Ted Talks is a great way to learn about all sorts of different things, anything from web design to science to religion. A particular video struck my eye called, “Want to Innovate? Become a ‘now-ist'” by the Director of the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito.
Joi Ito is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist focused on internet and technology companies. He has impressive credentials, being a board member for companies like Sony and The New York Times while writing editorials and starting businesses. He was also an early investor in startups like Kickstarter and Twitter! There’s no denying that Joi Ito knows what he’s talking about when it comes to entrepreneurship. He also studied at two colleges at one time (who does that?!) but, never finished either of his degrees. Check out his full bio here @ Joi Ito.
In his video he talks about how before the internet (what he calls B.I) it was very difficult to innovate and invent new things, you needed all sorts of capital, resources, and time. Now, it’s a completely different story. For those of you who want to start your own business, he has some advice for you. “Become a now-ist”.
Instead of trying to predict the future, as did many scientists before the internet, focus on the now. Don’t worry so much about planning everything out, don’t feel like you need to map out how everything will go. In real time, that’s not how it works. You solve problems as they arise and invent new ways to prevent them from happening instead of spending hours working to prevent the problem in the first place and creating a new, different issue. We don’t need to wait for large institutions to come out with new ideas, we can create them ourselves.
He says, “So I think the good news is that even though the world is extremely complex, what you need to do is very simple. I think it’s about stopping this notion that you need to plan everything, you need to stock everything, and you need to be so prepared, and focus on being connected, always learning, fully aware, and super present.”
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