Work and love, that’s all there is

A conversation with Jony Ive at the Stripe Sessions, 2025.

• Design is a moral act.
  “What we make stands testament to who we are. And what we make describes our values. It describes our preoccupations.”
  Products are public statements of the maker’s values; care and craftsmanship signal respect for people, while carelessness signals the opposite. “You sense carelessness. And so I think it’s reasonable to believe that you also know care and you sense care.”

• Purpose beats disruption.
  “I have no interest in breaking stuff for the sake of breaking stuff… Breaking stuff and moving on quickly leaves us surrounded by carnage. I’m interested if things get broken as a consequence of actually creating something better.”
  Innovation that truly advances humanity matters; change that exists only to disrupt is wasteful and cynical.

• Simplicity must still have a soul.
  “One of the mistakes that people make is that they think simple products… means you just end up with an uncluttered product, but a kind of desiccated, soulless product.”
  Removing clutter is only half the job; simplicity should express purpose, joy, and humanity, not just minimalism for its own sake.

• People feel invisible details.
  “When somebody unwrapped that box and took out that cable and they thought somebody gave a damn about me, I think that’s a spiritual thing.”
  “A great cabinet maker finishes the back of a drawer, even though it’s unlikely it will be seen… It’s a mark of how evolved we are as people. It’s what we do when no one sees.”
  Finishing hidden elements and making everyday interactions delightful build an emotional bond because users sense when someone genuinely cares.

• Measure what matters, and accept that some essentials resist metrics.
  “We spend all our time talking about attributes because we can easily measure them. Therefore, this is all that matters. And that’s a lie.”
  “Delight, joy, trust… these things are harder to measure, but they are crucial.”
  Teams focus on what’s quantifiable (cost, weight, deadlines) but the intangibles (joy, trust, delight) are just as vital for success.

• Small, trusting teams unlock fragile ideas.
  “A small team of people that really trust each other is fundamentally important.”
  “I’ve missed amazing ideas that came from a quiet place, from a quiet person. That really scares me because I don’t know what I’ve missed.”
  Creativity thrives when colleagues feel safe, listen more than they speak, and perform rituals like making breakfast for each other to deepen trust and vulnerability.

• Opinions kill ideas.
  “People are just desperate to express an opinion. And let’s be very clear—opinions aren’t ideas.”
  “Everybody has opinions. It just doesn’t mean every opinion has the same weight.”
  When people rush to voice opinions often crush delicate, unformed ideas before they can be explored. Experience and mastery lend certain voices more weight in design conversations.

• Environment shapes thinking.
  “Of course you think differently when you’re sat in someone’s living room.”
  “If you’re designing for people and you’re in someone’s living room, sat on their sofa, or sat on their floor… your mind wanders differently than if you’re sat in a typical corporate conference room.”
  The spaces where ideas are born shape their outcomes; real-world settings inspire more human-centered solutions.

• Speed, quality, and cost can coexist if motivation is clear.
  “I would get belligerent and say no, we don’t have to choose. We can do both… It’s very hard, but it’s possible if we work wonderfully efficiently.”
  Efficiency is noble when it protects quality; shortcuts born of impatience erode both product and culture.

• Own the downsides of what you build.
  “Even if you’re innocent in your intention, if you’re involved in something with poor consequences, you need to own it.”
  A principled maker acknowledges and mitigates harm, rather than hiding behind good intentions. “That ownership… has driven a lot of what I’ve been working on.”

• Progress outpaces regulation and reflection.
  “We are moving so fast… the discussion comes far too late.”
  Technological waves (from the Industrial Revolution to AI) arrive faster than society’s ability to absorb them, so creators must inject their own guardrails and ethical pauses.

• Joy and humor are competitive advantages.
  “I think joy and humor have been missing in the Valley… If I’m consumed with anxiety, that’s how the work will end up.”
  Products that feel optimistic and playful gain traction, because people return to experiences that lift their mood.

• Work equals love in practice.
  “Freud said, you know, all there is, all there is is love and work. Work and love. That’s all there is.”
  “If we spend our time working without caring about other people, we suffer. That’s a corrosive existence.”
  Devoting most waking hours to projects that ignore human well-being corrodes both maker and user; caring is not optional, it’s the essence of meaningful labor.