2min snip

#364: Safi Bahcall — On Thinking Big, Curing Cancer, and Transforming Industries

The Tim Ferriss Show

notes

NOTE

Are the Incentives Right?

"What are people's individual incentives the people who're involved in the decision? So few people ask that question," he says. "The real key is, as you sort of said with luck an cards, you want to do this for not just for failures... You might have just gotten lucky."

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Transcript

Episode notes

“All these things you’re sure are true — what if they weren’t?”

— Safi Bahcall

Safi Bahcall (@SafiBahcall) is the author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries. Loonshots describes what an idea from physics tells us about the behavior of groups and how teams, companies, and nations can use that to innovate faster and better. It has been selected for The Washington Post‘s 10 Leadership Books to Watch for in 2019, Inc.‘s 10 Business Books You Need to Read in 2019, and Business Insider‘s 14 Books Everyone Will Be Reading in 2019.

Safi received his PhD in physics from Stanford and his undergrad degree from Harvard. After working as a consultant for McKinsey, Safi co-founded a biotechnology company specializing in developing new drugs for cancer. He led its IPO and served as its CEO for 13 years. In 2008, Safi was named Ernst and Young’s New England Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2011, he worked with President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on the future of national research.

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