(via bauldoff)
I agree with this completely, and I feel that it applies to technologists of every stripe—not just visual designers. I’m convinced that the people who make the greatest contributions in technology make the leaps they make because they’re people who aren’t so narrowly interested in technology for its own sake. They tend to be generalists and humanists who are fascinated with computers not for what they can do, but rather for what they can enable people to do. From Alan Kay (who was a professional Jazz guitarist and molecular biologist as well as an inventor of Smalltalk, the laptop computer, and modern GUIs) to the creative-leaning original Mac team to the writers, painters, and other aesthetes who built Flickr, I think the lesson is clear: if you want to make interesting technology, be an interesting person.