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The idea that it's better to just do something quickly and learn from mistakes, rather than take your time, get a lot of good advice, and do it right, seems ver

The idea that it's better to just do something quickly and learn from mistakes, rather than take your time, get a lot of good advice, and do it right, seems very accepted but I think it is not always generalizable. In particular, in biotech the cost of a failed experiment is much higher and one poorly designed experiment can kill a company. It's best to get an advisory board with relevant yet diverse experiences to really dig through the details of the experimental design and critically think about what you do and don't know about the biology I know a few biotech founders who have the tech startup mindset of just getting some money and rushing into an experiment, except they need $200k and 6 months for that experiment. If you realize three months in when it's too late to stop that one of your assumptions was wrong, or you used the wrong model, that's a terrible feeling

akharris 8y ago
There's certainly a significant amount of context dependence on the amount of advice that's "right" for any given situation. I think the important thing is to make sure you know that there is an "enough" rather than endlessly chase more.
- everythingswan 8y ago
  Well put. There's probably a theory that better explains this, but I think of it as getting to 60%. How can I get to 60% certainty without wasting too much time? I'll never get to 100% (likely not even the 60% I think I am getting to) but how can I uncover just enough information to feel confidence in my decision? (edit: to add the "?") The rest is just assessing past decisions and asking the same questions until we get satisfied with the result.