There is value in the mistakes we make…

Or: Why I haven’t posted anything in over six weeks and the lessons I’ve learned from that.

Photography: Estée Janssens

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my 30 year career as a designer, it’s this: Even the most carefully crafted plans can go wrong, indeed, they often do.

In my first, last and only post here, I promised to share Everything I’ve learned… for free. True to my word, my second post — that I’m embarrassed to admit took me almost two months to find the time to write — explores the idea of sharing everything I’ve learned, including the importance of learning from your mistakes.

I published my first post here on 13 November, 2019. I had confidently planned to publish at a regular schedule, and that plan remains, I just hadn’t accounted for life — and, more importantly in this case, a fantastic opportunity — that completely captured my attention.

So, what lesson did I learn from this?

Don’t make over-confident announcements until you’re ready to deliver them. In my enthusiasm, I promised the earth and I signally failed to deliver. That’s less than ideal, and for that I wholeheartedly apologise.

John Carmack’s Plans

In Masters of Doom, David Kushner shares, “the inside story of the Lennon and McCartney of the video game industry: John Carmack and John Romero, [the co-creators] of the most innovative and notoriously successful video games in history: ‘Doom’ and ‘Quake’.”

In addition to exploring how the games they created would tear them apart, Kushner delves into Carmack’s fascinating approach to tracking his daily work, stating:

Carmack decided to upload his daily work log, or, as it was known, a .plan file, to the internet. .plan files were often used by programmers to keep each other informed of their efforts, but had yet to be exploited as a means of communicating with the masses.

[id software’s fans] had suffered months, years, of Romero’s unsubstantiated hyperbole [and] Carmack felt it was time that they saw some hard data.

I’d encourage anyone to explore the John Carmack Plan Archive, it provides a fascinating insight into Carmack’s thinking, in particular his reimagining of what a .plan file might be. Whilst many of Carmack’s files contain lists of tasks as would be expected, some serve as opinion pieces and others contain fragments of code.

One in particular caught my eye, from 8 August, 1996. In it — after noting, “Romero is now gone from id,” — Carmack states:

There will be no more grandiose statements about our future projects. I can tell you what I am thinking, and what I am trying to acomplish, but all I promise is my best effort.

Needless to say — given my absolute silence here — that sentiment naturally resonated with me.

No More Grandiose Statements

I’ve certainly been guilty of grandiose statements in my time, in particular, as in this case, over-promising and under-delivering. (Never a winning combination.)

In the hope that I at least learn something from my mistakes, I’m taking a leaf out of Carmack’s book.

There will be no more grandiose statements about designtrack (now: The School of Design). I can tell you what I am thinking (that design education is long overdue a rethink), and what I am trying to accomplish (that, by returning to first principles, I might fundamentally improve design education and put it within reach of all), but all I promise is my best effort.

If I could summarise in one sentence, it’s that: I need to talk a little less and execute a little more.

As per usual: Thank you for reading. I appreciate that your most valuable resource is time and I’m grateful that you’ve given me some of yours.

Thanks! — Chris

Chris Murphy is a designer, writer and speaker based in Belfast. He’s also an educator, but he’s still on his own learning journey. His latest ‘course in a book’ — Building Beautiful UIs — is available online and, thanks to Adobe’s generous support, it’s 100% free.

When he’s not teaching via The School of Design, Chris works with businesses, large and small, to help drive innovation, drawing on his 30 years of experience working with clients including: Adobe, EA and the BBC.