Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

Key Takeaways

Uncertainty

We try to make certain the things that are uncertain. If you stick to the familiar, you won’t find the unexpected.

• Known knows. The thinks we know we know.
• Known unknowns. The things we know we don’t know.
• Unknown unknowns. The things we don’t know we don’t know.
• Unknown knowns. The things we think we know, but we don’t actually know.

Reasoning from First Principles

Conventional, thinking leads to conventional results.

Process doesn't solve future problems. Process is by definition focused on what has already happened. It was developed to solve yesterday's problems. If we don’t question it process can actually impede forward movement.

Uncertainty vs Certainty

In conditions of uncertainty, we tend to copy the patterns of competitors assuming they know something we don’t. This may work in the short term, but it recipe for long term disaster. Overtime, imitation makes the original obsolete. You can’t copy and paste some else’s path to success. Warren Buffet said the most dangerous words in business are, “everyone else is doing it”. It creates a crowded center where the competition is high, rather than operating on the fringes where the competition is thin.

Destruction alone isn’t enough. If you tear down a factory, only to rebuild it using the same fundamental think that got it there, then you’ll end up with the same results. Changing underlying thought requires hiring the right kind of people. People who think by first principles, rather than the invisible rules that govern your industry.

Occam’s Razor for Simplicity

The most elegant solutions (David Murray) use the least amount of components to solve the greatest number of problems. Every time you introduce complexity into a system, you’re giving it more chance to fail. Simplicity isn’t easy.  Alinea Atkins: We start by asking what can we add to make it better. Eventually, you arrive at what can we take away?

Deep Thinking is Critical

We can generate breakthroughs simply by thinking. No Google. No focus groups. No self-help groups. External search for answers impedes first principles thinking, by focusing on how things are, rather than how they could be.  Einstein: Pure thought can grasp reality, it show how things will or will not work, it can show the way forward. Curiosity is a critical thing in thought experiments.

In our modern world of “move fast and break things”, curiosity can seem like an unnecessary thing. Answers are efficient, they are a life hack that illuminate the path forward and help us keep up the hustle. Questions are seen as inefficient. Typically, employees are rewarded for staying the course, rather than having curiosity. “Innovations” aren’t really innovative at all, they are best minor iterations on what’s already existing.

You can’t generate breakthroughs while cleaning out your inbox. It takes thinking time to perform thought experiments.

Play and intelligence should be complementary. Play can be a portal to intelligence. “The Technology of Foolishness” James March. Playfulness is a deliberate temporary relaxation of rules to explore possible of alternative rules.

Use thought experiments. They can create fantasies, but fantasies can be paths to reality. It keeps your mind receptive to new ideas.

Boredom

Boredom is important. Large chunks of unstructured time, free of distractions. Daydreaming and free thinking is becoming rare with ever present notifications and media. We prefer the certainty of distractions to the uncertainty of boredom. We self-soothe with the distractions that make us feel worse. Without boredom, creativity begins to atrophy because of lack of use.

“Drowning in formation, while starving for wisdom.” - E.O. Wilson

“My first thought is never my best thought, it’s someone else’s thought, always what I’ve already heard about the subject, it’s conventional thinking.” - William Burroughs

Falling into boredom allows our brain to fall into diffused thinking. In boredom, your brain uses almost the same amount of energy as when you’re focused on something else. This is how revelations and epiphanies happen.

Incubation periods (time spent stuck on a problem) boost your ability to solve a problem. People who always work together, or always work alone are less successful that people who carve out times of solo focused work, then come together at intervals to collaborate.

Problems

A problem well defined is a problem half solved. Problems usually have solutions embedded in them so be careful how you frame the problem. Rather than figuring out how to build a better landing device they asked how to defeat gravity.

Tactics vs Strategy

Mistaking tactics for strategy. Often times we fall in love with our solutions, and then reframe the problem as the absence of our solution. Breakthroughs do not begin with a smart answer they begin with a smart question.