James and Rose have been running a family convenience store for twenty years. They’re not rich, but they’ve been able to feed themselves properly through the small business. Then comes in a few billion-dollar corporate bullies who shamelessly erect a supermall beside their place. James and Rose lose their business.

My heart goes out to James and Rose; but in the end, it’s no surprise they died since they’re not providing enough value to their customers. Apparently, corporate bullies innovate more and give people a better reason to patronize them.

That’s just the way the the rest of the non-design world works—the one who is most valuable, survives.

It happens everyday to people who’ve stopped pushing themselves forward and looking at people’s needs. It happens people who’re too obstinate and self-obsessed with pushing their own ideas and telling others they’re so special and that corporate giants shouldn’t be bullying them because they claim to be providing more value.

In comes the “Kill the Kindle,” video I saw over the article, “What Book Designers think about the Amazon Kindle.”

Yes, the Amazon Kindle will be killing some designers. It will hurt the design industry. But let’s try to stop being spoiled brats and try looking at what the rest of the book-reading world sees.

The Kindle is an amazingly convenient device that will save millions of people time and money. And if the Kindle sells, it simply means that this convenience is more valuable than a fancy book cover or well-set type in a book. If the Kindle sells, designers will lose opportunities; but there will be newer ones that will sprout because of the new need created by Amazon’s flagship reader.

It’s really as simple as Amazon providing more value than book designers.

Why is it that we whine and complain so much about being bullied by Crowdspring or Amazon (who’re “destroying” the industry) when we don’t give a shit about a million other small businesses who’ve also been dying because they’re being “bullied by corporate giants?”

Why do we go to McDonalds and not some obscure Mom and Pop eatery down the road? Why do we hang-out in Starbucks when it’s bullying some small coffeeshop next door.

Don’t we behave in the same way that book-readers are when they’re planning to buy a Kindle?

The graphic design industry is simply one of many that makes the world go round. We’re not that special, so let’s not act like spoiled brats.