Gardens and Systems

The other day I read Jenny Odell’s piece about how to do nothing – it’s all about the value of free, public spaces like gardens – and since then I’ve been mulling over this part especially:

…those spaces which are not seen as commercially productive are always under threat, since what they “produce” can’t be measured or exploited or even easily identified — despite the fact that anyone in the neighborhood can tell you what an immense value the garden provides.

Perhaps this is my own lunacy and obsession at work here but I couldn’t help make the comparison to design systems, too. A design team’s component library is a garden, a public space, and all features and products are a threat to destabilize the community’s shared environment.

Okay I’m going to go to bed now and pretend I didn’t type this GOODNIGHT, SIR.