The Seven Secrets of How to Think Like a Rocket Scientist (PDF)

Jim Longuski: The Seven Secrets of How to Think Like a Rocket Scientist pdf

“This is a book for the armchair thinker. There are no equations, no syllogisms, and no exercises with the solutions at the back of the book. It is written not for rocket scientists (although they might enjoy it, too) but for the non-rocket scientist.

Before I wrote this book, I asked a number of people what they hoped to find in a book about how to think like a rocket scientist. “Do you want to know what rocket scientists actually think about and have it translated into ordinary language?” I asked, and everyone said, “No.”

“Then would you prefer to know the methods that rocket scientists use—not the content—expressed in a way that you could apply to your everyday life?” And then everyone said, “Yes.” The book you are holding does just that. (Mostly.)

Let me tell you the first secret about rocket scientists. They are not in it for the money. They are in it for the fim. They are the biggest dreamers on Earth because they dream on a cosmic scale. And they love sci-fi books and movies. Sometimes, the dopier the movie, the better they like it.

That’s why I start Part I with “Dream.” Dreaming about space travel is what makes rocket scientists tick. I end with Part VII, “Do,” because the best part about rocket science is when those dreams come true. I give seven secrets of how to think like a rocket scientist as active verbs: “Dream,” “Judge,” “Ask,” “Check,” “Simplify,” “Optimize,” and “Do.”

I talk about how we can all use some of the thinking techniques that rocket scientists learned from the extraordinary challenges of space exploration. This doesn’t mean that rocket scientists are all geniuses or that they never make mistakes. They have been humbled often enough by catastrophic explosions, destruction of billion-dollar satellites, and loss of life.

A great deal of effort is put into avoiding mistakes because mistakes are so costly. But some of the greatest lessons came from the worst failures. The best known rule of thumb in the space business is Murphy’s law: “If something can go wrong—it will!” Space history revolves around the struggle of beating Murphy’s law.

In this book, I have written several short chapters about each of the seven secrets of how to think like a rocket scientist. I illustrate the principles with anecdotes, quotations and biographical sketches of famous scientists, ideas from sci-fi, personal stories and insights, and occasionally a bit of space history. At the back of the book, I give, not the solutions to brain teasers, but instead a list of imagination builders: my list of the greatest science fiction movies of the twentieth century. (The jury is still out on the twenty-first century.) I also provide a Recommended Reading and Bibliography list….”

Introduction
PART I: DREAM