I didn’t know who Joi Ito was until reading about his appointment to head the MIT Media Labs. Now he’s someone I want to learn more about. I am fascinated by folks who can design their lives to maintain and chase their curiosity, engaging in career discovery instead of slavishly following a playlist, and Ito sounds like one of these few folks. In his career, he has been a self-directed learner, entrepreneur, investor, activist, head of a non-profit, and now academic lord, and many others things in many places along the way. I like the quote below:
“You embrace serendipity and you pivot as you go along this longer term arc. That’s the way I have lived my life. I’ve jumped around in terms of career and geography.”
On Ito’s leadership qualities, Nicholas Negroponte says:
“Joi is very good at enabling others. I’ve never met a 44-year-old who is able to enable others in this way. Most people who are at that age are into themselves and their career.”
