Rant of the day

In light of the recent publication (well, sort of recently anyhow), Things I have learned in my life so far by Stefan Sagmeister, I have a gripe that I would like to vent. Why do "famous" designers feel the need to share their words of wisdom on the world? And who exactly is their intended audience? Well, I assume that it will be designers because no one else in the public would know nor care about who Stefan Sagmeister is. Sagmeister is clever....I give him that. He is smart in knowing how to brand himself and advertise himself. And in many ways, why not write a book about things you have learnt so far. I guess then, my real problem is the people who buy the book. And that amount is only getting bigger by the day. Why would you want to read about what Sagmeister has learnt in his life? Sure, I may be curious but to buy the book...I think it goes too far. Perhaps so his words of wisdom rub off on you and you too suddenly become a designer that is renowned for his ability to shock. Probably not going to happen. To do this, you would have to escape your own comfort zones to produce something that is not conventional. And conventional these days seems to be the safe options designers are taking. In addition to this, I am reminded of an interview I went to with Jonathan Ellery at Browns. Apart from telling me that my designs seemed to lack "passion" - of which I am still trying to work out where and how this is lacking - he then left me with a parting gift of his book 136 points of reference. To this day, I still haven't opened it and when I was given it, I was tempted to create my own with 137 points and send it back to him. Perhaps I should still? Anyhow, my point in relation to this is: Why would you want to look at pictures Jonathan Ellery has collected over a period of time? And why did he feel the need not to just keep his collection in iPhoto? Why publish a book showing them to the world? Again, I am left wondering why would you want to buy this? Perhaps, his point was for people to get their own points of reference to draw upon in their own designs? I just don't think a book needed to be published to get that point across.