"I do not feel certain until I have confronted my initial solution with other solutions - although in fact the first solution often proves to be the right one"
About this Quote
Design confidence, Jacobsen suggests, isn’t a lightning strike; it’s a trial by comparison. The line reads like a quiet rebuke to the romantic myth of the solitary genius sketching perfection on the first pass. He admits the seduction of the initial idea - “the first solution often proves to be the right one” - but he refuses to grant it authority until it survives contact with alternatives. That’s not indecision. It’s a method for turning intuition into something sturdier: judgment.
The subtext is practical and slightly wary. First solutions can be right for the wrong reasons: habit, stylistic reflex, or the gravitational pull of whatever is easiest to build, sell, or defend. By forcing the first idea to compete with other possibilities, Jacobsen is stress-testing it for necessity rather than novelty. If it wins, it wins honestly. If it loses, the designer is spared the embarrassment of having confused familiarity with inevitability.
Context matters here: Jacobsen worked in a modernist moment that prized clarity, reduction, and an almost moral belief in “right” forms - yet his best work (from buildings to chairs and cutlery) is meticulous, iterative, and calibrated to human use. This quote captures that tension: modernism’s appetite for decisive solutions, tempered by a craftsman’s skepticism about certainty. He’s defending a kind of disciplined humility: trust your first instinct, but make it earn the title of “right” by proving it could have been otherwise.
The subtext is practical and slightly wary. First solutions can be right for the wrong reasons: habit, stylistic reflex, or the gravitational pull of whatever is easiest to build, sell, or defend. By forcing the first idea to compete with other possibilities, Jacobsen is stress-testing it for necessity rather than novelty. If it wins, it wins honestly. If it loses, the designer is spared the embarrassment of having confused familiarity with inevitability.
Context matters here: Jacobsen worked in a modernist moment that prized clarity, reduction, and an almost moral belief in “right” forms - yet his best work (from buildings to chairs and cutlery) is meticulous, iterative, and calibrated to human use. This quote captures that tension: modernism’s appetite for decisive solutions, tempered by a craftsman’s skepticism about certainty. He’s defending a kind of disciplined humility: trust your first instinct, but make it earn the title of “right” by proving it could have been otherwise.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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