Charlie Mulholland worked at Sony before, by chance, becoming a teacher. At the moment he teaches the course Design Ethics, among others, at the CMD school of digital design at the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. And he’s really good at it. Of course we talk quite a lot about ethics. For instance, we wonder out loud if a design school like ours should take an ethical stand. And Charlie tries to answer the question Jer00n asked on Twitter whether he believes technology is making things better or worse for what it means to be truly human?

We talk about mediocrity. Charlie thinks there’s this cynical kind of mediocrity which is caused by people who basically don’t care. And then there’s the more innocent form of mediocrity which may be caused by tinkerers who use an endless array of increasingly accessible tools. Which can be considered to be a positive form of mediocrity. And we wonder if anything can, and should, be done about it, and if education should play a role in it.

One thing I’m really happy about is that Charlie took the time to explain what the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is about. People told me before that it is about quality, but I never really bothered to read it. And now I don’t have to. Thanks Charlie, you really are a great teacher!

And another thing I’m happy with, and perhaps another example of Charlie’s greatness as a teacher, are the extended show notes he sent me!