Think Like a Rocket Scientist

January 20, 2020
Aerospace engineer Varol examines the methods and strategies found in rocket science and applies them to everyday life in his charming debut. Looking for parallels between scientific breakthroughs and achieving personal
success, he begins with “launch,” instructing readers to harness the power of uncertainty and ignite breakthroughs with thought experiments, while also counseling not to be afraid of the unknown. He suggests writing out concerns and uncertainties to ratchet down stress levels, comparing “redundancies” within space missions to personal situations by asking questions such as “what will you do if your household loses a source of income? The system must be designed to continue operating even if a component fails.” Next, to “accelerate,” he offers strategies to propel ideas, including trying to prove oneself wrong in order to find what’s right, and experimenting to give an idea maximum potential. Such strategies lead to inspired inventions, of which he provides many examples, such as the “Embrace infant warmer,” which has upped survival rates of premature babies in third-world countries. In his third stage, “achieve,” he reinforces the idea that experimenting and failing is preferable to always taking a proven path. Smart and witty, Varol’s masterful analysis explains complicated scientific principles and connects them to ordinary life for a mainstream audience.

An astrophysicist who helped land Mars rovers shares some tips for launching your own big project. Varol's polymathic background--rocket scientist, law professor, public speaker--makes him an engaging guide for this book, which cannily blends memoir, pop science, and self-help manual. Many of his insights come directly from his experience at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working on the team that successfully landed two rovers on Mars in 2003. For instance, the plan to send two rovers instead of one speaks to the need for redundancies in a process; the use of inflatable balloons to land the rovers spotlights how effective solutions require escaping we've-always-done-it-this-way mindsets. Throughout, the book is peppered with counterintuitive but sensible commentaries about working with teams, testing rigorously, and embracing failures. "We must expose ourselves to failure regularly," he writes. "Each crisis becomes training for the next one." Varol thoughtfully selects his anecdotes from outside his own experience, with a mind toward showing how even the brightest scientists can slip into complacency. The Challenger and Columbia disasters, for instance, revealed how engineers dismissed sustained evidence of problems as mere data points. In a way, the author is almost too good at his job; he so effectively relates space-program history that his comments about how it can provide help for your business feel modest and tacked-on. He also discusses the private rocketry work of Elon Musk with an enthusiasm that borders on hagiography. On the whole, the book is an effective and good-natured effort to remind readers that everybody has mental ruts and would do well to escape them with the help of other people, even made-up ones: "Build a mental model of your favorite adversary, and have imaginary conversations with them," suggests the author. Talking to yourself never sounded so sane. A charming and insightful airplane read on innovation.

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