Aeon in Motion
- Team of Active Contributors Growing: Our efforts to transform the Project from a small ideation group into a bigger movement of passionate builders is bearing fruit. As they say, many hands make light work, and with aspirations as big as ours, many hands are needed. We're still looking for more builders who aren't afraid of the messiness of an early Project and who passionately believe in accelerating science and innovation for global impact. If you know someone who fits this bill, please have a conversation with them about Aeon and/or introduce them to us!
- Sourcing Strategy Taking Shape: With the investment thesis largely set, we have turned our attention toward building a playbook for how Aeon will go out and find the 'right' scientists to support. This has been divided into two funnel-like stages: (i) Sourcing and (ii) Evaluation and Selection. Dealing with such a funnel is no small matter, given that the universe of potential scientists (just in the US) numbers >100,000 (on the low end). But we're making progress on defining the 'right' way to do this that will best support Aeon's Purpose, Mission and Values. We're actively conducting lessons-learned interviews with organizations that have proven track records of selection and evaluation success—if you know someone to interview, please let us know.
- Legal Advisor and Next Steps Determined: While we can't yet announce who this is, we're excited to be moving forward with a law group that we think is as passionate and innovative as we are. Other organizations that decided 'standard' legal structures couldn't fit their needs have had trouble, so we are glad to have some of the best minds in this realm in our corner.
From the Roundtable
This week's Roundtable discussion focused on getting to know new Aeon contributors, as well as on our culture, operating system and finalizing the details of the upcoming Offsite. Some highlights included:
- Our early efforts to build robust tooling and operating systems are starting to pay off by allowing us to rapidly bring new contributors on board.
- Getting communication 'right' is a never-ending challenge, has already evolved, and will continue to as we grow. Even so, we aim to remain true to our guiding philosophies of protecting/maximizing deep work, avoiding excessive work-about-work, being mindful about when to work synchronously vs. asynchronously, and keeping communication and content as close to the source as possible.
The Idea Garden
Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation | NBER
Not a new paper, but this work by Bell, Chetty et al is critical to understanding how a lack of equal opportunity in the world of innovation is almost certainly dampening the overall innovativeness of the USA—and, unfortunately, a once-again-timely revelation given recent policy changes. Some of the stats inside are stunning—including that "Math test scores in 3rd grade are highly predictive of patent rates..."!
In Charts: Like Einstein, Global Inventors Bring Big Ideas Across Borders | Working Knowledge
A series of charts illustrate the evidence that not only do innovators flourish when crossing borders, but that the knock-on effects of those movements are widespread and highly beneficial.
‘The Interview’: Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives - The New York Times
It's certainly not new to suggest that our 'best and brightest' ought to be doing more important work—in the aughts, the zeitgeist was that too many were heading to Wall Street; in the teens, too many to digital companies focused on 'likes.' Nonetheless, we agree with the premise of this interview: there is so much important work to be done, and no better time than now to do it.
Is the U.S. in a "high-level equilibrium trap"?
As at least one of us has noted in the past, there are unspoken, underlying dynamics that might just add some rationality to the otherwise strikingly foolhardy negative sentiments—concerning investment in science and R&D, climate change, EVs, sustainable energy (the list goes on)—that seem to be gaining steam. This piece from Noahopinion lays out a comprehensive case for why this might be, and just how dangerous it is.
Thanks for reading.
For all people, all species, and our planet,
Project Aeon
PS: What is Project Aeon? Project Aeon advances critical scientific missions by funding paradigm-shifting research overlooked by today’s short-term, risk-averse system. We exist to restore the freedom and patience that once fueled discoveries by Darwin, Curie, and Planck. Instead of rewarding only what's fast and familiar, we back bold, long-horizon inquiry with deep belief. We marry capital stewardship, equitable talent discovery, and community-building to unlock breakthroughs that benefit all people, all species, and the planet.