How a designer gets from thought to thing is, at least in broad strokes, straightforward: (1) A designer conceives a purpose. (2) To accomplish that purpose, the designer forms a plan. (3) To execute the plan, the designer specifies building materials and assembly instructions. (4) Finally, the designer or some surrogate applies the assembly instructions to the building materials. What emerges is a designed object, and the designer is successful to the degree that the object fulfills the designer's purpose

Opening words of "Preface". No Free Lunch: Why Complexity Cannot be Purchased Without Intelligence. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. 2002. ISBN 0742512975.