I’ve been thinking about the meaning of design for a while. And if you’re only looking at design work, it’s tough to answer that question. But, by getting interested in other things, the answer becomes very obvious. “Oh, design is about everything but design, so all this other stuff. Design exists for food and culture and linguistics and dog walkers and the city and agile programming methods and the federal deficit and the Hubble telescope.” Life is much happier once you see design as a cultural vessel, and realize it’s more productive and more nourishing to focus on the culture than the vessel. It’s a great lesson in humility. Forget that designer’s ego stuff: we’re servants.