Neil Hillman

I stumbled upon extracts of an interesting lecture on the practice of design by acclaimed New York designer Milton Glaser, a man with over 50 years in the business, in which he had some thought-provoking ideas on certainty vs. doubt.

“Everyone always talks about confidence and believing in what you do. I remember a yoga class once where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a more practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is.“

I think Rumsfeld said it best when he said,

 ”We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat…” *

*Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, on ABC’s This Week, 30th March 2003.