Maeda was a professor at the MIT Media Lab, a designer fluent in both art and technology. His first experience with management, however,
It was very painful, because, you know, when you're a maker, you can make things. You can take a piece of paper, or you can fold it, you can crumple it, you can draw a line. You have such agency. When you're a leader, you have very little agency.He decided to get an MBA after
a CFO type person at MIT said to me, “Well, John, you're a creative person, so don't worry about the money.”At Automattic, Maeda travels to places like Appalachia or Detroit, where small businesses need help crossing the digital divide.
And this was the third person that told me that in my life. And after someone tells you, “don't worry about something,” you start worrying about it, right.
People say to me, “Well John it's so good you're helping those people.” And I say, “No, I'm not helping them. I'm getting some of my ignorance addressed because I've lost track of why you need these things.…Can I ensure that the service is designed so they will actually get that benefit they think they're going to get?
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