Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It

If you work at Uber or Twitter, just quit.

My goal is to teach you how to work the right way, and it takes both morals and ethics. Understanding the difference between the two is like understanding the difference between a font and a typeface.

I intend to show you that design is a political act. What we choose to design and more importantly, what we choose not to design, and even more importantly, who we exclude from the design process—these are all political acts. Knowing this and ignoring it is also a political act, albeit a cowardly one. Understanding the power in our labor and how we choose to use it defines the type of people we are. As the great Victor Papanek once said, “You are responsible for what you put into the world. And you are responsible for the effects those things have upon the world.”

Let’s get some stuff out of the way. The goal of this book isn’t to convince you to quit your corporate job and take a gig at a nonprofit. If you work at a nonprofit, great. I love you. Stay there. Help everyone get clean water and free goats. Those things are important, and this book will still be helpful to you.

For this book to matter, we need two things: the desire to do the right thing and enough time to change course.

The world is on its way to ruin and it’s happening by design.

and lead Jack Dorsey to believe engagement was a more important metric than safety.

You’ve applied to companies who frequent news cycles for doing harm to others because you really want their name or a title on your resume.

You’ve said things, done things at your company that crushed your soul but paid your bills.

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people