Early in Frank Gehry’s career as an architect he worked for two men who exemplified seemingly opposing philosophies. One architect was pragmatic in providing a service to clients and, Gehry felt, lacked conviction and belief in his work. The other architect was dogmatic in his creation of forms and the only barrier was in convincing a client to accept his proposal.

Gehry thought there was room for both: solving client problems pragmatically and creating new and interesting forms which surprise and engage. The two ideas appear at first to be contradictory, but they can be achieved simultaneously. Design defers to the constraints of a given problem, and balancing them while you shape a solution is difficult to accomplish, but it must be done.

I believe the best sign of intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in your head at the same time without rejecting one.​

​In the dime stores and bus stations

People talk of situations

Read books, repeat quotations

Draw conclusions on the wall

Some speak of the future

My love she speaks softly

She knows there’s no success like failure

And that failure’s no success at all

    -Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Bob Dylan