive compulsion grew in me — slack off for a moment and you're left behind. Last year, interested in AI and blockchain — or maybe obsessed — I took classes from 7 to 11pm after work, and for nearly ten months had almost zero personal time.
And so — forty, and one more.
Why, then, have I held onto this hard work for ten years? I honestly don't know about the "enormous impact." I don't know about "an important means of guiding the world in a better direction." And I know even less about "the design heritage left by great seniors of the past."
I just want to make something useful. I just want to make something my family, my friends, my colleagues can actually use. When brewing coffee or sewing clothes, you don't have to chase the plausible-looking thing. You don't need a 'good suit' that just sits in a closet. Moving into IT, I often feel a little differently. Sure, since birds of a feather flock together, this might just be the limit of my klutzy hands and my experience.. but when working with government or public agencies, decisions revolve around KPIs. The vendor should just sit tight and take the crumbs. Overstep and you're marked. Get marked, and the company's safety and your colleagues' jobs are at risk. In-house service companies aren't that different. Just as civil servants wield the 'authority?' to spend the budget they won by their own standards, startup founders and investors also say there's no reason to be in their organization if you don't match their taste. Mention users or personas? and the boss says, why aren't I the persona? users don't know their own needs — and before you know it everyone has become big brother Steve Jobs.
And before long, like in Yoon Oh-young's day, you'll hear, 'how does he think he's working with that attitude? There's no way a social life can survive. It's not organization-first, it's self-first. And he names any salary he likes. He doesn't even know organizational life — an unfriendly, brusque planner' — and, as if by agreement, six months to a year after you resign, they all show up wanting to share a bowl of makgeolli and reminisce about the old days. Honestly, I've briefly been a boss/representative myself in my 20s. Even though it was short and I was young and cocky, maybe because of that I deeply understand what founders struggle with. I could not bear the loneliness of that seat. I could not withstand the pressure and responsibility of that seat. So I don't think being a CEO is something anyone can do.
What I find sad and still can't understand is the organizational structure of IT companies. In the end people flock with their likeness, so this may just be the limit of my klutzy eye and my personal experience.. but many managers (especially CEOs) follow employees who, while getting talked about behind their backs, look sociable and obedient in front. — Of course, this might itself be evidence that I'm bad at organizational life — they think they're using employees, but I often feel sorry watching them actually be the ones used. That said, I don't think it's right to blame or publicly out them either — each has their own family and their own livelihoods, and they do their best with their own sincerity. You just follow their demands, and if you don't like the temple, the monk leaves. Sometimes when I grow close? to the CEO, I stay until the very end, but middle managers are mostly field-optimized, so-called survivors of that organization, so usually they get cleaned up before they can grow close to the CEO.
I must be getting older too, because lately I have thoughts like: 'I'm not an independence fighter, and the CEO isn't my father or brother — am I overdoing it? Good-is-good, right? — shouldn't I think about my own reputation and smooth things out? I'm no young pup anymore, and switching jobs isn't easy for me either — what glory am I holding out for? How long am I going to keep standing ramrod-straight on one leg like a crane over a pond?..'
Whenever that happens, something my mother once told me in college surfaces again.
Charles — people don't grow old just from getting older.
The moment certain things start feeling like a hassle, and you start accepting that and letting it slide,
that's exactly when you begin to grow old..
Every time obvious things pile up one by one, every time predictable things add up, every time the thought 'see — my guess wasn't wrong' bursts out of me, I find myself going back to those words from that time.
