Yep, I second this. Don Norman really and truly understood the user in the deepest way. It’s hard to find people like him who put their entire consciousness in the shoes of the user, simulate what the user goes through when interacting with the world and provide insights about how, we the designers, on the opposite aisle think about design as not some aesthetic shit but as a tool to solve problems.
Design and designers, vast majority of them are chasing aesthetics and trends. Just go on Behance to see it for yourself.
That's about as accurate a judgment on designers as calling programmers "code monkeys."
Follow a couple designers on Twitter for a few weeks and you're almost guaranteed to see someone quote Steve Jobs saying "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
To be fair, most programmers are code monkeys. But that's true for most people in any profession. It's not a fair comparison to compare the average worker to workers of excellence.
Design and designers, vast majority of them are chasing aesthetics and trends. Just go on Behance to see it for yourself.