Think Like a Rocket Scientist By Ozan Varol : Book Review

The book covers important pointers to think like a rocket scientist viz:-

• Imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable
• Transform failures into triumphs and constraints into advantages
• View mishaps as solvable puzzles
• Focus on long term results
• Challenge the status-quo

It's important to understand the mental model/first, as the same model will apply in different life stages which can be compared to launch, acceleration and final landing of a rocket.

Following pointers will help you in stage One:-

• By sticking to the familiar, you won't find the unexpected- One way to do it by conducting imaginative though experiments.
• Once you lift up the curtain and turn the unknown unknowns into known unknowns, you defang them.
• Unless you consider the best-case scenario along with the worst, your brain will steer you towards the safest path - i.e. Inaction
• Building redundancy is important- How will you deal with the loss of a valuable team member?
• Process, by definition is backward looking- Always question if we own the process or the process owns us. Go for the moonshot you don't think you will achieve.
• Risking your significance will help you discover your new self- Merck came up with "kill the company" exercise where he put company executives to pay role of companies competitor and generate ideas to put them our of business. Bezos also follows similar approach.
• The simplest solution to a problem is the correct one- This principle is called occam's razor. NASA spent a decade and millions of dollars developing a ballpoint pen that would work in zero gravity and extreme temperatures. The soviets used pencil.
• Get bored more often- It switches your brain from the focussed to the diffused mode of thinking. As the saying goes that its the silence between the notes that makes the music.
• Comparing Apples and Oranges- Its easier to think outside the box when you are playing multiple boxes. This idea is called combinatory play. It requires exposing yourself to coalition of ideas, seeing the similar in the dissimilar. The more diverse your collection, the more interesting your output becomes. pick up a magazine or book about a subject you know nothing about. Attend a different industry conference.
• In the beginners mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few- It was a beginner who created billion dollar author JK Rowling. All publishing houses declined it till it landed with Nigel Newton, the chairman of Bloomsbury publishing. His secret was his eaght year old daughter who read it in one go and asked for more. It was his willingness to get opinion of his daughter- an outsider to the publishing industry, but a member of the target audience of the group
• Important to take moonshots- Bezos said " Given a ten percent chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time". Always embrace the far fetched. Space-X scientists do "Bad-idea brainstorm" and Amazon does backcasting as a thought experiment

The second stage of the group covers process to the propel the ideas you devised in the first stage

• Its important to search for better question instead of a better answer- When we are familiar with a problem, and when we think we have the right answer, we stop seeing the alternatives. This tendency is called einstellung effect. When we reframe a question- we change our method of questioning- we have power to change the answers.
• Don't lose sight of Strategy over tactics and tools- Author has given interesting example of five dollar challenge to put forward this point.
• Invert, always invert - You cannot beat a stronger competitor by copying them but by doing the opposite.
• Every no brings us closer to truth - Progress occurs when we generate negative outcomes by trying to rebut rather than confirm our initial hunch. If we don't prove ourselves wrong, others will do it for us.
• Stress-test your opinions - This will help see your blind spots. It's important to expose yourself to environments where your opinions are challenged. Building mental model of your adversary is an interesting concept.
• Test as you fly, fly as you test - A medication may deliver terrific results on its own but prove lethal when it interacts with other drugs, individually talented athletes may function horribly when assembled as a team. Follow old adage "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war"

The third and final stage unlocks your full potential and would include both failure and success:

• Nothing succeeds like failure- The goal isn't to fail fast but to learn fast.
• Delaying gratification
• Inputs over outputs - By taking the pressure off the outcome, you get better at your craft. Success becomes a consequence, not the goal.
• Flying blind - Failures transmit invaluable signal and your goal should be to pick up these signals before your competitor. Also uncoupling of fear and failure is important as reporting mistakes/failures leads to better outcomes. Googles's moonshot factory X rewards its team to kill their own project. Reward excellent failures, punish mediocre successes.
• Success is wolf in sheep's clothing - We often fail to account the role of luck in our triumph.
• Pay attention to near misses - Postmortems should follow both failure and success. Ask " what went wrong with this success?"
• Pre-mortem - In a pre-mortem, we travel forward in time and setup a thought experiment where we assume the project failed. We then step back and ask, "What went wrong?" It increases our ability to determine the reasons for a future outcome. It forces you to think about what could go wrong before you act. Also these pre-mortems should be compiled and easily accessible to all.
• Don't confuse symptom with a cause

This book has lot of interesting examples like in every annual letter to Amazon shareholders, Jeff Bezos includes same cryptic line: " It remains Day 1"

To understand that you have to read and re-read the book time and again.

Would love to know your learnings.

https://amzn.to/42ENuKW via @amazon

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