A colleague asked me for my thoughts on why design thinking and making are so important. A Brobdingnagian task, with all manner of blind corners and pitfalls, so of course I accepted.

I devised several responses, none satisfactory. My thinking was too sequential, too schematic, orthogonal.

Then I recalled the opening of The Wind in the Willows, when the Mole first meets the Water Rat. Rat says with dreamy purpose: "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing­--absolute nothing­-- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing."

Here is the core of my argument: the design and making processes are, above all, about messing about. Unsure of destination but knowing you must set out, you risk capsizing, for the serious joy of the endeavor. Of course, your ultimate goal is a set of practical solutions to real-world problems but before you reach the headwaters you need to master wind and current, to chart the shoals, learn how to tack and bail. In real-time, out in the open, doing the thing, not just reading about it...messing about.

Besides today's goals may not be tomorrow's and-- as all good navigators know-- the map is unreliable and most certainly not the territory. The oxbow may, in fact, lead you to your landing.

The Water Rat would probably fail most standardized tests (he does pile into the riverbank with some frequency), but I suggest his understanding of trial-and-error and his pleasure in adventure will carry him at least as far.

Daniel Rabuzzi is Executive Director at Mouse.