QuoteProject
I try to be a positive person, but I'm also always looking and wondering, 'Maybe this could be done differently.' As soon as your mind is in a critical mode, you're halfway through designing; as soon as you start thinking about whether something could be better, you're already halfway through a solution.
Thomas Heatherwick
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Being positive is important, but questioning the status quo can lead to improvement.

This quote emphasizes the balance between maintaining a positive outlook and being critical of existing methods. By adopting a mindset that is open to improvement and questioning current practices, one can progress toward innovative solutions and enhance design processes.

Themes

PositivityCritiqueDesignImprovementSolution

In practice

Example use cases

During a team meeting, I might share this quote to encourage innovative thinking.

More from Thomas Heatherwick

I have a strong sense that every project is an invention, which is not a word I hear being used in architecture courses.
Thomas HeatherwickRead
Often the most important moment in the design process is figuring out what the right question is.
Thomas HeatherwickRead

Similar quotes

It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.
Stephen FryRead
We learn to curb our will and keep our overt actions within the bounds of humanity, long before we can subdue our sentiments and imaginations to the same mild tone.
William HazlittRead
You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all.
Ramana MaharshiRead
Ah, I fancy it is just the same with most of what you call your emancipation. You have read yourself into a number of new ideas and opinions. You have got a sort of smattering of recent discoveries in various fields - discoveries that seem to overthrow certain principles which have hitherto been held impregnable and unassailable. But all this has only been a matter of intellect, Miss West - superficial acquisition. It has not passed into your blood.
Henrik IbsenRead
Direct your attention inward. Have a look inside yourself. What kind of thoughts is your mind producing? What do you feel? Direct your attention into the body. Is there any tension? Once you detect that there is a low level of unease, the background static, see in what way you are avoiding, resisting, or denying life-by denying the Now.
Eckhart TolleRead
Trust no future, however pleasant! Let the dead past bury its dead! Act -- act in the living Present! Heart within and God overhead.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.