Yes I am! I had the chance to meet Jason last May at a metascience workshop and learn about his work in this space! He is definitely one of the leaders that comes to mind with regards to progress.
Thank you for this thoughtful recap of the year Jocelynn. While I agree completely that English is a pretty limited language in depth and scope of description (as compared to other forms of communication), I can't help but wonder if the expansion of knowledge through more open-source information might start to open up both linguistic definition and creation, as well as more advocacy for funding in the coming years from the public? It will be interesting to see if NASA's "2023 Year of Open Science" will helps start to move this needle more to the positive for expansion of knowledge? As the saying goes.. if they can read it will they come (and fund)?
I'm curious if you have seen good summaries of what causes the Valley of Death and what can and is already being done about it (if something is to be done about it).
Hi Gary! Thank you for your comment. I have been giving it some thought, and I don't think there are enough summaries of what happens in the Valley of Death. There is of course, the paper I cited, but I think more can be elucidated about this challenging space. I've been reading the new book about biotech and BTK inhibitors by Nathan Vardi For Blood and Money. Aspects of the story communicate the challenges of Phase 1-3 trials, trial design, and battling failure in the clinic. The author also goes into particular people and the type of work they do that can make something a success (like all the regulatory documentation required, some of which was done by Raquel Izumi in this case). I'd love to see more people being transparent about their co's process, hurdles and how they overcame these to get drugs approved - that's why I think bringing the 'building in public' or working in public meme to biotech could be really powerful!
Hi Robert. I love this point about an even more pessimistic perspective. I think it gets into some of the 'comfort crisis' style arguments and disease of lifestyle like you point out, and I generally find it fascinating how these things make our lives worse and how we react to that (often by introducing more risk; supplanting things like violence/war with things like mountaineering). It is also fair to question cycles as a better framing. Fun ideas to think about. Thank you for sharing here.
are you familiar with roots of progress/in contact with jason? (https://rootsofprogress.org/)
they are doing some of this work
Yes I am! I had the chance to meet Jason last May at a metascience workshop and learn about his work in this space! He is definitely one of the leaders that comes to mind with regards to progress.
Thank you for this thoughtful recap of the year Jocelynn. While I agree completely that English is a pretty limited language in depth and scope of description (as compared to other forms of communication), I can't help but wonder if the expansion of knowledge through more open-source information might start to open up both linguistic definition and creation, as well as more advocacy for funding in the coming years from the public? It will be interesting to see if NASA's "2023 Year of Open Science" will helps start to move this needle more to the positive for expansion of knowledge? As the saying goes.. if they can read it will they come (and fund)?
Love this, Jocelynn.
I'm curious if you have seen good summaries of what causes the Valley of Death and what can and is already being done about it (if something is to be done about it).
Hi Gary! Thank you for your comment. I have been giving it some thought, and I don't think there are enough summaries of what happens in the Valley of Death. There is of course, the paper I cited, but I think more can be elucidated about this challenging space. I've been reading the new book about biotech and BTK inhibitors by Nathan Vardi For Blood and Money. Aspects of the story communicate the challenges of Phase 1-3 trials, trial design, and battling failure in the clinic. The author also goes into particular people and the type of work they do that can make something a success (like all the regulatory documentation required, some of which was done by Raquel Izumi in this case). I'd love to see more people being transparent about their co's process, hurdles and how they overcame these to get drugs approved - that's why I think bringing the 'building in public' or working in public meme to biotech could be really powerful!
Make sense! Thanks for explaining.
Hi Robert. I love this point about an even more pessimistic perspective. I think it gets into some of the 'comfort crisis' style arguments and disease of lifestyle like you point out, and I generally find it fascinating how these things make our lives worse and how we react to that (often by introducing more risk; supplanting things like violence/war with things like mountaineering). It is also fair to question cycles as a better framing. Fun ideas to think about. Thank you for sharing here.