The Shape of Design by Frank Chimero
"A fieldguide for makers. A love letter to design."

This book is deceptively short. It is indeed a quick read, but it'll leave an impression long after you've put it down. The book starts off pondering the relationship between How & Why... it is simpler to answer "How do I do this?" instead of "Why am I doing this?" The How shifts from context to context, from job to job, but the Why is about the very objective, the reason why decisions were made, and propels us to a higher level of thinking rather than focusing on only the execution.

Henry Ford famously said that if he had asked his customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. Of course, we know that the faster horse is a testament to the limited imagination of customers, but I'd suggest that it's more representational of not reassessing the objectives of the work in light of new opportunities [...] They are inside of the adjacent possible, and ask a How question: How can horses be better? Asking a Why question leads us to a different conclusion: Why are horses important? Because they quickly and reliably get us from one place to another. A Why question defines our need and uses an objective to create a satisfactory outcome for the work.

Here are more of my favorite quotes...

Getting to know a problem is a bit like getting to know a person: it's a gradual process that requires patience, and there is no state of completion. You can never know the full of a problem, because there is never comprehensive information available. You have to simply draw the line somewhere and make up the rest as you go along.

There is a tendency to think that to delight someone with design is to make them happy. Indeed, the work may do that, but more appropriately, the objective is to produce a memorable experience because of its superior fit.

He uses one of my favorite painters as an example!

Hopper's lure is that the painting lacks a story. He sets the table for us, but we must serve ourselves. The reason "Nighthawks" has such a compelling hook is because it raises an interesting question with so many clues, but never answers it. Yet the quality of the painting makes us perceive the answer must lie within. Those questions will be answered, even if we have to do it ourselves. Narrative is a device we use to make sense of unfamiliar or unresolved things.