We delude ourselves if we believe that skilled behavior is easy, that it can come about without effort. We forget the years of tuning, of learning and practice it takes to be skilled at even the most fundamental of human activities: eating, walking, talking, reading, and writing. It is tempting to want instant gratification - immediate expert performance and experiential pleasure - but the truth is that this primarily occurs only after considerable amounts of accretion and tuning.

Rule of thumb: if you think something is clever and sophisticated beware-it is probably self-indulgence.

A good designer will actually design the company.

I think there is a tendency in science to measure what is measurable and to decide that what you cannot measure must be uninteresting.

Products were once designed for the functions they performed. But when all companies can make products that perform their functions equally well, the distinctive advantage goes to those who provide pleasure and enjoyment while maintaining the power. If functions are equated with cognition, pleasure is equated with emotion; today we want products that appeal to both cognition and emotion.

Everyday people are not very good designers.

Learning should take place when it is needed, when the learner is interested, not according to some arbitrary, fixed schedule