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

by Ozan Varol

Opposites don’t always attract. On each mission, there’s a tension between “the idealistic, impractical scientists” and “the stubborn, practical engineers,” as Squyres writes. On the good missions, this tension turns into a creative dance that brings out the best in both disciplines. But on the bad missions, “it’s an acid that eats away at the collaboration until it’s rotten.”77 The key to making the relationship work is combinatory play. The scientists learn some engineering, and the engineers learn some science. This approach was a top priority for Squyres. “If you came in,” he explains, “and you sat in on one of our daily tactical planning sessions where we have a team of a dozen scientists and a dozen engineers sitting together in a room, you could sit there for an hour and still not quite figure out who were the scientists and who were the engineers.” The team was blended so well—with the scientists and the engineers well versed in each other’s language and objectives—that you could hardly tell the difference.