I agree this forum is not working for this discussion. Would anyone be interested in using a break during the conference to have a face-to-face on this topic?
As a professional society, I think we to come to some sort of agreement. If we are having such a hard time defining the skills that we want, how can the Universities produce enough folks with the skills we want? I was a lurker on this list for several months reading the various debates (under a different email address). Beyond the occasional temper getting flared people where raising good points. I think it would be a worthwhile undertaking to define the education we are expecting students to have that we would want to hire. Anyone else interested in getting together during the conference? Nick Iozzo Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 847.452.7442 mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.com/ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thu 12/20/2007 3:53 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Must we be Leonardo da Vinci? This is one of THE perennial arguments of this field, and it almost never fares well in text forums, due to the different experiences and frameworks the participants bring to it. They then commence beating each other over the heads with their word balloons (my favorite mental image of text forum arguments), and in the end everyone tuckers out, retires to their respective corners, and not much progress is made, nor light shed. Reading through the responses so far, I'm already seeing some of the familiar old strawmen, biases, and oversimplifications of a set of issues regarding development processes, skillsets, and personnel configurations that (taken across the entire spectrum of interactive products, software, and systems) cover enough examples to make everything everyone here has said so far, both true in some situations and false in others. I do have some thoughts, however, regarding generalists, specialists, individuals, teams, and ideas/statements introduced in this thread. I'll address this primarily from the perspective of a generalist (since I am one), since I think they're usually greatly outnumbered in the wider design/development fields... a) Being a generalist is a worthwhile and valid path to take in one's career b) Being a generalist, or advocating generalism does not mean that non-generalists are morons or incapable of having valid careers or contributing to great product successes. c) Being a skilled/talented/experienced/successful generalist does not *necessarily* mean that arrogance must come along with it, however arrogance is often the interpretation that others will assign to a generalist who's defending/protecting a comprehensive system/plan/vision. This entire sub-issue is incredibly complex and subjective. It's not served well at all by oversimplification by people on either side (when sides emerge, that is). d) Not everyone is cut out to be a generalist. Education can definitely help though. European design education tends to be much more generalist and broad-based in general. America is land of specialties and specialists. In general (not necessarily a hard division, and many individuals go against this division). e) People who are born/cut out to be generalists will likewise often be very frustrated if forced to perform in a specialist role. Such is the nature of how different we all are as humans. f) Many unique and complex problems throughout the world can be effectively, successfully, and *efficiently/quickly* addressed by generalists/small Special Forces groups. g) There are good, skilled, experienced generalists and there are wanna-be generalists. Some of the wanna-be generalists are good, skilled, experienced generalists in training. The best place for these generalists to become better is by working as protege of a master-level generalist. This is what Andre has described. It's how I learned, and how I lead/teach/mentor now. h) Generalists *can* work effectively with teams and corporate structures (or clash horribly), but it's always on a case-by-case situation and individual basis, as to whether this works or not. I'm troubled to see anyone, regardless of side or opinion, claim that there's *one* way to do anything, or that "I avoid 'these' (insert strawman/stereotype here) types of designer like the plague," because it doesn't really help us to recognize the opportunities and synergies that exist on a case-by-case/individual level that is reality. The IxDA community would do well to work to find common ground, rather than retreat into polarized/oversimplified sides on these issues. i) Good/skilled/experienced/proven generalists, when compared side-by-side almost always have different profiles/topologies of expertise/talent/experience/approach. j) There often is a great deal of misunderstanding/rancor/disconnect/strawmanning/derision/slagging between: - Specialists vs. Generalists - Corporate/Large-scale Teams vs. Individual/Small Groups - Directors vs. Builders - Drivers (Periodic Revolution) vs. Putters (Ongoing Iterative Evolution) - Academics vs. Practitioners - Researchers vs. Intuitives - Designers vs. Marketing vs. Engineering vs. Business ...and many more. It's my opinion that many of these issues are not well served by overly simplistic, polemic, text-based argumentation. I think a number of good points are being made by everyone here, but I'm troubled by the polarized nature of the discussion. Using examples, and having much higher-bandwidth discussions will lead to a much greater ratio of light:heat, and will benefit our field much more. These issues are much more effectively discussed F2F, in small groups. Though I realize that we'll see this same thrash emerge again and again. I'd say that this is my two cents, though it's probably more like my $2. Jim James Leftwich, IDSA CXO - Chief Experience Officer SeeqPod, Inc. Emeryville, California http://www.seeqpod.com Orbit Interaction Palo Alto, California http://www.orbitnet.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23782 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! 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