I know there are a lot of these types of posts floating around, but I wanted to talk quickly about something that Steve Jobs made me realize as a designer.

At a party last week I was having a discussion with a banker about design. It was another world to him and he was extremely curious. He asked me a simple question.

“How do you know what people want?”

And I told him that a designers job isn’t to figure out what people want, it’s to give them something they never knew they wanted.

There’s a famous quote allegedly from Henry Ford (the automobile maker):

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

And it was true for Steve Jobs and Apple.

If you want a peek into this, take a look at a discussion forum the day Apple announced the first iPod.

The first response sums it up perfectly.

True Story: When I first started for Robert Geller years ago, we were sitting in the offices working on a new collection discussing food. I told him I wanted to open a Vietnamese sandwich shop because I was disappointed with the quality of Vietnamese food in NYC. I never did. A couple years later the Bahn Mi craze in New York blew up.

Anyone that has done any reading into work and business has probably heard the motto “Fail often, Fail early.”

I think this idea is only partially correct.

You need to Deliver More.

Ideas are easy to create, executing them is what matters.

I’m pretty confident that Facebook would not exist as we know it if the Winklevoss Twins kept “their idea”.

What fail more really means is filter more.

Deliver, filter out the failures with what succeeds and repeat.

The odds of success increase the more you deliver.

If you want to find amazing love, you put yourself out there. Go on dates, meet people, filter out the losers and repeat. You don’t find someone by making lists of your ideal partner.

We don’t experience new cultures by planning trips in notebooks and get in shape by writing workout and diet plans, you get on a plane and get your ass running.

Deliver more. Receive more.

tinatalk asked you: Do you use a planner? Any recommendations? I’m currently a student, but I’d like to find an uncluttered planner I can use beyond college, as well.

I use combination of Google Calendar and a small general notebook (my notebook of choice: Muji A5 Dot Grid pictured above).

My problem with planners is that I often need to write more than there is space to, or I need to change a date to something and it’s too permanent.

I do rough plotting in my Google Calendar so if a date needs to be changed I can change it. I can also access it on my phone or anywhere where there’s internet access.

Then I sit down every morning when I’m checking my e-mail and write what’s in my Google Calendar into my notebook (which is a general notebook I use for sketching and note taking). This helps my to do stick in my head. I then cross off things as I complete them.

I guess you can use my method with a planner instead of a notebook, but I like that I don’t have to carry another book with me.