The first time that I thought the world was on fire, COVID was sweeping the world. My startup to build houses smartly (more like cars) was tanking due to supply chain inflation, and we were all self-isolating.

This second time, the world is at the beginning of a trade war, and the memory of the long-standing hockey-stick growth of the S&P 500 is fading away and being replaced by a great uncertainty…

Great time to be a product designer. Remember all of those Shen Zhen pals you made making the latest electronic gadget of the internet of things era? Well… working with them might not make as much sense anymore. Maybe move everything to Vietnam you say? We can all only hope… Sure, they’re neighbors, and to be fair, there’s been a steady trickle of work and talent migrating SW for the past 20 years… but they are a different people, sitting in the zeitgeist of a different place, with a different set of life (I mean work) experiences that give them a different level of problem solving. We will see how this all goes, and pray DonJon doesn’t fart wrong and decide he hates those people too. What a time to be in the business of making things.

I’ve actually always wanted the US to ramp up manufacturing again. It’s in my blood, I literally grew up a block away from a Corelle pressware plant. I could see the clouds of steam, the weird heat-dissapating roof lines, hear the lunchtime whistle. 

I recently took a trip to my mom’s birthplace in the Guangdong province, and everywhere I went, there were factories, and people hustling. Even if they weren’t a white or blue collar factory employee, they were busy hustling whatever angle they could find, down to the “chenpi” (orange peel) hawkers drying peels in the middle of sidewalk. People have purpose… and it’s not to watch American Idol.

I want that for America. I want that for my hometown again. America has always been the best country to live in for my entire life, and I felt that to my core as a child of the 80’s. Is manufacturing part of what made that America? I think the short answer is “yes”... not because of the labor itself, but because of the attitude that everyone had at that time, which was “Let’s get this done.” not “wait for those guys overseas to do it”...

I actually am not that bothered by the change. I think we (America) need to bring back manufacturing. We could have done it methodically. We could have thought about the mass population that will have to suffer through 25% inflation for everyday goods… We could have done it for the right reasons. But hey… this is where we are.

So why is making things important? First off, we can’t keep making things the same way we have. Can you say “global warming” little Jimmy? It turns out, it’s a real thing, and soon your 1-18 year old will tell you that to your face. So, can you really make a half-assed product, that if people don’t love or at least find extremely useful, will end up in landfill within 3 years? Worse yet, there’s nothing circular about product-come-garbage you made… All of those precious metals, those resins, that silica turned to glass, trapped in a landfill until the end of time? That can’t possibly work out in long run. We all saw Walle right?

So, we as a people, need to figure out a way forward. To make the right product for your fellow men and women. You have a responsibility to make it NOT garbage for as long as you possibly can. You need to make them feel the care you put into every decision you made prior to EVT. And, you have to live with fact that very likely, this object you are obsessing over will eventually be garbage… So get as many of those parts as you can into a circular waste stream.

I’m a designer, and I make garbage. My goal is for my garbage to bring you joy, and deserve a place in your home for as long as you’ll have me. And when you tire of me, as everyone will, please dispose of me not in casket, awkwardly existing on the earth for the rest of time, but as a seed, for someone else to turn into something useful, for the generations that come after you and I.