Title: The Inexplicably Fascinating Japanese Art of Being Useless
Context: From the people who gave us Pokemon, karaoke, and Godzilla comes a whole philosophy of uselessness.
Synopsis: Designers spend far too much time worrying about utility. How will this be used? Who is going to use it? And, of course, the ever-present: What problem does it solve? What if the answers to those questions were: “it won’t”, “no one”, and “I dunno”. We expend so much energy trying to make things work that we lose our sense of the absurd. We practice such endless empathy that we have become conditioned to reject impracticality. Well, sometimes we need a little absurd impracticality in our lives just to keep us sane. Not everything needs to make sense. Not everything needs to solve problems. Not everything should be serious. Stop worrying all the time about what people need, and spend a few cycles thinking about what we all deserve instead.
Best Bit: “Basically, ChindÅgu is the same as the Industrial Revolution in Britain.”
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