Introduce Yourself

Connections
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Welcome! We’re glad your here. Please take a moment to introduce yourself by answering the following questions:

  1. What inspired you to join this community?
  2. What is one book you think everyone should read?
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Hi Everyone! I’m excited to be a part of this conversation and can’t wait to meet all our new members.

  1. What inspired me to join this community is the way I’ve seen the established incentive structures across our society creating a black hole of short-termism that seems to be pulling everything towards its event horizon. I am particularly compelled by the impact on science, because I think it will be really hard to solve some of our most pressing societal challenges without major breakthroughs
  2. I think everyone should read Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit. It is a short but beautiful meditation on how to live joyfully in the face of the inherent uncertainty of human life and the impossibility of knowing what fruit our actions will bear over the long horizon
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Hello! I’m very excited to join this community and connect with others who are reimagining the future of science funding.

  1. I joined this community because I believe the major challenges facing our society and our planet call for a fundamental transformation of our institutions. Science is the natural starting point, as its discoveries drive progress across every dimension of our world—from health to the environment. I hope to engage with others who are thinking deeply about the ways in which science and science funding can be reimagined to build a better future.

  2. I think everyone should read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. A classic for a reason, it is a timeless reflection on art, progress, and the nature of human consciousness.

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Hi everyone. I’m Jeff.

I’m thrilled to be part of this community and to meet others who believe science and innovation can—and must—be reimagined in order to confront the challenges we now face (and will face in the future).

  1. A through-line of my work over the past two decades has been a focus on understanding what stops people and systems from realizing their greatest potential. Again and again, I’ve seen that incumbents—whether in startups, investment, or science—dampen possibility through two structural forces that often operate tacitly: what I call ‘over-constraint and overlookedness.’ I’m especially interested in what the future of science might look like when we unleash the power of long-termism and open-ended exploration—i.e., when it is supported with the same intensity and trust we reserve for short-term, goal-bound work.
  2. A book I often recommend is Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned by Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman. It’s a powerful reminder that some types of progress depend not on rigid objectives, but on giving people and ideas the freedom to wander toward discovery.

I’m looking forward to learning from everyone here and seeing what new ideas emerge.

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Hi, everyone! I’m grateful to be here and eager to learn from this thoughtful community.

  1. I joined because I’ve spent my career at the intersection of medicine, public policy, and entrepreneurship—trying to remove barriers to opportunity for families who’ve been left out or left behind. I’ve seen how science and innovation can change lives, but only if we create systems that let good ideas reach the people who need them most. I’m fired up to re-imagine those systems together, and my hope is to help make sure the discoveries that come from Aeon-backed projects reach everyone who needs them.
  2. I love Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It’s the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, one of my early heroes, who built hospitals in the world’s poorest places and never stopped asking what’s possible when we match data with compassion. It’s a reminder that rigorous science and radical empathy can coexist—and that both are needed to heal what’s broken in our world.
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Hello, I’m excited to be a part of this community and conversation!

  1. What drew me to this community are (1) the smart, ambitious, conscious and kind people involved, and (2) the critical mission of channelling more funding to long-term scientific innovation.

  2. One of my favorite books is The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseski, a Buddhist teacher and cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project. Overflowing with wisdom, this book invites more authentic, present and conscious living by getting closer to end of life.

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I am absolutely LOVING the diversity of book recommendations :slight_smile: So excited to put some of these on my list!

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Hey folks! I’m Eliot, and it’s great to learn a bit about all of you!

I currently work in tech, but my background is in wildlife conservation. I spent time in Brazil partnering with NGOs to organize local ranchers, helping them link their land to create corridors for fragmented jaguar populations. That experience highlighted quite clearly for me that long-term survival, whether for species or scientific ideas, depends entirely on aligning the incentives of the people involved. Exploring how we can create better ecosystems for science funding is what inspired me to join this community.

One book I think everyone should read is Winner Take All by Anand Giridharadas. It’s a compelling critique of how we often try to solve problems without changing the underlying power structures that caused them. As an almost unrepentant optimizer, I felt appropriately called out by this book. It’s a great reminder that true impact requires challenging the status quo, not just optimizing it.

(That said, if I had read Mountains Beyond Mountains earlier in my life I would probably currently be trying to be a doctor, so that one is right up at the top for me as well!)

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Hello! I’m delighted to connect with this community.

  1. I’m joining because my life’s passion is to enable others to succeed, and what better way than to support how we reimagine and fund transformational science.

  2. A book I think everyone should read (or re-read) is Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. A reminder that we can find meaning even in the darkest circumstances—useful perspective for anyone committed to long-term work whose impact may not be visible for decades.

Looking forward to learning from all of you.

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Hi all,

I have worked on metascience since 2012 or so. Here’s a (very long!) piece about what I did in philanthropy: Metascience Since 2012: A Personal History - by Stuart Buck Since 2021-22 or so, I’ve been working on Good Science Project, my own non-profit that I launched with support from Patrick Collison of Stripe. Focus is still on improving science (funding, policy, organization, etc.).

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I am a physician-scientist who has been working on implantable and wearable neurotechnology - including implantable brain-computer interfaces- for several decades.

  1. I was inspired to find fellow-thinkers who think deeply and creatively about how to cultivate innovation and science and commercialization to bring new technologies to benefit the wellbeing of human beings and indeed all sentient beings.
  2. I highly recommend “Altruism” by Matthieu Ricard.
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  1. A very wise friend suggested that I investigate and participate.
  2. Goedel, Escher, Bach
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