Last week Friday, I stopped by the "Designing for Billions" conference happening at Parsons. I was casually introduced to Neville Roy Singham while chit-chatting with some of my lovely professors. He is Vice President and Executive Chairman of ThoughtWorks and an islander himself.
While we didn't talk much, he left me with a really good quote that I have come to appreciate. He told me he was from Jamaica and was an Engineer attending this conference to see a new perspective. The design perspective. He was kinda on a quest it seems...
After identifying myself as an islander raised on Guam he told me, "The smaller the island, the bigger the thinker."
While this quote seems charming, I have mentally been digesting it while washing dishes (and I wash a lot of dishes) and realized there is an undeniable truth there. I'm pretty sure other islanders will realize that too.
"Luckily," I told him, "I'm from a really small island." We laughed.