Learning By Making

Rules of Making

• MUST make things even when they're bad. Especially when they're bad. Bad work with reflection teaches more than good work by accident.
• MUST reflect after making. "What worked? What didn't? What would I change with 2 more hours?" Without reflection, volume is just busywork.
• MUST vary the format. If you only design landing pages, your taste is landing-page-shaped. Design dashboards, mobile apps, emails, posters, packaging, signage.
• SHOULD share work publicly. The vulnerability of showing imperfect work accelerates growth because it forces you to articulate your decisions.

The Failure Requirement

• MUST reframe failure as data. A design that doesn't work tells you exactly what you don't understand yet.
• SHOULD keep a failure archive. Save your worst work. Revisit it quarterly. When you can articulate why it's bad in precise language, you've grown.
• NEVER delete bad work. It's your most honest record of where you were.

Anti-Patterns

• Analyzing 10 products for every 1 you make (consumption-to-creation ratio is inverted)
• Only making things in your comfort zone (safe projects don't stretch taste)
• Abandoning projects when they get hard (the hard part is where the learning is)
• Waiting for the perfect brief to start making (the brief doesn't matter, the reps do)
• Treating practice work as throwaway (practice work should be finished and reflected on)