Fred Brooks has a new book. Effective design is at the heart of everything from software development to engineering to architecture. But what do we really know about the design process? What leads to effective, elegant designs? The Design of Design addresses these questions. These new essays by Fred Brooks contain extraordinary insights for designers in every discipline. Brooks pinpoints constants inherent in all design projects and uncovers processes and patterns likely to lead to excellence. Drawing on conversations with dozens of exceptional designers, as well as his own experiences in several design domains, Brooks observes that bold design decisions lead to better outcomes. The author tracks the evolution of the design process, treats collaborative and distributed design, and illuminates what makes a truly great designer. He examines the nuts and bolts of design processes, including budget constraints of many kinds, aesthetics, design empiricism, and tools, and grounds this discussion in his own real-world examples-case studies ranging from home construction to IBM's Operating System/360. Throughout, Brooks reveals keys to success that every designer, design project manager, and design researcher should know.
Christopher Alexander: A building or town will only be alive to the extent that it is governed by the timeless way. The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person ... It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.
Virginie Tisseau: I ride the tram because every day it takes me to a place less familiar.
Richard Haass: Let's not kid ourselves. We're not going to find some wonderful thing that's going to deliver large positive results at modest costs. It's not going to happen.
Decius: I don't have a solution for the problem of bad taste.
Ira Glass: Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.
Ellis: All the time you spend tryin to get back what's been took from you there's more goin out the door. After a while you just try and get a tourniquet on it.
Brad Lemley: It is a clock, but it is designed to do something no clock has ever been conceived to do -- run with perfect accuracy for 10,000 years.
Fake Steve: The truth is, this is all about spiritual emptiness. That is why you're standing in line. Except for Scoble, who is an attention whore and just doing it to get attention.
Paul Carr: If we all started thinking a bit more like friends, and a bit less like attention whores, the privacy problem would be solved at a stroke.
An exchange with Rory Stewart: "We're beating the cat." "Why are you beating the cat?" "It's a cat-tiger strategy."
The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist | 
