Design Giants: One of the first things that struck my interest was when he said how some people with his kind of jobs work more for the result instead of just the object, and how the person will use it. I think this is a very good state of mind to be in when designing. He also mentions that many people of each generation think of themselves as the “final” one and that they don’t have any long term consequences of their actions, but they actually do. He says that is not a good way of thinking. He also uses a metaphor of looking at certain angles make some people genius and others very basic intelligence. Then if people try to look to far they will bend too far and see their selves again and repeat the past in a sense. This shows that you don’t need to be the best to help keep the world going in the right direction.
Embracing Otherness, Embracing Myself: Thandie’s talk about the “self” and how we find it was very interesting. She says we aren’t born with one, but we develop and find it as we grow into ourselves. She says that through her life, and probably many others, our self changes a lot, both in good and bad ways. She tells how she was really nothing towards the beginning of her life and was mostly considered a nobody. Once she started getting into the field of acting, dancing and whatnot, she starting having a self that she knew and could control. Soon she realized how the self is connected to her: through oneness and essence. She says that when she acts she lets her self go and that benefit her more than letting her self control her. We need to get under ourself and find a way to lift it and connect with our essence and everything else.