"Thinkers" or "Makers"?

Design Vs. Design Thinking

THERE SEEMS TO BE A "CIVIL WAR" between the supporters of the view that design thinking (researching on new ideas that would produce breakthrough products and services) is what most of what design is all about, and those who, in a more traditional manner, believe that design is mostly about the process of creating something practical and aesthetically beautiful. The "pure traditionalist point of view" on design is expressed thoroughly in Dan Saffer's post on Adaptive Path blog.

Although we might have heard it before, there is a "golden section" to this issue. There is definitely no civil war between the two approaches, because simply, design involves both "thinking" and "making". If the primary goal of design schools is to prepare students for the competitive market, then focus should be given to both disciplines, but in a balanced way: the first years of college should be slightly focusing on the technical part, leaving the final or graduate years to focus on design thinking. Besides, even while being involved in the actual "making" of design solutions, one obviously is preoccupied with a lot of thinking.

Technical skills, and the ability to "construct" need to be there in order to have ideas and think without limitations. But good design skills, can be proven useless, if the idea is not working...
Generally, lack of either one of these disciplines, can frustrate any designer.
But, who knows; maybe in the future, two kinds of designers will be graduating from design schools: "the thinkers" and the "makers". It all depends on how specialized the market is going to be.