Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It

by Mike Monteiro

Now imagine a doctor runs into a sketchy hospital administrator who’s trying to keep a hospital afloat by telling doctors to order tests patients don’t need, or to prescribe medications from pharmaceutical companies the administrator’s made deals with, or charging people for services they didn’t receive. You get the idea. This isn’t much different than working for a boss who asks you to target poor people with addictive products, or to collect user data you don’t need in case the company might want to sell it later. Except when a doctor is asked to do those things, the oath they took supersedes the signature on their paycheck and they understand that by committing those acts they’re violating their oath. When a designer faces these issues, there’s no oath in place.