Noubar Afeyan on the Permission to Leap
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
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Summary
"The world of innovation is very much one of toggling between survival and then thriving," says Noubar Afeyan. Co-founder of Moderna and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, the biomedical innovator, philanthropist, and entrepreneur credits his successes to his "paranoid optimism" shaped by his experiences as an Armenian-American. Exceptional achievements like the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine, he believes, aren't usually unpredictable but rather the result of systematic processes that include embracing unreasonable propositions and even unreasonable people.
He joined Tyler to discuss which aspect of entrepreneurship is hardest to teach, his predictions on the future of gene editing and CRISPR technology, why the pharmaceutical field can't be winner takes all, why "basic research" is a poor term, the secret to Boston's culture of innovation, the potential of plant biotech, why Montreal is (still) a special place to him, how his classical pianist mother influenced his musical tastes, his discussion-based approach to ethical dilemmas, how thinking future-backward shapes his approach to business and philanthropy, the blessing and curse of Lebanese optimism, the importance of creating a culture where people can say things that are wrong, what we can all learn by being an American by choice, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded January 6th, 2021
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:08.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. |
| 0:12.5 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:15.2 | And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit |
| 0:20.4 | ConversationsWithT Tyler.com. |
| 0:25.5 | Hello everyone and welcome back to Conversations with Tyler. |
| 0:29.2 | We are recording on Armenian Christmas Day with Nubar Afayan. |
| 0:34.0 | He is founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, but these days, perhaps best known as co-founder |
| 0:39.8 | and chairman of the Board of Moderna, which has produced one of the two best anti-COVID |
| 0:44.4 | vaccines in the world. |
| 0:46.0 | Nubar, welcome. |
| 0:47.8 | Welcome. |
| 0:49.0 | We say Shnurao Zunund, that's Merry Christmas, in Armenian, and we celebrate this day as our |
| 0:54.6 | Christmas. |
| 0:55.6 | A very simple question to start. |
| 0:58.0 | Which aspect of entrepreneurship is hardest to teach to other people? |
| 1:02.6 | The fact that it is a combination of mindsets and beliefs as opposed to a birthright and |
| 1:11.9 | connections. |
| 1:13.1 | And how did you learn how to teach that? |
| 1:15.7 | By putting myself in the shoes of the students and imagining what I would have wanted to know |
| 1:23.2 | before I launched down a path of doing entrepreneurship and as professional as a way as I could fathom? |
| 1:30.9 | Because I also think that generally the field believes that entrepreneurship is condemned |
... |
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