We spotted an interesting interview with Joi Of Neoteny Labs Speaks on his new role at the MIT Media Lab. Here are a few snippets from his interview in the Asian Scientist.
You have spawned a long list of successful initiatives that include Creative Commons, Technocrati, Flickr and Mozilla Foundation. You obviously have an eye for online media. Do you have any words of advice for start-ups such as Asian Scientist Magazine?
I didn’t actually start most of those projects, but I do have advice for start-ups. I think it is very important to understand what sort of differentiators you, your region and your network has, and focus on trying to figure out how to leverage that. Also, most start-ups fail, not because they don’t have an interesting product, but because they don’t get distribution – they can’t attract users.
Make sure you have a distribution plan. Also, launch early and talk about your work. Reid Hoffman often says that if you’re not embarrassed by your first launch, you’ve launched too late. He has a famous line, “Don’t ‘ready, aim, fire’. Instead, ‘almost ready, aim, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire.”
You mentioned previously that surrounding yourself with smart people stimulates your thinking. Where do you derive inspiration from, and who are your role models?
I derive my inspiration from my interactions with people and their interactions with other people. These people also make things, do things and impact the world around us. Being a part of a global network of active, learning and inspired people is my goal and my source of inspiration and energy. I find role model behavior everywhere I look – almost every single person that I meet has something that I can learn from or be inspired by. Having said that, there are people who have had more influence on me than others, but I have dozens of extremely important mentors and not a single one.
The Media Lab is an unusual place, in that it is a hybrid of art and science. Does science & technology complement and enhance the arts? If so, what significance does that type of research have for MIT?
I believe that the arts allow us to think about and explore science and technology in extremely creative ways – extending the models, frameworks and tools in ways that researchers and engineers wouldn’t naturally try. I think the arts are an essential component of the creative exploration of any scientific and technical area, and that the relationship with the deep and rigorous academic side can be extremely fruitful.
Read the full interview here.
