Scott Wagers
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scottwagers.bsky.social
Scott Wagers
@scottwagers.bsky.social
MD/Scientist drawing from experience supporting the development of more than 60+ consortium projects to write about science and finding meaningful work through big projects.
Our ability to collaborate determines the scope of what we achieve.

Multi-party collaborations are where the greatest and most meaningful achievements happen. 🧵
April 25, 2025 at 12:50 PM
This is what science is about:

"We all pitch in to hunt down the knowledge that can’t be found any other way. We don’t seek the knowledge that will turn us a profit tomorrow—that’s what businesses are for—but the knowledge that will support a permanently better life."
- Adam Mastroianni
April 20, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Scott Wagers
If you want to find meaning, the fastest hack is to get involved in a big project.

Getting involved in a big project not only gives you a'Why', it also provides the 'What', and the 'How'.
March 29, 2025 at 10:33 PM
If you want to find meaning, the fastest hack is to get involved in a big project.

Getting involved in a big project not only gives you a'Why', it also provides the 'What', and the 'How'.
March 29, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Average people do make plans.

Smart people do build systems.

Here's how to become one of the smart ones.
🔹Engage in at least one big project
🔹Throw out the plans
🔹Start that project with an adaptive development phase
🔹Build and iterate systems
March 28, 2025 at 3:37 PM
This is why your big project isn't working.

You are holding onto the security blanket of a detailed project plan.

Big projects are about an adaptive, iterative mindset.
March 27, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Small project thinking does not work for big projects.

When you think about it, its obstacles and opposition that hold back the big projects that you care about the most.

Yet nicely formatted milestones or deliverable do nothing to help you overcome unexpected obstacles and opposition.
March 21, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Forget about milestones.

If you are focusing on milestones in big projects you are getting it wrong.
March 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM
The beauty of a complex, ambitious project:

🔹You don't know where you will end up,

🔹You don't know how you will get there,

🔹But if you build your big project as a inter-connected network of repeatable systems it will nearly risk free.
March 18, 2025 at 8:21 PM
On the other side of conflict is rapid progress.

When you find yourself dancing with conflict:

🔹don't get personal

Do get curious about why.

🔹Why do they think that way?

Plumb the depths of conflict to find the common ground.

Its always there.

Conflict can be a gushing source of creativity.
March 17, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Scott Wagers
"Keep it simple stupid!" is simply wrong.

By keeping it simple we will never fulfil our potential.

What most people don't realize is that a big project designed well is completely risk free.

www.thebigprojectcollective.com/p/big-projec...
Big Projects, Big Fear, Big Fulfillment:
How Big, Messy Projects Create the Kind of Transformation Small Wins Never Will
www.thebigprojectcollective.com
March 17, 2025 at 9:52 AM
"Keep it simple stupid!" is simply wrong.

By keeping it simple we will never fulfil our potential.

What most people don't realize is that a big project designed well is completely risk free.

www.thebigprojectcollective.com/p/big-projec...
Big Projects, Big Fear, Big Fulfillment:
How Big, Messy Projects Create the Kind of Transformation Small Wins Never Will
www.thebigprojectcollective.com
March 17, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by Scott Wagers
Want to work in one of the most dynamic places in mathematical biology - in one of the oldest universities in the world - great colleagues, great science.
We are excited to announce a new faculty position here in Cambridge, for researchers in computational and/or theoretical biology, based jointly in Genetics and Mathematics. Come and join us! Happy to answer questions about research, teaching and working here. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50414/
Assistant/Associate Professor in Computational Biology - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Assistant/Associate Professor in Computational Biology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
February 21, 2025 at 7:21 PM
You may doubt whether it is worth it to attempt to secure substantial funding for your medical research.

The benefits of substantial funding outweigh the risks.

Let me break them down for you: 🧵
February 22, 2025 at 10:04 AM
You may doubt whether it is worth it to attempt to secure substantial funding for your medical research.

The benefits outweigh the risks.

Let me break it down for you.

Here are 8 benefits: 🧵
February 22, 2025 at 9:57 AM
All successful researchers know the impact their research is having.

Here is a radical, but logical idea.

Grant applications should be evaluated first by just a short impact statement of the investigators.

What is an alternative to impact factor?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGuk...
Randy Schekman, medicine laureate 2013: A proposal for how to evaluate researchers
YouTube video by Nobel Prize
www.youtube.com
February 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM
"Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated."
Albert Einstein

Maybe its time to make that community visible.
February 15, 2025 at 8:12 PM
When you lead with them, questions function like an API that allows you to access the thinking of those around you.
February 7, 2025 at 8:23 AM
When you lead with them, questions function like an API that allows you to access the thinking of those around you.
February 7, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Often research is designed with a process that excludes stakeholder involvement.

For example:
February 6, 2025 at 9:18 AM
"In this group I feel like a colleague, and that is how it should be."

This was Jonathan Clark @jonathanjonl.bsky.social a patient stakeholder who life was saved by CAR-T therapy referring to the T2EVOLVE consortium.

Here is why this is important:
February 5, 2025 at 11:11 AM
11 sentences about medical science that right now we all need to reminded about:
February 3, 2025 at 4:23 PM
IBD is a disease that is in need of more than just reactive management.

People with IBD need something more than reactive life long treatment

They need.... 🧵
January 27, 2025 at 8:45 PM
When there is dubious or fraudulent research published we should condemn the responsible researchers not science.

Research that is not scientific is not science.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...
Opinion | The Long Shadow of Fraud in Alzheimer’s Research
Fraud in research needs to end.
www.nytimes.com
January 24, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Scott Wagers
Carl Sagan on the magic of reading.
January 5, 2025 at 1:46 PM