Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Life Giving Light

Little flashlight for many hands (that need it).

I had an interesting conversation in my office with Paul Polak who at the young age of 73 is in continual pursuit of finding ways to fight poverty in developing nations He showed me this prototype flashlight that is completely solar powered (recharged in sunlight), easily constructed from common off-the-shelf parts, and can last for well over a decade of use. Paul's premise is that designing products for the extreme conditions of the third world spurs new kinds of innovations in cost-reduction and often results in a superior system (which you wouldn't expect when designing something to be ultra-low cost). Stepping back a bit, I think this suggests that superior innovations arise at the extrema of:

Design for Maximum Constraints

Design for Zero Constraints

On the one hand you can be told, "Here's all the money in the world you need to figure out the big answer. Come back when you figure it out." With zero constraints (which never happens in real life usually), I can imagine that big things can happen because your mind is free to venture where it usually is not allowed to go. On the other hand, you can be forced to operate under truly brutal conditions with every possible constraint in the book under which your mind has to work really really hard to find a solution that would not otherwise present itself. Again, you're going where your conscious and subconscious tells yourself where you cannot go.

Perhaps it is the reason why I admire Paul. He goes where most of us cannot go. Into the third world to look at problems not from a 10,000 feet-in-the-sky view but actually living and talking to these folks; at the same time he puts all of his own wealth into his project because, as he says, "It's what I want to do before I kick the bucket." These rare kind of beings that give light, both electrical and spiritual, are truly a gift to the world.

Posted by maeda at December 6, 2006 08:43 AM