I’ve started rereading Rework (the English edition is titled Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever), and the first chapter is called “Ignore the Real World.”

I realized how my attitude toward these kinds of bold concepts has changed:

1. Yes, great! Do whatever you want! They don’t know anything and don’t understand!
2. But the world became what we see now, so the rules of the game clearly work. A norm is a viable order.
3. (you are here) Sometimes play helps you get unstuck and change something (at least your point of view, to start with).

Now I look at it positively. Maybe I’ve simply come to see that rules and norms allow for mistakes. That doesn’t mean the mistaken thing will take root (probably not). But as a designer, I understand that experiments and play are necessary.

That’s what design thinking is. Not the version with sticky notes on a wall, but the one about understanding the balance between norms and errors.

No psychologist today will tell you about the importance of a kindred soul, or how to find it. They themselves live in a perverted world and present it as the norm.

The soul is not a function of the system — it’s a glitch, a void, a call, a light. It’s something that should not exist in a functioning system.

I’ve noticed that I get the most satisfaction from systemic change. For example, I added a new feature, fixed something on the site, drew a logo, corporate identity or a key interface element. These are changes that affect not one element (section) of the system, but the entire system as a whole or its larger part (section, branch).