Think Like a Rocket Scientist
Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life
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4.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
* Adam Grant's # 1 pick of his top 20 books of the year
This is not just an engrossing read--it's bursting with practical insights. Ozan Varol's dazzling debut might change how you approach problems. Houston, this book has solutions."―Adam Grant
Rocket science is often celebrated as the ultimate triumph of technology. But it's not. Rather, it's the apex of a certain thought process -- a way to imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable. It's the same thought process that enabled Neil Armstrong to take his giant leap for mankind, that allows spacecraft to travel millions of miles through outer space and land on a precise spot, and that brings us closer to colonizing other planets.
Fortunately, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to think like one.
In this accessible and practical book, Ozan Varol reveals nine simple strategies from rocket science that you can use to make your own giant leaps in work and life -- whether it's landing your dream job, accelerating your business, learning a new skill, or creating the next breakthrough product. Today, thinking like a rocket scientist is a necessity. We all encounter complex and unfamiliar problems in our lives. Those who can tackle these problems -- without clear guidelines and with the clock ticking -- enjoy an extraordinary advantage.
Think Like a Rocket Scientist will inspire you to take your own moonshot and enable you to achieve liftoff.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Aerospace engineer Varol examines the methods and strategies found in rocket science and applies them to everyday life in his charming debut. Looking for parallels between scientific breakthroughs and achieving personal success, he begins with "launch," instructing readers to harness the power of uncertainty and ignite breakthroughs with thought experiments, while also counseling not to be afraid of the unknown. He suggests writing out concerns and uncertainties to ratchet down stress levels, comparing "redundancies" within space missions to personal situations by asking questions such as "what will you do if your household loses a source of income? The system must be designed to continue operating even if a component fails." Next, to "accelerate," he offers strategies to propel ideas, including trying to prove oneself wrong in order to find what's right, and experimenting to give an idea maximum potential. Such strategies lead to inspired inventions, of which he provides many examples, such as the "Embrace infant warmer," which has upped survival rates of premature babies in third-world countries. In his third stage, "achieve," he reinforces the idea that experimenting and failing is preferable to always taking a proven path. Smart and witty, Varol's masterful analysis explains complicated scientific principles and connects them to ordinary life for a mainstream audience.
