What keeps me awake

I tried to think about it a lot. Honestly, nothing. Yes, I do worry about terrorism, about women’s safety in India, about general social inequality at times. But I find myself more worried about my career, the stupid choices I have been making etc.

Other than this, the only problems that I think about are : those that I believe can help me startup and those that I feel are really bad designs. Those that I believe can help me startup are few and rare, and mostly an existing product delta. Those that I believe are flawed designs are a tonne. Basically because I am opinionated and also because they are not designed so well.

The only book that I am reading is Don Norman’s “Design of Everyday Things”. And most of the articles and videos I listen to online are related to design and design thinking. Apart from those that are humour, that is.

So, if I tell you the problems that I worry about, you will ask me to become a design consultant. I’d be totally pumped at that too. Fact remains though: to become a consultant, a successful one, you need to bring expertise to the table. And some experience to get the door to open. Or some fab design wins that get featured in the major circles. And usually these happen  early if you are gifted and/or you graduated in a related field and started in the right circles. For an engineer with no relevant education or experience, breaking into this fold is a long process. I could wait that long, but by the time I break in – most of what I know could be obsolete.

Well, design doesn’t go obsolete ever. True. Ideas do.