Would you use Drug Discovery emojis? I just did.

Praveen Tipirneni
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Emojis are a hyper-addictive ­millennials language, possibly even the 1st globally universal language. They convey emotions; concepts; intended meaning in a way that words — even a 1000 — can’t.

Dune represented in emojis — Kyle Maclachlan tweet

Business = ambiguity.

Drug Discovery & Development = even more ambiguity

Do you put a deadline on Discovery projects? Put it too early and you’ll have a sub-optimal choices; too late and you’re working on doomed projects. There’s an ambiguous tradeoff that needs to be managed.

Though modern management has developed a range of analytical tools to create structure, most are reductionist in nature — converting situations and scenarios to modular legos.

These are often represented more effectively in a holistic manner. Our non-linear intuition can then kick in and rapidly shortcut understanding.

How many scientists say we don’t emphasize intuition enough in Drug Discovery? A lot.

An encyclopedia of drug discovery emojis or perhaps more generally, management emojis, would enable teams — often multicultural and diverse — to sync meaning. Improve communication. Facilitate decision making.

What emojis would you create? Which situations would you represent?

Once there is a quorum, we can upload to iMessage app store.

Here’s one that immediately comes to mind. Everyone can relate to this.

Proposed emoji #1 — Knowledge and Truth is relative to what you’re seeing

Most of us have heard the old Hindu parable of Six Blind Men and the Elephant. Each one touches a different part and the men are not able to synthesize their views and realize they’re all collectively touching an elephant.

In many cases, we are not disagreeing. Each of us is seeing just a part of the whole and not realizing it.

How would we use this emoji in communications?

There are some examples below how this emoji would be included in electronic communications to reflect overall intent.

Praveen Tipirneni

Written by

CEO at Morphic Therapeutic | Battle of the Bugs at Cubist Pharmaceuticals | Climb, Run, Bike, Swim | www.morphictx.com

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