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Curiosity, creativity, and failure are not detours—they’re teachers.

In this episode of Pebbles of Light, Anne Maxson sits down with engineer, artist, educator, and startup founder Oliver MacDonald to explore how curiosity across disciplines—art, engineering, language, and culture—shapes meaningful lives and resilient careers.

Oliver shares how growing up immersed in multiple cultures and languages, studying in the International Baccalaureate program, and pursuing both art and engineering taught him to embrace failure as part of learning. From rock climbing and kinetic sculptures to rejected research papers and startup life, Oliver reframes failure not as an endpoint, but as fuel for growth.

This conversation invites listeners to rethink specialization, embrace experimentation, and recognize how creativity—especially art—helps us stay connected to our humanity even in uncertain or demanding seasons of life.

Choose one interest you’ve been curious about and commit to exploring it for just one month—without worrying about mastery or outcomes. Pay attention to what draws you back.

Topics Covered

• Why curiosity matters more than early specialization
• The role of failure in engineering, art, and life
• How International Baccalaureate education encourages integration
• Rock climbing as a metaphor for growth
• Art as proof of humanity
• Learning through rejection and iteration
• Language, culture, and how we think
• Building startups through collaboration
• The power of relationships as “Pebbles of Light”

Guest

Oliver MacDonald — Engineer, artist, educator, PhD student, and co-founder of Qtex AI

Follow & Connect with Oliver

Instagram – ⁠https://www.instagram.com/anomalous_designs/?hl=en⁠ 

LinkedIn – ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivermacd/⁠ 

Want to be a guest on Pebbles of Light? Send Anne Maxson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.p

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