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

In Zen Buddhism, this principle is known as shoshin, or beginner’s mind.87 As the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki writes, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”

the next time you’re tempted, my dear Watson, to announce a confident conclusion, do what you do every time you drive. Don’t simply rely on the visible hazards from the rearview and side mirrors. Ask yourself, “What’s missing?” When you think you’ve exhausted all possibilities, keep asking, “What else?” Make a deliberate effort to repeatedly turn y

As these examples show, instead of creating artificial testing environments disconnected from reality, we’re better off observing customer behavior in real life. If you want to design a better newspaper, watch people read the paper. If you want to design a better kid’s toothbrush, watch kids brush their teeth. If you want to see if people will love

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’s conference. Surround yourself with people from different professions, backgrounds, and interests. Instead of talking about the weather and repeating other small-talk platitudes,

As a result, at the outset of their investigation, scientists refrain from stating opinions. Instead, they form what’s called a working hypothesis. The operative word is working. Working means it’s a work in progress. Working means it’s less than final. Working means the hypothesis can be changed or abandoned, depending on the facts. Opinions are d

Forecasting takes all our problematic assumptions and biases and propels them into the future. In so doing, it artificially restricts our vision of what is feasible, given the current circumstances. Backcasting flips the script. Rather than forecasting the future, backcasting aims to determine how an imagined future can be attained. “The best way t

Like all others, the story of your significance is just that: a story. A narrative. A tale. If you don’t like the story, you can change the story. Even better, you can drop it altogether and write a new one. “In order to change skins, evolve into new cycles,” author Anaïs Nin writes, “one has to learn to discard.”

We’re all programmed with the same fear of the uncertain. Our predecessors who weren’t afraid of the unknown became food for saber-toothed tigers. But the ancestors who viewed uncertainty as life-threatening lived long enough to pass their genes on to us. In the modern world, we look for certainty in uncertain places. We search for order in chaos,

In the end, all moonshots are impossible. Until you decide to go.

To learn and grow, we must acknowledge our failures without celebrating them.