How to work

Michael McDonough (who wrote about a post-catastrophic bambootektured New York with Bruce Sterling in Wired) offers us his Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School:

Talent is one-third of the success equation
95 percent of any creative profession is shit work
If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important
Don’t over-think a problem
Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns
Don’t forget your goal
When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off balance
The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished
It all comes down to output
The rest of the world counts

[via blackbelt jones]

They're excellent (particularly the last two), and should be book-ended with graphic designer Milton Glaser's This Is What I Have Learned:

You can only work for people that you like
If you have a choice never have a job
Some people are toxic avoid them
Professionalism is not enough or the good is the enemy of the great
Less is not necessarily more [aka: Just enough is more]
Style is not to be trusted
How you live changes your brain
Doubt is better than certainty
Solving the problem is more important than being right
Tell the truth

What others?