Powazek: Just a Thought: The Art of No

That's one I need to work on. When a client comes at you with what appears to be a stupid request, instead of saying no, or giving up and saying yes, ask why instead. I'm beginning to formulate a unified theory of client stupidity (which needs to be re-titled if I'm going to publish it), connecting all stages of client feedback under one concept … clients are incapable of abstract thought. More realistically, it's that we as designers/developers deal with this shit every day, so we're capable of abstracting concepts, and visualizing possibilities, whereas our clients are doing this for the first time, and are only concerned with their data as it appears immediately in front of them.