Uncompromising - Kieran Healy

The third paragraph has the core observations.

First quote: "When people talk about designers, an “uncompromising” vision is perfectly compatible with cutting products down to their essentials, focusing them entirely on some narrow set of functions, or making them do one thing perfectly."

One sentence later: "But when people—especially salespeople—talk about customers, the phrase “no compromises” is the claim that the product will do whatever the customer wants, even if different customers want different things. It’s the promise—or pitch—that everyone can have their cake and eat it."

I'll finish with a quote from John Nance. It's about programmers, but it also applies to designers and similar creative people: "They don’t teach office politics in school. They should, but that’s a different story all together. A programmer has to be quietly focused doing mental gymnastics to produce clean working code. It’s difficult and takes all your energy. There’s no time to run around to see who's throwing you under the bus. The games account service plays has consequences."

http://johnnance01.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/never-trust-a-pr...