“Yet too often, the stance of the designer is oriented almost solely towards problem-solving. Too often, that’s what they’re trained for. The issue here is something rarely considered at school: what do you do when you realise you are addressing the wrong problem, your bounded remit having been the outcome of the wrong question in the first place? This happens frequently in design work in practice, and yet stuck at the wrong end of the value-chain, simply problem-solving, it is difficult to interrogate or alter the original question. You simply have to solve within the brief you’ve been set; you can’t challenge its premise.”
– Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary
“A monk asked, “Does a dog have a Buddha-nature or not?”
The master said, “Not (無)!”
The monk said, “Above to all the Buddhas, below to the crawling bugs, all have Buddha-nature. Why is it that the dog has not?”
The master said, “Because he has the nature of karmic delusions”.”
– The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu