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This article on Slate about Japanese design retailer Muji (think: Target, Ikea) sums it up:

Muji contends that design needn’t announce itself—rather, it can become apparent to you through use, over time. Nor is Muji interested in capitalizing on consumers’ seemingly insatiable appetite for designer goods. From day one, the company has maintained a “no brand” credo, refusing to put its name on any of its products. And although many Muji products are designed with guidance from the most thoughtful designers working today (Naoto Fukasawa, Enzo Mari, Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic, and Sam Hecht among them), Muji does not promote or even discuss its relationships with these luminaries.

We need more of that spirit in design, and less ego-driven work that serves no one but the designer. That type of work only debases the nature of design, and the products such work creates.

Here’s a great interview on CNET with the founder of Pandora, the music Ai service. Nifty. Pandora observes what you listen to and then suggests more songs that sound similar. In essence, you end up making your own radio station. Neat.

One of the crazier aspects of the interview is how the founder did 348 roadshows before landing his first round venture. Now, that’s persistence!

It could be worse.