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Piensa como un científico espacial [Think Like a Rocket Scientist]: Estrategias simples para conseguir avances extraordinarios en el trabajo y en la vida
Un ex ingeniero espacial revela los hábitos, las ideas y las estrategias que te permitirán convertir lo aparentemente imposible en posible.
La ciencia espacial suele considerarse el logro culminante de la tecnología. Pero no lo es. Es más bien la culminación de un determinado enfoque, una forma de imaginar lo inimaginable y de resolver lo irresoluble. Leyendo Piensa como un científco espacial descubrirá
El principio que Elon Musk utilizó para revolucionar la industria aeroespacial (y cómo puedes utilizar ese mismo principio para transformar tu vida)
Las barreras invisibles que limitan tu pensamiento (y qué hacer al respecto)
La palabra que puedes utilizar para potenciar tu creatividad
Qué es lo primero que debes hacer al afrontar un objetivo audaz (y qué es lo que NUNCA debes hacer)
Lo que el mayor error cometido por Einstein puede enseñarte sobre cómo lanzar tu próximo proyecto
Por qué no hacer "nada" es más valioso de lo que crees
Piensa como un científco espacial te inspirará para que emprendas tu propio viaje a la luna y te permitirá hacer el despegue
Please This audiobook is in Spanish.
La ciencia espacial suele considerarse el logro culminante de la tecnología. Pero no lo es. Es más bien la culminación de un determinado enfoque, una forma de imaginar lo inimaginable y de resolver lo irresoluble. Leyendo Piensa como un científco espacial descubrirá
El principio que Elon Musk utilizó para revolucionar la industria aeroespacial (y cómo puedes utilizar ese mismo principio para transformar tu vida)
Las barreras invisibles que limitan tu pensamiento (y qué hacer al respecto)
La palabra que puedes utilizar para potenciar tu creatividad
Qué es lo primero que debes hacer al afrontar un objetivo audaz (y qué es lo que NUNCA debes hacer)
Lo que el mayor error cometido por Einstein puede enseñarte sobre cómo lanzar tu próximo proyecto
Por qué no hacer "nada" es más valioso de lo que crees
Piensa como un científco espacial te inspirará para que emprendas tu propio viaje a la luna y te permitirá hacer el despegue
Please This audiobook is in Spanish.
Audible Audio
First published April 14, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 504 reviews
April 24, 2020
Wow, I loved Think Like A Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, one of the best nonfiction books I’ve read in a long time. Ozan Varol is a former rocket scientist who provides realistic, attainable tips on how to reframe your thinking and employ strategies to obtain different outcomes. The book is divided into three sections: Launch, Accelerate, and Achieve. While I liked all of them, I enjoyed Launch the most, as it was, for me, the most insightful.
”Uncertainty means doing things no one has done before and discovering things that, for at least a brief moment, no other person has seen. Life offers more of itself when we treat uncertainty as a friend, not a foe.”
In addition to embracing uncertainty (something I undoubtedly have room to improve on), among its many concepts, the book suggests rather than forecasting, we engage in backcasting: envisioning the ultimate outcome then working backward to identify challenges and actionable steps to overcoming these barriers or objections.
”Backcasting reorients you toward the path. If you want to climb a mountain, you’ll imagine training with your backpack on, hiking at high altitudes to get used to the low-oxygen environment, climbing stairs to build up muscles, and running to improve endurance. If you want to write a book, you’ll imagine sitting in front of your computer every single day for two years putting one awkward word after the next, writing one ghastly draft chapter after another, polishing, tweaking, and retweaking—even if you don’t feel like it—with no recognition or accolades.”
I found myself highlighting quite a bit of information throughout the book, which I know will be helpful to revisit. While Think Like a Rocket Scientist initially piqued my interest, I wasn’t sure how technical it would be — There are many rocket scientist examples included, however, they were easy to understand and I appreciate the numerous examples from other industries too. It was clear to me why Daniel Pink and Adam Grant, two of my favorite nonfiction authors, endorsed this book as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and PublicAffairs for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
”Uncertainty means doing things no one has done before and discovering things that, for at least a brief moment, no other person has seen. Life offers more of itself when we treat uncertainty as a friend, not a foe.”
In addition to embracing uncertainty (something I undoubtedly have room to improve on), among its many concepts, the book suggests rather than forecasting, we engage in backcasting: envisioning the ultimate outcome then working backward to identify challenges and actionable steps to overcoming these barriers or objections.
”Backcasting reorients you toward the path. If you want to climb a mountain, you’ll imagine training with your backpack on, hiking at high altitudes to get used to the low-oxygen environment, climbing stairs to build up muscles, and running to improve endurance. If you want to write a book, you’ll imagine sitting in front of your computer every single day for two years putting one awkward word after the next, writing one ghastly draft chapter after another, polishing, tweaking, and retweaking—even if you don’t feel like it—with no recognition or accolades.”
I found myself highlighting quite a bit of information throughout the book, which I know will be helpful to revisit. While Think Like a Rocket Scientist initially piqued my interest, I wasn’t sure how technical it would be — There are many rocket scientist examples included, however, they were easy to understand and I appreciate the numerous examples from other industries too. It was clear to me why Daniel Pink and Adam Grant, two of my favorite nonfiction authors, endorsed this book as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and PublicAffairs for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 25, 2021
DNF, got 30% of the way through the audio book.
Like much of the self help literature, heavily reliant on anecdotes (not even interesting ones - the common ones like Jobs, Musk, etc) without accounting for survivorship bias.
I did see some interesting ideas about redundancy and reliability that overlap with my own field (software), but I think I'd better off just reading about those topics directly, instead of a watered-down popular treatment.
The best idea I'll take away from this book is the concept of adversarial thought experiments. Ask how you can make your system fail, or imagine being your boss and try to build a case for why he should not promote you. This kind of perspective taking is reminiscent of Superforecasters by Tetlock.
Like much of the self help literature, heavily reliant on anecdotes (not even interesting ones - the common ones like Jobs, Musk, etc) without accounting for survivorship bias.
I did see some interesting ideas about redundancy and reliability that overlap with my own field (software), but I think I'd better off just reading about those topics directly, instead of a watered-down popular treatment.
The best idea I'll take away from this book is the concept of adversarial thought experiments. Ask how you can make your system fail, or imagine being your boss and try to build a case for why he should not promote you. This kind of perspective taking is reminiscent of Superforecasters by Tetlock.
November 19, 2019
This book is great in so many ways. Ozan is a great writer, so no boredom encountered while reading this book. And with all the examples from Ozan's career as a rocket scientist when the US was putting people and rovers into the universe, it has both science and history in it.
He then uses these examples to explain how each one of us can make strides to make better decisions and greater leaps in our own lives; leaps that are both far-reaching, yet pragmatic. It is this pragmatism that I find is missing in so many books that tell us to dream big.
The pdf workbook that is on his website, has helped me clarify and list steps to start taking action on my own moonshots! I highly recommend this book as both a great read and an immense help in moving forward with one's life!!
He then uses these examples to explain how each one of us can make strides to make better decisions and greater leaps in our own lives; leaps that are both far-reaching, yet pragmatic. It is this pragmatism that I find is missing in so many books that tell us to dream big.
The pdf workbook that is on his website, has helped me clarify and list steps to start taking action on my own moonshots! I highly recommend this book as both a great read and an immense help in moving forward with one's life!!
September 11, 2020
Didn't finish. Started to get really cliche after a third of the book... like a elaborated essay with too many examples.
March 1, 2021
Picked this up for a book club group I’m in, and was delighted to find easy-to-digest chunks of sciencey but not too nerdy advice on how to enhance and improve your thinking and reasoning skills! The author, a rocket scientist turned author/professor/podcaster, lays out examples from space programs, some successful and some not, and deconstructs these to see how and where the flaws and breakthroughs originated. There is a NASA behind-the-scenes feel to much of the book, because that’s where these fateful decisions—go or no go—are made. Whether you are looking for some structure to help organize yourself, or are just a space nerd, there is something for many readers in this narrative.
December 29, 2024
Ozan Varol (b. 1981) is a Turkish-American lawyer and professor-turned-author, who, as he explains in his introduction, worked very briefly at NASA on the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover project, and parlayed this fleeting experience into this book contract for one of the most bizarre and frankly disingenuous shoehorns I've seen in this genre. It would be like if I, someone who's not at all athletically inclined and has never played football in my life, took a six-week internship as an equipment assistant for a professional football team, and ten years in the future got a book contract to write a title called "Play Like a Professional Football Superstar" where I heavily quoted football players' interviews (regardless of whether I had conducted the interviews myself or just found them online) and pretended as if I understood all their career challenges from my six-week immersion. This book reminds me of a Youtube video I just watched where a twenty-something who doesn't appear to have mastered anything outside of Youtube marketing bragged about how anyone can write top-selling nonfiction books in a week on any topic just by using ChatGPT and an overseas ghostwriter.
There's really not much original content in this book. The writing style is very similar to Malcolm Gladwell and Chip and Dan Heath with frequent nonsensical hooks (think, "how a tomato can give surprising wisdom about the importance of tying your shoes") and so many cliches that if you were playing a drinking game where you had to take a sip for every platitude you came across, you'd be dead of alcohol poisoning by the end of the first chapter. The sequencing could also use a lot of work to tailor for maximum impact -- for instance, Varol cites the Carter racing case study (where students are asked to weigh the pros and cons of hypothetically racing a car on a day the weather conditions are unprecedented, meant to highlight the blinders of NASA decision makers on deciding to launch the Challenger space shuttle on an unprecedented cold day in January 1986 despite known issues with O-rings in cold weather), but only after spending ages talking about the Challenger disaster so this example feels redundant and like beating a dead horse rather than insightful (David Epstein used this same example so much better in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World).
Overall, I can see why newcomers to this genre might enjoy this book, but as a frequent reader of this genre and a stickler for authenticity and truth in advertising in nonfiction, I was gritting my teeth to get through this one.
My statistics:
Book 319 for 2024
Book 1922 cumulatively
There's really not much original content in this book. The writing style is very similar to Malcolm Gladwell and Chip and Dan Heath with frequent nonsensical hooks (think, "how a tomato can give surprising wisdom about the importance of tying your shoes") and so many cliches that if you were playing a drinking game where you had to take a sip for every platitude you came across, you'd be dead of alcohol poisoning by the end of the first chapter. The sequencing could also use a lot of work to tailor for maximum impact -- for instance, Varol cites the Carter racing case study (where students are asked to weigh the pros and cons of hypothetically racing a car on a day the weather conditions are unprecedented, meant to highlight the blinders of NASA decision makers on deciding to launch the Challenger space shuttle on an unprecedented cold day in January 1986 despite known issues with O-rings in cold weather), but only after spending ages talking about the Challenger disaster so this example feels redundant and like beating a dead horse rather than insightful (David Epstein used this same example so much better in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World).
Overall, I can see why newcomers to this genre might enjoy this book, but as a frequent reader of this genre and a stickler for authenticity and truth in advertising in nonfiction, I was gritting my teeth to get through this one.
My statistics:
Book 319 for 2024
Book 1922 cumulatively
January 2, 2020
Ozan Varol took me on a joyful and horizon expanding trip to Mars. His writing is personal, precise, and full of practical advice. If you want to change the world, read this book and start shooting for your stars!
May 16, 2020
Easy read. A lot of good narratives. Felt good after finishing the book but could have been shorter. Perhaps it is interesting read if you are fresh to concepts like first principles, thought experiments and decision science. Nevertheless it is a good read
Read
April 7, 2020I love books that offer insights from multiple fields of study and make them applicable to our everyday situations. Think like a Rocket Scientist is one of those books - detailed, easy to read, with examples from numerous professions, it is well researched and represents a wealth of knowledge.
This book is divided into three stages - Launch, Accelerate and Achieve. Launch was definitely my favorite phase because it provided me new ways to think about a situation, confronting the ideas that we are comfortable with to let go and learning how to practice divergent and convergent thinking. Many principles of philosophy were addressed in this section and I loved the discussions around fallacies.
One of my favorite books last year was Andrew Radar's Beyond the Known. That book was a comprehensive history of exploration. Think like a Rocket Scientist, in my mind, is a follow up to how we can all explore the unknown by confronting our biases, designing out of the box experiments and really giving reign to the child inside of us who lives to explore and learn new things. As a data analyst, the ideas around importance of studying anomalies and how we try to interpret data to conform to our views spoke true to me and I look forward to applying what I have learned to my career.
Thank you to the publisher and author for making this book available to me through NetGalley. I found the accompanying summary and exercise book available on Ozan's website super helpful, giving me all the key points in one place. I look forward to revisiting my notes and trying out each of the exercises. Once I have done them, I will share in detail about the book on my blog.
This book is divided into three stages - Launch, Accelerate and Achieve. Launch was definitely my favorite phase because it provided me new ways to think about a situation, confronting the ideas that we are comfortable with to let go and learning how to practice divergent and convergent thinking. Many principles of philosophy were addressed in this section and I loved the discussions around fallacies.
One of my favorite books last year was Andrew Radar's Beyond the Known. That book was a comprehensive history of exploration. Think like a Rocket Scientist, in my mind, is a follow up to how we can all explore the unknown by confronting our biases, designing out of the box experiments and really giving reign to the child inside of us who lives to explore and learn new things. As a data analyst, the ideas around importance of studying anomalies and how we try to interpret data to conform to our views spoke true to me and I look forward to applying what I have learned to my career.
Thank you to the publisher and author for making this book available to me through NetGalley. I found the accompanying summary and exercise book available on Ozan's website super helpful, giving me all the key points in one place. I look forward to revisiting my notes and trying out each of the exercises. Once I have done them, I will share in detail about the book on my blog.
August 12, 2020
This isn't about rocket science. It's about good ways of thinking. And it's got some interesting nuggets. Mostly it's a lot of ideas listed out and explained, covering this mental model supported by that social study. Consider it a survey of good thinking, from how to be more creative to being more collaborative.
December 22, 2019
Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life is written by a former “rocket scientist.” Given that scientific thought is simply a goal-directed process, author Ozan Varol shares strategies to approach and solve our life’s complexities. This is an interesting book, for sure, although I suspect I am not enough of a science Geek to truly appreciate much of the science references, which I subsequently found to be a bit distracting. For that reason, I deducted one star. Having said that, it is written well, presenting nine useful strategies from rocket science to prompt readers to approach their goals and objectives with confidence.
December 12, 2020
The formula for a compelling book usually is a well-explained contrarian idea. Given the gamut of business/management/behavioural science books there are, this book doesn’t seem path breaking.
So why read this? Well, it’s good to have some reinforcement of what you already know. Also, the examples used by Varol are very new (unless you’re a space buff) and interesting.
Varol explains that many of our invisible rules were developed in response to problems that no longer exist. But the immune response remains long after the pathogen leaves. Process by definition is backward looking - a response to yesterday’s troubles and a leading cause of inertia.
Key takeaways from this book include
1. Avoiding the Einstellung effect i.e. asking the right questions / reframing your problem statement - something that modern day education continues to lack
Eg: Mars rover mission involved two rather than one rover. This helped add redundancies along with capitalising on the lesser marginal cost of adding another rover.
2. Stress testing your idea via a thought experiment
Eg: Galileo discovered that objects with different masses fall at the same acceleration under gravity through a thought experiment. He never actually dropped two objects to check.
3. Avoid complacency, review your near misses, celebrate lessons from failure and not failure itself.
The central example of the book is the author’s experience on the Mars Rover mission, which thankfully is an easy read without too many technicalities. Worth your time.
So why read this? Well, it’s good to have some reinforcement of what you already know. Also, the examples used by Varol are very new (unless you’re a space buff) and interesting.
Varol explains that many of our invisible rules were developed in response to problems that no longer exist. But the immune response remains long after the pathogen leaves. Process by definition is backward looking - a response to yesterday’s troubles and a leading cause of inertia.
Key takeaways from this book include
1. Avoiding the Einstellung effect i.e. asking the right questions / reframing your problem statement - something that modern day education continues to lack
Eg: Mars rover mission involved two rather than one rover. This helped add redundancies along with capitalising on the lesser marginal cost of adding another rover.
2. Stress testing your idea via a thought experiment
Eg: Galileo discovered that objects with different masses fall at the same acceleration under gravity through a thought experiment. He never actually dropped two objects to check.
3. Avoid complacency, review your near misses, celebrate lessons from failure and not failure itself.
The central example of the book is the author’s experience on the Mars Rover mission, which thankfully is an easy read without too many technicalities. Worth your time.
April 4, 2020
Brilliant book.
Compared to bestselling author, Nassem Taleb's book "Black Swan" is the unlikely event that disrupts industries and bankrupts businesses, like a pandemic or housing bust. This book is the answer to avoid getting hurt badly when such situations, and they will happen at some point or the other.
Whether you are a student, entrepreneur or mid level executive, this book will help you improve your critical thinking skills. You will emerge with new ways to innovate, see patterns and a fresh burst of creativity.
Compared to bestselling author, Nassem Taleb's book "Black Swan" is the unlikely event that disrupts industries and bankrupts businesses, like a pandemic or housing bust. This book is the answer to avoid getting hurt badly when such situations, and they will happen at some point or the other.
Whether you are a student, entrepreneur or mid level executive, this book will help you improve your critical thinking skills. You will emerge with new ways to innovate, see patterns and a fresh burst of creativity.
April 14, 2020
LOVED this read! A captivating playbook. Get ready to level-up!
Ozan has a gift of storytelling. Through story, Ozan translates complex ideas into understandable language while taking the reader on a captivating journey that will leave you spellbound, inspired, and empowered to act. This book is an insightful toolkit, packed with strategies that will enable you to define your ambition, dream bigger, and achieve your moonshot.
Ozan has a gift of storytelling. Through story, Ozan translates complex ideas into understandable language while taking the reader on a captivating journey that will leave you spellbound, inspired, and empowered to act. This book is an insightful toolkit, packed with strategies that will enable you to define your ambition, dream bigger, and achieve your moonshot.
September 25, 2022
Загалом із всіх нон-фікшн книг, які я не дуже люблю ця сподобалась більше всього. Змушувала зупинитись і думати, і «приміряти» на своє життя ті чи інші принципи/поради в книзі. Але під кінець все дуже сильно повторювалось, і хотілось швидше дочитати до кінця.
September 18, 2021
I really enjoyed this book and I liked how simple and practical it is.
November 28, 2023
The book did make me see things into different perspectives and thought processes which was neat. But there was a lot of this book that really dragged on and was boring for me personally.
October 27, 2024
I loved this book! It made me question myself, challenged me, educated me, made me chuckle and so much more!
Though it was not a fast read as the key learning had to settle in my brain, I liked the examples, the analogies and overall ease of reading.
Now off to fill the accompanying sheets to (hopefully) put some changes in my daily life!
Though it was not a fast read as the key learning had to settle in my brain, I liked the examples, the analogies and overall ease of reading.
Now off to fill the accompanying sheets to (hopefully) put some changes in my daily life!
August 26, 2020
I enjoyed quite a lot Ozan's book, it is written in an entertaining way and it has lots of information (with sources, which is rather rare). I knew some of the concepts he describes, but there was plenty of new things and enjoyed all the details about space exploration that he uses to exemplify many of the things he talks about. It was also very interesting to find out how rocket scientists think and approach uncertainty and compare it to other fields who have less consequences if something goes wrong. Overall, I recommend it and I started following Ozan's writings because I think he is good at distilling information and exemplifying concepts.
August 8, 2020
Got about 40% through, after being quite excited from reading the reviews, at which point I put it down and thought, really? This is what the hype was about? A meandering, not very interesting description of some of the principles of engineering. Maybe if you have no engineering background this is eye-opening but I felt I was not learning anything new and was really just bored.
Note: his experience as a “rocket scientist” was very brief, a couple of years while at college before he changed disciplines.
Note: his experience as a “rocket scientist” was very brief, a couple of years while at college before he changed disciplines.
January 2, 2020
FUCKING INCREDIBLE to read Ozan's book. It is a masterpiece that will help the world grow. No matter the "outcome" this book, it changed the way I choose to approach the world.
This book utilizes stories, real-life experience, and humor to help reframe the common ways humans think. It offers new tools to help you see the world in a new light and learn to live outside the prison of your mind.
This book utilizes stories, real-life experience, and humor to help reframe the common ways humans think. It offers new tools to help you see the world in a new light and learn to live outside the prison of your mind.
March 23, 2020
Ozan is a great thinker, writer and person. I highly recommend reading and thinking about the principles in this book - they can make each of us a better person .. and thinker.
October 30, 2020
Вроде писал инженер и ученый, но написал то, что можно ожидать от книги коуча личностного роста - набор баек и историй из жизни «успешных» компаний и «великих» людей
May 10, 2022
I think that lot of theory is built upon case studies and analogies which lie on the edge of respective spectrums. This may make them prone to survivorship bias and negative selection bias.
July 25, 2023
Are unele idei interesante, nu neapărat în premieră absolută.
M-a surprins numărul foarte mare de note de la fiecare capitol(între 60 și 93), cu singurul scop de a evita un proces pentru drepturi de autor - nu aduc nici o informație sau explicație suplimentară, doar precizarea sursei unei idei/fraze.
Normal, sunt și multe citate în text, de unde rezulta foarte puține idei proprii ale autorului.
Nu mi-a plăcut menționarea enervant de deasă a lui Elon Musk, autorul susținând că nu este un fan - cartea a dovedit că este și încă unul înfocat!
Cartea nu cred că îndeamnă pe cineva să-și dorească să devină astronaut, aș spune dimpotrivă, ar face persoana cu asemenea gânduri să se răzgândească.
M-a surprins numărul foarte mare de note de la fiecare capitol(între 60 și 93), cu singurul scop de a evita un proces pentru drepturi de autor - nu aduc nici o informație sau explicație suplimentară, doar precizarea sursei unei idei/fraze.
Normal, sunt și multe citate în text, de unde rezulta foarte puține idei proprii ale autorului.
Nu mi-a plăcut menționarea enervant de deasă a lui Elon Musk, autorul susținând că nu este un fan - cartea a dovedit că este și încă unul înfocat!
Cartea nu cred că îndeamnă pe cineva să-și dorească să devină astronaut, aș spune dimpotrivă, ar face persoana cu asemenea gânduri să se răzgândească.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 21, 2023
I think the title is a bit misleading. Yes, it uses Rocket science examples to give some practical advice, but I guess I was sort of expecting some practical uses cases, comparing rocket science and daily life, some formulas maybe, some math, but it's just falls into the Self-Help cliches.
I'd say though I thouroughly enjoyed reading through it, specially the chapter about failure, so I didn't particularly hated it, but I'd day I won't remember most of the examples in a couples months.
I'd say though I thouroughly enjoyed reading through it, specially the chapter about failure, so I didn't particularly hated it, but I'd day I won't remember most of the examples in a couples months.
May 19, 2021
A book that truly challenges established thinking. Ozan's unique personal and professional background make this quite an amusing and original work.
Even though the author constantly turns to some of the best thinkers of our time, I found most of these quotes somewhat basic and certainly saturating. I also think that while he does offer useful strategies on the go, he fails to expand on several of the exciting insights he sets before each chapter.
Even so, It is surely a rewarding and enjoyable journey through a rocket scientist's lens, especially for space enthusiasts and for people with little-to-no knowledge on the subject.
Even though the author constantly turns to some of the best thinkers of our time, I found most of these quotes somewhat basic and certainly saturating. I also think that while he does offer useful strategies on the go, he fails to expand on several of the exciting insights he sets before each chapter.
Even so, It is surely a rewarding and enjoyable journey through a rocket scientist's lens, especially for space enthusiasts and for people with little-to-no knowledge on the subject.
October 30, 2020
“We prefer the seeming stability of stories to the messy reality of uncertainty.”
I had a math teacher in high school, who, every time I asked a question, would say to me, “y’know, it ain’t rocket science.” Which led me to postulate that, if I think math is hard, then rocket science must be impossibly hard.
Turns out that I was kind of right. Rocket science is hard, but according to Ozan Varol, former rocket scientist, and current author and speaker, thinking like a rocket scientist is not. His book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist - Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, is a revealing look at the habits, ideas and strategies that rocket scientists use to make the ‘seemingly impossible possible.’
“Only leaving where you are can you get to where you want to go.”
This book shares 9 thinking strategies from rocket science that you can use to improve the outcomes in your life. Explaining why it is important to consider and learn to deal with uncertainty, why you should always reason from first principles, engage in thought experiments, try to imagine the unimaginable, use redundancy, think in inversion, use Bayesian updating and recalibration, learn from failure and be skeptical of successes, Think Like a Rocket Scientist teaches you to, well, think.
“Failure is the portal to discovery, innovation, and long-term success.”
If you are already well read on thinking, mental models, and dress up like Charlie Munger for Halloween, this is not the book for you. This book is an entertaining introductory guide to better thinking. Filled with enough stories about NASA, failed launches and overlooked biases to make Elon Musk squeamish, Think Like a Rocket Scientist is a delightful book, but it ‘ain’t rocket science’.
So maybe this book isn’t the high water mark for books on thinking. Perhaps it is not the representation or triumph that rocket science itself is to technology. It offers this, however, a thing that not a lot of books on thinking do, and that is fun. Think Like a Rocket Scientist is a fun book to read, and there are few books on thinking I would be willing to describe that way. So if you are looking for a book that will make you a better thinker while entertaining you as you learn, this is the book for you. Go on and do something fun, learn to think like a Rocket Scientist.
Overall Score: 3.8 / 5
In a Sentence: A fun book on thinking that will not make you a Rocket Scientist, but you will at least be entertained.
I had a math teacher in high school, who, every time I asked a question, would say to me, “y’know, it ain’t rocket science.” Which led me to postulate that, if I think math is hard, then rocket science must be impossibly hard.
Turns out that I was kind of right. Rocket science is hard, but according to Ozan Varol, former rocket scientist, and current author and speaker, thinking like a rocket scientist is not. His book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist - Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, is a revealing look at the habits, ideas and strategies that rocket scientists use to make the ‘seemingly impossible possible.’
“Only leaving where you are can you get to where you want to go.”
This book shares 9 thinking strategies from rocket science that you can use to improve the outcomes in your life. Explaining why it is important to consider and learn to deal with uncertainty, why you should always reason from first principles, engage in thought experiments, try to imagine the unimaginable, use redundancy, think in inversion, use Bayesian updating and recalibration, learn from failure and be skeptical of successes, Think Like a Rocket Scientist teaches you to, well, think.
“Failure is the portal to discovery, innovation, and long-term success.”
If you are already well read on thinking, mental models, and dress up like Charlie Munger for Halloween, this is not the book for you. This book is an entertaining introductory guide to better thinking. Filled with enough stories about NASA, failed launches and overlooked biases to make Elon Musk squeamish, Think Like a Rocket Scientist is a delightful book, but it ‘ain’t rocket science’.
So maybe this book isn’t the high water mark for books on thinking. Perhaps it is not the representation or triumph that rocket science itself is to technology. It offers this, however, a thing that not a lot of books on thinking do, and that is fun. Think Like a Rocket Scientist is a fun book to read, and there are few books on thinking I would be willing to describe that way. So if you are looking for a book that will make you a better thinker while entertaining you as you learn, this is the book for you. Go on and do something fun, learn to think like a Rocket Scientist.
Overall Score: 3.8 / 5
In a Sentence: A fun book on thinking that will not make you a Rocket Scientist, but you will at least be entertained.
March 18, 2023
2.5 to 3 out of 5.
A very readable book in the tried and tested formula - writing about concepts with interesting stories here and there. But obviously, as the author acknowledges at the start of the book, the mention of a rocket scientist immediately peaks audience's interest.
And there in lies the problem of the book. The book's cohesion or overarching theme comes from the lessons from rocket science which are limited - indeed author has to fall back to concepts and stories from other fields, namely Google's moonshot factory gets mentioned a lot.
These lessons do not apply universally to a unique field and hence the book seems un-focussed. Some things might apply to personal growth while some other would apply to your job or even more specific things like product management. It is hard to take substantial takeaways from the book.
Even more of a problem is that the lessons, the takeaways or the teachings are quite ordinary. Enough time is not spent on interesting ones and as soon as you think you are getting into something interesting, you see the section has ended. For example, I liked the section on boredom and would have loved to read more about it. This lack of continuity and awkward short sections also puts you off reading after the initial 20-30% of the book.
Though I do like how the book has been backed by references, I think there were a whopping 677.
Some post-mortems like NASA's Challenger failure are analyzed superficially. There is no thought given to other possible points of failure that might have come up and dismissed. Can you believe a thing as complex as a rocket had only one possibility of failure which was acknowledged and ignored? Even by his own admission, in the next crash, the main root cause was spotted by an engineer and not reported. How many other possibilities and red herrings like those would have existed. The research here is non-existent and facts are cherry-picked so that the author can make his overall point.
To summarize, the author has milked his rocket science background to his best, you might or might not learn something new depending upon where you are in life.
A very readable book in the tried and tested formula - writing about concepts with interesting stories here and there. But obviously, as the author acknowledges at the start of the book, the mention of a rocket scientist immediately peaks audience's interest.
And there in lies the problem of the book. The book's cohesion or overarching theme comes from the lessons from rocket science which are limited - indeed author has to fall back to concepts and stories from other fields, namely Google's moonshot factory gets mentioned a lot.
These lessons do not apply universally to a unique field and hence the book seems un-focussed. Some things might apply to personal growth while some other would apply to your job or even more specific things like product management. It is hard to take substantial takeaways from the book.
Even more of a problem is that the lessons, the takeaways or the teachings are quite ordinary. Enough time is not spent on interesting ones and as soon as you think you are getting into something interesting, you see the section has ended. For example, I liked the section on boredom and would have loved to read more about it. This lack of continuity and awkward short sections also puts you off reading after the initial 20-30% of the book.
Though I do like how the book has been backed by references, I think there were a whopping 677.
Some post-mortems like NASA's Challenger failure are analyzed superficially. There is no thought given to other possible points of failure that might have come up and dismissed. Can you believe a thing as complex as a rocket had only one possibility of failure which was acknowledged and ignored? Even by his own admission, in the next crash, the main root cause was spotted by an engineer and not reported. How many other possibilities and red herrings like those would have existed. The research here is non-existent and facts are cherry-picked so that the author can make his overall point.
To summarize, the author has milked his rocket science background to his best, you might or might not learn something new depending upon where you are in life.
November 21, 2021
If you don't recognize the flaws in your own thinking, sooner or later those flaws will come to haunt you.
Scientific thinking can greatly improve how we perceive, analyze, and act in this uncertain, chaotic, and complex world.
I love to improve my thinking. Because the better I think, the wiser I will be. The wiser I am, the better my decisions will be. And the better my decisions, the better the results I get. And the better the results, ultimately the wealthier, influential, and happier I become.
This book is about scientific thinking, mental models, and strategies for making the right analysis and inferences in the face of challenging situations—like facing uncertainty, moonshot projects, or big failures—in order to make better decisions and ultimately increasing our odds of success.
Strategies like developing redundancies in our systems to avoid the single point of failure in face of uncertainty; reasoning from first-principle by conducting root cause analysis when there is no known solution; Moonshot thinking and conducting thought experiments; Reframing questions before we dive into problem-solving; try to prove ourselves wrong when coming up with ideas; avoiding complacency after accomplishing an objective; failing intelligently, and conducting backcasting and pre and postmortem analysis; and many more
Learned so much. The wisest book that I've ever read.
Scientific thinking can greatly improve how we perceive, analyze, and act in this uncertain, chaotic, and complex world.
I love to improve my thinking. Because the better I think, the wiser I will be. The wiser I am, the better my decisions will be. And the better my decisions, the better the results I get. And the better the results, ultimately the wealthier, influential, and happier I become.
This book is about scientific thinking, mental models, and strategies for making the right analysis and inferences in the face of challenging situations—like facing uncertainty, moonshot projects, or big failures—in order to make better decisions and ultimately increasing our odds of success.
Strategies like developing redundancies in our systems to avoid the single point of failure in face of uncertainty; reasoning from first-principle by conducting root cause analysis when there is no known solution; Moonshot thinking and conducting thought experiments; Reframing questions before we dive into problem-solving; try to prove ourselves wrong when coming up with ideas; avoiding complacency after accomplishing an objective; failing intelligently, and conducting backcasting and pre and postmortem analysis; and many more
Learned so much. The wisest book that I've ever read.
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