Power Law 1:
Don’t think “new product” – think social value.
Power Law 2:
Think social value before “tech”.
Power Law 3:
Enable human agency. Design people into situations, not out of them.
Power Law 4:
Use, not own. Possession is old paradigm.
Power Law 5:
Think P2P, not point-to-mass.
Power Law 6:
Don’t think faster, think closer.
Power Law 7:
Don’t start from zero. Re-mix what’s already out there.
Power Law 8:
Connect the big and the small.
Power Law 9:
Think whole systems (and new business models, too).
Power Law 10:
Think open systems, not closed ones.
Nothing really impossible, nothing really new. But practical and, when applied together, can work miracles.
John Thackara, former director of the Netherlands Design Institute, has spent the past decade championing smart design with a conference series, Web site, and global network—based in Amsterdam and Bangalore—called Doors of Perception. More about John Thackara here.