Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries

by Safi Bahcall

Crandall believed in a philosophy he called competitive anger: “You ought to be angry at your opponent, and you ought to be angry with yourself if you don’t win.” He was called Attila the Hun, Bob the Butcher, Darth Vader, and—in case the message was still not clear—Fang (he has prominent canine teeth). On weekends, he’d go to work and leave notes on desks: “I was here. Where were you?” In a 1987 company video, he burst onto the screen in military uniform, face paint, and bandanna, carrying a plastic toy machine gun—Crando. One biographer noted his obsession with order: “If he noticed his wife’s purse sitting on the kitchen counter, he might pry it open for inspection; finding it in the same condition as any purse, he would dump it out and reorganize it, throwing away the bits of grit that had accumulated in the creases at the bottom. ‘It drives her batshit,’ he would remark with a raspy nicotine cackle.”