Think Like a Rocket Scientist: a review

I don’t remember how I stumbled across Ozan Varol and his newsletter, but it’s been one of the few I’ve stuck with. He’s witty, he’s clear, he always has provocative ideas. (Full disclosure: I was featured on the Contrarian section of his website a couple of years ago.)

Naturally I pre-ordered his book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist, as soon as he announced it, and I am pleased to be able to say that 1) it’s a great read; and 2) it’s a super guide to planning and taking risks while minimizing those risks.

Lichtenbergians will see a lot they recognize in TLRS. Whenever I read a book on divergent thinking, I notate the margins with the Nine Precepts as they show up, and they always do. After all, Lichtenbergianism is not new — it’s just the creative process put another way. I found constant analogues to the way Lichtenbergians MAKE THE THING THAT IS NOT in Varol’s ideas.

Of course, Varol is not talking to artists necessarily in this book. His target audience — and his examples — are drawn from the worlds of business and (obviously) NASA. He outlines the strategies of successful NASA/business ventures in very simple terms, and he explores their failures in the same terms.

What new things did I learn from TLRS? Two things from the last section: when you evaluate your successes, include where it could have all crashed and burned; and “premortem” your moonshots by planning all the ways it might crash and burn.

In other words, if you succeed, don’t shove the mishaps and lucky breaks down the memory hole. Learn from them. And planning your failures ahead of time can help you avoid them. Kind of “Those who fail to plan to fail, fail.” Or something like that.

Highly recommended.