Critical Engineering Manifesto, Tenet 4: "The Critical Engineer looks beyond the 'awe of implementation' to determine methods of influence and their specific effects."
I take this tenet to mean basically "Don't believe the hype." Especially in the tech industry, there's an almost religious obsession with new products and new systems (blockchain, cryptocurrency, machine learning, VR, quantum computing, etc.). Often, despite the novelty of these inventions, the applications they are used for quickly become cliche, and the tech becomes much more important than the project.
I'm glad that I found this advice, and I hope to follow it. I want to be sure that each creative project that I do has a purpose beyond trying out a new piece of technology. I'm also interested in the second half of this tenet; they emphasize influence strongly as if it is the most important aspect of a project. I definitely want to consider influence more, but I don't know if I feel like it should be the top priority.