After listening to an MIT Media Lab conversation last night – I thought it might be a good idea to introduce some of these thought leaders in our world to the young ones amongst us. These are people who are pushing the boundaries in technology, design and arts. They are shaping the future with their vision and leadership. And it’s always a good idea to get to know them and their work for getting a picture of what possibly lies ahead of us and prepare for it. At the end of the day, who does not want to ride the crest of emerging technologies and get his/her hand on the next billion-dollar thing?

So here we go. In this #MLTalk, two of my favourite guys sit together and share some interesting thoughts and insights – Joi Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab and David Kelley the founder of ideo (a top global design consultancy – check this and this for a taster and you won’t regret it!), and more recently the Stanford d.school. His work lays the basis of the design thinking movement, which you can check here.

David Kelly & Joi Ito

I personally love interfaces between different fields and especially cutting edge technologies (that’s like the best place to have those sparks and aha! moments), and the work these two guys do is precisely that!

I encourage you to follow them on twitter, youtube them, and check out their books. Lastly not to leave out Tom, David’s brother who has written a couple of really nice books – I am in the middle of one of these..

Some nuggets from the talk:

‘To bring change – get more people to say I can do that’

This is what drives us at Peshawar 2.0. The can-do mentality. Not to wait for the government, for a political party, or your abbu! Just do it.

‘The government is in the Capital. Don’t wait for it’

Again, do it yourself or at least try.

‘The world is out there, and you have the permission to at least try and change something’

Don’t be part of the problem. Be part of the solution. You don’t need a permission to try!

‘In big organizations, have the guts to propose an ‘experiment’ and then take it back’

Rings a bell? Big organisations? I think it includes our universities.

‘A story is a really good carrier for data’

For the ones already having their hands on a startup. Bring life to the figures and graphs in your pitch with a story.

Let me know what you think of it!

Thought Leaders is a regular series of the Peshawar 2.0 blog where we will introduce you to world class visionaries and leaders.